According to U.S. News' 2019 Best States rankings, some states are doing better than others at lowering the disability employment gap. The ranking is based on an analysis of each state's gap in the unemployment rate. That gap is calculated as the ratio of people in the labor force with a disability over people in the labor force without a disability. The ranking is part of U.S. News' larger Best States for Equality ranking, which includes additional factors such as education, race and gender equality.
Health care clinicians frequently treat persons with disabilities, yet disability is often overlooked in medical education. Fewer than half of U.S. medical schools include disability education in their undergraduate medical education curriculum.When included, it is often superficial and insufficient to apply to patient care. Although 98% of students at one institution reported receiving disability education, 80% reported that it was inadequate, and 64% of them felt unprepared to evaluate, diagnose, and treat people with disabilities (PWD).
In California, responsibility for finding services for people like Max sits with the state’s 21 regional centers — a $14 billion network of publicly-funded, privately-operated nonprofits that coordinate support for about 400,000 children and adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities.