Labor Day was established as an official national holiday more than 130 years ago, recognizing the contributions of workers with and without disabilities in their communities. People with disabilities may come to employment through different paths, just like their peers without disabilities. These paths can include career and technical education (CTE), internships and apprenticeships, college and post-graduate courses, fellowships, and training to become professionals and practitioners. Self-employment may work for some people, while others might start their own businesses and become employers themselves. Along the way, they might tap into resources like vocational rehabilitation and other programs that help people find and stay in a job.

NIDILRR funds many projects that focus on improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities. These projects cross the disability and age spectrums, from supporting young adults headed into the workforce to building the next generation of researchers and developers who will advance the field. Here are just a few of the projects working in this area right now:

• A Strength-Based Tool to Enhance Employment for Adults on the Autism Spectrum. This project develops and evaluates Kessler Foundation Strength Identification and Expression (KF-STRIDE), a strength-based job interview program to help individuals on the spectrum identify their strengths and learn to strategically express them to future employers and coworkers.
• My CTE Journey – A Digital Toolkit for Navigating Career and Technical Education. This project develops My CTE Journey, a digital career and technical education toolkit for individuals with mental health conditions to help remove barriers to CTE opportunities, enhance employment outcomes, and improve quality of life.
• Quality Employment Outcomes Throughout the Work Lifecycle: Application to Persons with Spinal Cord Injury, Multiple Sclerosis, and Stroke. This project conducts research to identify modifiable employment barriers and facilitators that may be targets of policy change, and develops tools to promote quality employment outcomes, including earnings, benefits, promotions, and job satisfaction, among people with disability secondary to spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and stroke. 
• Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Accommodations, Employment Supports, and Success for People with Physical Disabilities (ACCESS-PD). The goal of this center is to improve workplace accommodation practices so that people with physical disabilities get the employment supports and accommodations that they need to be successful.
• RRTC on Employment Among People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities 2024. The goal of this center is to work collaboratively with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and other stakeholders to study and use best practices to implement intervention-based research that will improve the lives and employment outcomes of people with IDD.
• RRTC on Employment of People Who are Blind or Have Low Vision. The goal of this center is to improve employment opportunities and outcomes among people who are blind or low vision (B/LV) by exploring access technology in the workplace over time; evaluating the effects of virtual interview training for youth; developing and testing an interactive video to educate employers about B/LV; evaluating the feasibility and efficacy of teaching job search skills via videoconferencing; identifying internal and external barriers and facilitators to labor force participation; exploring employment predictors and outcomes using large national datasets; and evaluating the accessibility and usability of job application websites. 
• The Reclaiming Employment Journey: An RCT of Business Coaching and Education for Self-Employed Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities. This project evaluates Reclaiming Employment, an interactive online platform of self-paced courses, curated business resources, and community forum, which are designed to support people with psychiatric disabilities to pursue entrepreneurship.

These are just a few of the NIDILRR-funded projects currently working to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities. You can explore more current and completed research and development projects in the NIDILRR Program Database on our website.

We wish everyone a restful Labor Day!