Disabilities in the Workplace

About 20% of the population has a disability of some kind, according to the Census Bureau. Here's a breakdown of their place in the workforce:

• 48% of those with non-severe disabilities between the ages of 21 and 64 are working full-time compared to 63% of those without any disability.
• 82% of businesses have no programs in place for integrating people with disabilities into the workforce, according to a Kessler Foundation survey.
• The same survey found 19% of companies have a specific person or department overseeing the hiring of the disabled. When the foundation survey businesses and asked the same question in 1995, the percentage was more than twice that high (40%).

Deaf and Jewish

An estimated 50,000 deaf Jews live in the US, according to advocacy groups for the Jewish deaf. There are only a handful of synagogues for the deaf and half a dozen deaf rabbis.

Interpreters: By the Numbers

About 41,000 people work as sign language interpreters and translators. The field is projected to grow 25% by 2016.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Deafness in America

About 7.8 million Americans 15 year of age and older had difficulty hearing a normal conversation, including 1 million who were deaf in 2004, according to US Census Bureau. That puts the number of deaf in the US to be about 10% of the total population. An estimated 50-70,000 Americans under 18 are profoundly deaf. And it's estimated that 78 million Americans will have hearing loss in the next quarter century.

By the Numbers

There are roughly 250 million people with hearing loss in the world, with two thirds of them living in developing countries, according to The World Health Organization.