Cassie S. Mitchell, Ph.D. and Robert Quinn, M.S., co-authored a comprehensive large-scale survey to assess the opinions of experiences of both disabled and non-disabled persons in either education or employment. Click here to the see the recent news release on this active large-scale survey study.
Click here to TAKE SURVEY
Our goal is to help shape future disability policies. However, we first need a large sample size of data to better define current problems and survey possible solutions. We are conducting an anonymous online survey that ranges from 5 to 20 minutes in length with an average duration of 10 minutes. EVERYONE over the age of 18 years who lives in the USA is eligible to participate. We need both disabled and non-disabled survey participants.
Ready to take the survey now? Please click to anonymously participate in the research survey.
Need more information? Please read the details below and hear directly from Dr. Mitchell on this short video:
Dr. Mitchell tells her story and discusses the large-scale disability inclusion research survey.
Analyzing the Disability Tax via a Large-Scale Anonymous Survey
by Dr. Cassie S. Mitchell
Hello, I am Dr. Cassie Mitchell. I would like to briefly chat about disability, and namely disability inclusion in education and gainful employment.
I was paralyzed at the age of 18 from a progressive neurological disease that left me as a permanent quadriplegic. Overnight, I went from an elite athlete with a college athletic scholarship to being in a wheelchair. My condition requires tens of thousands of dollars in annual disability-related expenses.
I quickly faced the difficult choice that over 10 million disabled persons in the USA between the ages of 18 and 64 must make: Do I seek gainful employment, or do I instead enroll in government disability programs?
Gainful employment -whether full time or part time – is important for positively contributing to society and improving overall mental and physical well-being. However, gainful employment essentially nullifies government benefits and means one is left using their paycheck to cover tens of thousands of dollars in disability-related expenses not covered by traditional employee healthcare programs.
In contrast, enrolling in government-supported disability programs provides the stability of disability healthcare and a very small fixed monthly income. However, the fixed income is nowhere near enough to be financial independent or to pay rent for a single unit or even a group home. Choosing government disability programs means fully relying on friends and family as caretakers and providers of food and shelter. Moreover, the lack of gainful employment can lead to isolation, depression, and lack of overall fulfillment.
Surely, we can do better here in the United States of America!!!
In my case, I chose to seek gainful employment. This was made possible by my education, which included a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering. As a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, I still pay out over 60% of my gross income to cover my disability-related expenses. My lifestyle – housing, car, etc. – looks nothing like my able-bodied peers in the same profession due to the extra disability expenses. Such disability expenses are often referred to as “the disability tax”. I chose to pay the disability tax so I could be gainfully employed. My choice was only possible because I have a career in a higher paying field – data science – where accessible technology makes my job possible and my output productive.
My personal experience as a physically disabled person led me to hypothesize that Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, or Medicine – also known as STEM – could provide an avenue for more disabled persons to work. Again, STEM fields pay well, and the accessible technology enables high productivity from physically disabled employees.
I realize STEM may not be possible for all disabled persons. However, I strongly believe there could be a middle ground where disabled persons can seek the benefits of some type of gainful employment without the risk of losing the stability of government assisted healthcare.
I am leading a research study to better understand disability inclusion in education and in employment. Our goal is to better to identify the current challenges and possible solutions towards improved disability inclusion in education and in gainful employment. To do this, we are surveying both disabled and non-disabled persons of all backgrounds. Our large-scale population survey collects anonymous data on opinions and experiences that could improve future disability inclusion policies.
Please help us by taking the anonymous survey, which is less than 20 minutes in duration. No direct identifiers or contact information is collected. Everyone over the age of 18 years who lives in the USA is eligible to take the survey. Please answer freely. There are no wrong answers. Thank you in advance for your help!
Click here to TAKE SURVEY