1.0: Saturday, November 11, 2000 - 11:05 AM

Abstract #12098

Vocational outcomes of university-educated women with disabilities

Chrisann Schiro-Geist, PhD and Chrisann Schiro-Geist, PhD. Department of Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1206 S. 4th Street Room 120, Champaign, IL 61820

Although vocational outcomes of university-educated persons with disabilities were shown in a recent study to not be significantly different from matched cohort of non-disabled university graduates, significant within-group differences related to gender emerged which likely have a significant correlation to differentials in health benefits received by women with disabilities, as opposed to women without disabilities, or men with or without disabilities. In the study, financial differences which were documented to exist between the matched groups appeared to exist and vary based upon gender of the person with the disability. University educated women with disabilities were more likely to be employed in lower paying jobs than women without disabilities.

They were also more likely to work in part-time positions without benefits and were more likely to not be married, leaving them more likely to not be qualified for health benefits from their own work, and less likely to receive such benefits from a spouse.

All of these confounding factors point to the likelihood that university educated women with disabilities are less likely than non-disabled women, and men with or without disabilities, to receive health care benefits which are equal to others.

The 128th Annual Meeting of APHA