Disability Employment

For decades, the Heldrich Center has conducted projects to improve the employment prospects of people with disabilities. Our disability work includes mixed-methods program evaluations to collect evidence about the types of workforce development strategies that are most closely correlated with positive employment and education outcomes, as well as training and technical assistance on employer practices and policies that result in inclusive workplaces for individuals with disabilities.

For over 15 years, Kessler Foundation has contracted with the Heldrich Center to evaluate over 40 disability employment programs across the United States. Heldrich Center researchers utilize a variety of qualitative methods to evaluate these programs, including structured interviews with program staff, program participants and/or their families, and key stakeholders, as well as by analyzing program documents and administrative program data. Each program evaluation results in both interim and final reports that summarize the program, offer an overview of the research methods employed for the evaluation, and detail both findings and recommendations for the program. These confidential and proprietary reports provide feedback to Kessler Foundation on the effectiveness of the programs during their implementation and their success in meeting their goals.

In 2012, New Jersey became an Employment First state to promote the competitive employment of individuals with disabilities in the workforce. Despite this policy shift, the mainstream labor force participation rate for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in New Jersey has not significantly increased and continues to lag national trends. To address this issue, the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities contracted the Heldrich Center to evaluate New Jersey’s Employment First policies and practices and develop recommendations and an advocacy plan to increase meaningful competitive employment for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the state. The Heldrich Center partnered with the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston to better understand the strengths, challenges, and opportunities New Jersey faces in implementing Employment First and to identify strategies to support more New Jersey residents so that they can succeed in integrated employment. The study resulted in several products that were released in 2022.

From 2019 to 2025, the Heldrich Center evaluated the Employer Assistance and Resource Network (EARN) in partnership with Cornell University’s K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability Institute. The EARN initiative, funded by the Office of Disability Employment at the U.S. Department of Labor, provides employer-focused disability policy development and technical assistance that builds on prior EARN work.

From 2007 to 2013, the Heldrich Center managed the National Technical Assistance and Research Center to Promote Leadership for Increasing Employment and Economic Independence for Adults with Disabilities (NTAR Leadership Center). The NTAR Leadership Center, funded by the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, sought to build capacity and leadership at the local, state, and federal levels to enable change across workforce development and disability systems that will increase the employment and self-sufficiency of adults with disabilities. The NTAR Leadership Center researched successful employer efforts to employ people with disabilities, the disability implications of an aging workforce, and analyses of long-term unemployed workers with disabilities, among other topics. Technical assistance efforts included an intensive leadership institute where project staff assisted the states of Connecticut, Maryland, and Minnesota to become models for promoting the employment of individuals with disabilities. The NTAR Leadership Center also offered a state peer leaders network that facilitated the exchange of information and the sharing of promising practices among policymakers in 20 states. Twenty-two research briefs and reports were released over the course of the project.

Do you have a project related to the employment of people with disabilities?

Email us at hcwd@ejb.rutgers.edu to see how we can help you.