BACKGROUND: This article derives from data provided by the National EEOC ADA Research Project at VCU. It is one of 3 articles in this volume/issue. It is intended to document the nature and scope of discrimination as reported to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the enforcement agency for ADA, by persons with learning disabilities (LD). Specifically, a group of 9,480 allegations filed with the EEOC and derived from individuals with learning disabilities is compared to a group of 313,480 allegations derived from individuals with other known physical, mental, and behavioral impairments.
OBJECTIVE: Comparisons were made based upon the characteristics of the individual charging parties including age, race and gender as well as characteristics of the employer including industry code and number of workers.
METHODS: Database mining and descriptive and non-parametric analyses were applied to determine differences in these characteristics.
RESULTS: Findings indicate that allegation activities are higher among LD charging parties who are white males between the ages of 15 and 39. Allegations by LD charging parties are more prevalent among smaller employers (15–100 workers) in the industries of Accommodation and Food Services, Retail Trade, Educational Services, and Arts/Entertainment/Recreation.
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