● Two in five non-Hispanic Native American Indians/Alaska Natives have a disability. People with disabilities face several barriers to accessing healthcare. These include the following (CDC, 2020): ● One in three persons does not have a primary healthcare provider (Age group: 18-44 years). ● One in three people has an unmet healthcare need because of cost in the past year (Age group: 18-44 years). ● One in four people did not have a routine check-up in the past year (Age group: 45-64 years). Disability often compounds issues of poverty and access that can lead to an array of health consequences such as substance abuse, domestic violence, malnutrition, and even chronic mental and behavioral health conditions. Today, those with physical, developmental, mental and behavioral health, and other disabilities are more likely to experience inclusive practices within educational, work, and social institutions. Despite this increased inclusivity, many with disabilities are still confronted with discriminatory practices within those same institutions. Although there is protective legislation in the schools guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and within society as a whole via the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, those with disabilities are more likely to not finish high school and are more likely to be underemployed or unemployed than their typically developing peers. More specifically, individuals with disabilities experience a full-time, full-year employment rate of 6%, whereas individuals without disability experience a 72% employment rate (Almalky, 2019). Similarly, 21.3% of individuals with disabilities have not completed high school, whereas only 10% of individuals without disabilities have not finished high school (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). Individuals with disabilities often experience social isolation. Society’s difficulty in accepting and accommodating those with intellectual, physical, and other differences, combined with the difficulties that accompany some intellectual and/or mental and behavioral health disabilities (e.g., communication, understanding, and navigating social experiences), result in an increased risk for experiencing chronic loneliness (Tarvainen, 2021). experiences of school safety, biased language, harassment and assault, and discriminatory school policies (Kosciw et al., 2020). LGBTQ students report feeling unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation (59.1%), their gender expression (42.5%), and their gender (37.4%), which resulted in nearly one-third of respondents (32.7%) missing a full day of school in the most recent month and one-quarter of those students (8.6%) missing at least four days in that same month. In addition, most avoid school functions (77.6%) and extracurricular activities (71.8%). Considering anti-LGBTQ remarks at school, nearly all students (98.8%) heard gay used in a negative or an intentionally derogatory manner (e.g., “That’s so gay,” “No homo,” “Dyke,” “Faggot”), and less than one-fifth of students (13.7%) reported consistent staff intervention when they heard the comments themselves. A vast majority of students (86.3%) experienced harassment or assault by classmates, with many reporting verbal (68.7%) or physical (69.7%) harassment. Others (11%) were physically assaulted or bullied at school (81%) or through text messaging or social networking sites (44.9%). More than half of all students (58.3%) reported having been sexually harassed or assaulted within the most recent year. In response to these experiences, less than half (43.4%) reported the incidents to school staff due to concerns over whether an effective intervention would occur, or out of fear
Disability (36.1%) was the next most alleged category of discrimination, followed by race and sex. The percentage of each category decreased or remained stable compared to FY 2019 except for claims of retaliation, disability, color, and genetic information (EEOC, 2021). Table 5 shows the percentage of adults with specific categories of disability in the U.S. Table 5: Percentage of Adults with Functional Disability Types in the US Functional Disability Description Percentage Mobility Serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs. 13.7%. Cognition Serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions. 10.8%. Independent Living Difficulty doing errands alone. 6.8%. Hearing Deafness or serious difficulty hearing. 5.9%. Vision Blindness or serious difficulty seeing. 4.6%. Self-Care Difficulty bathing or dressing. 3.7%. Note: From CDC, 2020. Evidence-based practice! Research shows that adults living with disabilities are more likely to smoke, have obesity, have heart disease, and/or have diabetes (CDC, 2020). Healthcare professionals must be alert to diseases that are linked to disability. These diseases can compound the challenges that people with disabilities face. The CDC (2020) points out that: ● Two in five adults age 65 years of age and older have a disability. ● One in four women have a disability. not able to marry in most states. Despite the ruling and although there are more than 5.5 million LGBTQ individuals living in the U.S., the LGBTQ community faces barriers to fair and equal access to employment, housing, healthcare, and public accommodation. There are several nondiscrimination laws at the federal, state, and local level that aim to protect people from discrimination based on factors such as age, sex, and national origin. However, until a Supreme Court decision in 2020, federal law did not protect individuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity (Roebig, 2020). Even since 2015, LGBTQ individuals can be both fired and denied housing because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in many states and municipalities (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], 2017). Aside from being historically denied fundamental rights enjoyed by the majority of the population, many LGBTQ persons report repeated experiences of bullying and harassment in school, work, and community environments. A recent annual study of national school climate found continued challenges for LGBTQ students and their
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning population (LGBTQ) The LGBTQ population is another historically oppressed group in the U.S. Until the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, LGBTQ individuals were
Book Code: SWUS1525
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