Leisure Activities, Social Involvement, and Citizenship

• Passive uses of leisure time, such as watching television or videos and listening to music, have declined in the 2 years since youth with disabilities left high school, as has communicating by computer. Whereas in Wave 1, 46 percent and 36 percent, respectively, reported these as their most common leisure activities, rates are 16 percent and 15 percent in Wave 2.
• Participation in organized community groups and in volunteer or community service activities also has declined. In Wave 2, 28 percent of out-of-school youth with disabilities belong to organized community groups, and a similar share take part in volunteer activities, down from about 46 percent pursuing each activity in Wave 1.
• In contrast, out-of-school youth with disabilities are seeing friends more often than they were 2 years earlier. Just over half of youth with disabilities report seeing friends at least weekly outside of organized groups and any school they may attend, an increase from about one-third of youth 2 years earlier.
• Almost two-thirds of youth with disabilities who are 18 or older are registered to vote, a rate similar to that for the general population of youth (approximately 60 percent, Lopez and Kirby 2003).
• When they have been out of secondary school up to 2 years, about half of youth with disabilities have been stopped by police for other than a traffic violation, and 16 percent have spent a night in jail, both significant increases in a 2-year period. Almost 3 in 10 have been arrested at least once, and 1 in 5 are on probation or parole. These rates of arrest and being on probation or parole have not increased significantly since leaving high school, and the arrest rate is not significantly different from that of peers in the general population (23 percent).