ODEP - Office of Disability Employment Policy
Disability Employment Policy Resources by Topic
Older Workers
Today, a confluence of factors is prompting America to change the way it thinks about age and work. The economic downturn, shifting perceptions of retirement, increased workplace flexibility and the aging of the "baby boom" generation are all contributing to people working longer. Many of these capable, experienced mature workers develop disabilities as they age, or existing disabilities may become more significant. To retain the talents of these valuable, skilled workers, employers can implement a variety of workplace practices, many of which benefit all workers and make good business sense. The following resources provide more information about the topic of older workers:
Reports from ODEP's NTAR Leadership Center
National Technical Assistance and Research Center to Promote Leadership for Increasing the Employment and Economic Independence of Adults with Disabilities (NTAR Leadership Center) issued these reports that examine the disability implications of an aging workforce.
Community College Briefs
Postsecondary education is increasingly important for older job seekers' reemployment. Yet, they may face potential challenges in accessing and completing education and training due to their greater likelihood of having acquired age-related disabilities. The following three briefs provide new research data and findings on older students and dislocated workers researched by the NTAR Leadership Center. Existing data, such as that from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, does not track the numbers of dislocated workers enrolled at community colleges; and nearly three-quarters of community colleges reported very few students with disabilities enrolled (less than three percent of their student population). Moreover, among older students, unidentified disabilities are not documented, which provides challenges for community colleges to document their statistics on older students with disabilities.
- Community College Practices that Serve Older Dislocated Workers This brief highlights strategies and findings at five community colleges serving high numbers of dislocated workers and examines how those practices meet the needs of older workers, some of whom may be aging with or into disabilities.
- How Are Community Colleges Serving the Needs of Older Students with Disabilities? To examine the issues related to older students with disabilities, this brief documents the research conducted to learn how colleges—in particular, community colleges—can better support the education and training needs of these students.
- Working for Adults: State Policies and Community College Practices to Better Serve Adult Learners at Community Colleges During the Great Recession and Beyond This report synthesizes knowledge about how community colleges serve adults. The first section provides background and context on adults at community colleges, while the second section details the methodology used in this research. Other sections describe the findings on the enrollment of adults at community colleges, recent initiatives that have sought to support adults at community colleges, the state policy and college practices related to adults' enrollment, and research on student outcomes and the implications for what is known about state policy and college practice. The final section highlights recommendations for policymakers and practitioners interested in serving adults at community colleges, including those with disabilities.
Other Briefs
- The Aging Workforce: The Role of Medical Professionals in Helping Older Workers and Workers with Disabilities to Stay at Work or Return to Work and Remain Employed This report documents the discussion and findings from a September 2012 one-day, invitation-only roundtable titled the same as the report. The purpose of the event was to explore the relationships among medical professionals, employers, and the public workforce and vocational rehabilitation systems in terms of their current and desired roles in preventing needless work disability. “Disability” in this context is defined as the absence from work due to a medical condition. Participants were asked to reflect on the challenges in engaging the medical community in helping older individuals with disabilities, or who are experiencing reduced functionality, to stay at work and remain successfully employed until they choose to retire.
- The Aging Workforce: Challenges for the Health Care Industry Workforce Because the aging of the U.S. population has tremendous implications for the health care industry, both as employers of an older workforce and as providers of services to a growing number of older patients, ODEP funded the NTAR Leadership Center to convene a one-day symposium entitled The Aging Workforce: Challenges for the Health Care Industry Workforce in January 2012. Recognizing the vital role played by the health care industry in the state of New Jersey, this symposium was hosted by NTAR in partnership with the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission and the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University. This brief identifies promising strategies from that symposium and offers some encouraging and notable examples from the participants that policymakers and employers could pursue to address the challenges of an aging health care workforce.
- The Public Workforce System: Serving Older Job Seekers and the Disability Implications of an Aging Workforce
- Employer Strategies for Responding to an Aging Workforce
- Impact of Federal Policies on an Aging Workforce with Disabilities
ODEP and other DOL agency resources
- Recruitment and Retention of Older Workers: Application to People with Disabilities Report based on above study that identifies strategies that have benefit for both older workers and workers with disabilities.
- Return to Work Toolkit Information to help employers and employees understand the return-to-work process and resources to assist in getting employees back on the job quickly and smoothly.
- Return to Work Programs A resource from the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN) that shows the advantages of return-to-work (RTW) programs, discusses successful RTW strategies, and helps employers decide which RTW strategies will work in their organizations.
- Job Accommodation Network guidance on accommodations for employees who are aging.
- Accommodation and Compliance Series: Employees who are Aging
- Job Accommodations for the Aging Workforce JAN Effective Accommodation Practices Series
- Our Aging Workforce: A Look at the Benefits of Job Accommodation JAN's Consultants' Corner
- JAN Webcast: Employing and Accommodating an Aging Workforce. This one hour webcast gives an overview of how to accommodate an aging workforce, including steps to an inclusive process, available assistive technologies, and accommodation examples focused on accommodation ideas for aging workers who have hearing, vision, mobility, or cognitive impairments.
- Report of the Taskforce on the Aging of the American Workforce Findings of a taskforce convened by DOL's Employment and Training Administration and on which ODEP served. Two additional resources resulting from this taskforce include:
- Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) ETA-funded community service and work-based program that provides subsidized training for low-income persons 55 or older who are unemployed and have poor employment prospects.
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1975
- Report on Current Strategies To Employ and Retaining Older Workers
- Statistical Spotlight Older Workers
Other resources
- Making Work More Flexible: Opportunities and Evidence This report considers the availability, utilization, and demand for workplace flexibility, with a particular emphasis on older workers. Although many aspects of flexibility can benefit workers of any age, the desire of some older workers to phase into retirement introduces some special considerations.
- Phased Retirement and Flexible Retirement Arrangements: Strategeis for Retaining Skilled Workers Implementing appealing work arrangements that attract and retain workers 50+ may become increasingly important in an organization's bid to survive in today's marketplace. Phased retirement, which allows the employee to reduce work time in his or her current job, is regarded as one strategy to encourage hard-to-replace, experienced workers to postpone leaving the labor force. This report discusses the factors influencing the business need for phased retirement, how to create a phased retirement program, how to market a phased retirement program to employees, challenges in implementing phased retirement, proposed regulatory solutions, and cutting-edge employee programs.
- Protecting Family Caregivers from Employment Discrimination (AARP Public Policy Institute) This report is the first in a series of AARP Public Policy Institute papers on issues of eldercare and the workplace. It highlights the realities of changing demographics and issues affecting working caregivers of older adults. It defines family responsibilities discrimination (FRD), explains why FRD is a policy matter, and describes the types of workplace discrimination encountered by working caregivers.
- Highlights of a GAO Forum: Engaging and Retaining Older Workers
- Older Workers: Some Best Practices and Strategies for Engaging and Retaining Older Workers
- Staying Ahead of the Curve: The AARP Work and Career Study Exploration of the perspectives and work-related needs of older workers today and tomorrow.