Unseen barriers keep persons with disabilities from seeking, acquiring and maintaining meaningful employment

The purpose of this project was to acquire and analyze both publicly available and peer reviewed informational sources that pertain to the causes of the seemingly unchanging unemployment rate of persons with disabilities in general and more specifically of persons with visual disabilities. The project resulted in exposing the strengths and weaknesses of disability law as exhibited by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The resulting conclusions of this study indicate that the ADA has had a significant impact on the lives of persons with disabilities by providing access to and within physical facilities of all types, but has done little to diminish or alter attitudinal barriers impacting the employability of persons with disabilities. This paper also discussed whether the nearly unchanging unemployment rate of approximately 70 percent among persons with disabilities since the implementation of the ADA may be a result of these continuing attitudinal barriers.