People with Disabilities: A Texas Profile

ating (33.2 percent) have a disability rating of 10 or 20 percent. Approximately 25 percent of Texas
veterans with a rating have a disability rating of 70 or higher.
Table 18: Percentages of All Texas Veterans with Service‐Connected Disability Ratings, 2011
Service Connected
Disability Rating Number Percent
0 percent 14,085 4.6%
10 or 20 percent 102,796 33.2%
30 or 40 percent 59,147 19.1%
50 or 60 percent 37,460 12.1%
70 to 100 percent 77,733 25.1%
Not reported 18,078 5.8%
Total 309,299
Table notes: 2011 ACS microdata.
Not all veterans with a service‐connected disability rating reported having a serious difficulty on the
2011 ACS. Approximately 29 percent of veterans with a 10 or 20 percent disability rating also reported
that they had a serious hearing, vision, cognitive, ambulatory, self‐care, or independent living difficulty.
Approximately 62 percent of veterans with a 70 to 100 percent disability rating also reported having a
serious disability on the ACS.
Texas Youth with Disabilities
This subsection focuses on Texas youth – ages 16 to 24 – with disabilities. Data on these youth are from
ACS microdata for the civilian noninstitutionalized population. Generally, the transition to adulthood for
youth with disabilities is challenging (Stewart et al., 2008). Transitions into careers and postsecondary
education for youth with disabilities can be particularly difficult. Some youth may feel that their career
choices are limited because of the accommodations that they require, while others may be discouraged
from pursuing further postsecondary education, thus limiting career opportunities.
The most accurate method of illustrating the transition into postsecondary education or into a career
from high school or college requires a longitudinal dataset in which the same individuals are followed
over numerous years. However, the ACS dataset used in this report does not include longitudinal data.
Therefore, comparison of youth with and without disabilities is limited to a specific point in time. Of the
3,308,352 Texas youth, 181,889 (5.5 percent) reported having a disability in 2011. Table 19 illustrates
that six percent of youth attending secondary school in 2011 had a disability. However, secondary
school attendance is normally compulsory until age 18 in Texas. Approximately three percent of youth
attending college (including undergraduate and graduate education) in 2011 had disabilities.
Texas Workforce Investment Council 29