Be proud. Employers need you!
Veterans with disabilities perform their jobs as well as those who don’t have disabilities.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 61 million adult Americans (or about one-in-four adults) have a disability.
Veterans with disabilities can compete on the open market for available positions. With or without accommodations (changes in how job tasks are done), veterans with disabilities can do the same jobs others can.
Veterans with recently acquired disabilities may still believe the negative assumptions about disability sometimes heard in the media or other communications. Believing these assumptions can be more disabling than the medical condition itself. The first step in planning a career is challenging false beliefs about disability and what people with disabilities can do.
The word disability covers a broad range of conditions. Some of these are easily noticed by others (such as a missing limb, a mobility impairment, or a serious visual disability). Others are not obvious to others (such as some types of traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, or depression). Whether obvious to others or not, veterans with disabilities have employment rights under several federal and state laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA).
