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The Disability Access Gap That’s Costing More Than You Think
Discover how accessibility, workplace design, and art by artists with disabilities can advance disability inclusion and opportunity.
This October marks the 81st anniversary of Disability Employment Awareness Month. It's been over eight decades of pushing American businesses to see disability as an asset, not an afterthought.
This year, we want to ask the question plainly: what is it costing you not to be inclusive?
It was never a talent gap. It's an access gap.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 75.2% of Americans with disabilities were not in the labor force in 2025, compared to 32.0% of Americans without disabilities. That gap isn't new. Even companies committed to measuring inclusion often still leave real barriers in place.
This barrier can show up before someone even applies. Only 77% of organizations benchmarked in Disability:IN's 2026 Disability Index publish instructions for requesting disability accommodation on their own recruitment website. For the rest, applicants are left to guess how to ask for what they need, let alone whether it will be approved, just to get in the door.
People with disabilities in the workforce often face barriers to reaching their full potential, be that through inaccessible spaces, lack or denial of accommodations, or culture. Deloitte's Disability Inclusion @ Work 2024 survey of 10,000 people with disabilities, chronic health conditions, and neurodivergent traits found that 74% who requested a workplace accommodation had at least one request rejected, and 19% had every request they made rejected.
