Youth With Mental Retardation or Multiple Disabilities

• Youth with mental retardation or multiple disabilities were exceeded by youth in several categories in their rates of being engaged in school, work, or preparation for work. For example, youth with other health impairments were more likely than those with mental retardation or multiple disabilities to report having been engaged in these activities since leaving high school (92 percent vs. 66 percent and 65 percent, respectively). Youth with learning disabilities or visual or hearing impairments also significantly exceeded youth with mental retardation in their rates of engagement (89 percent, 88 percent, and 86 percent, respectively, vs. 66 percent).
• In the postsecondary education domain, students with multiple disabilities were more likely to have reported considering themselves as having a disability than were those with speech/language impairments or emotional disturbances (81 percent vs. 27 percent and 37 percent). Students with multiple disabilities also were more likely to receive accommodations or supports because of a disability than were those with speech/language impairments, emotional disturbances, or other health impairments (67 percent vs. 10 percent, 13 percent, and 19 percent, respectively).
• In the social domain, 33 percent of youth with multiple disabilities reported seeing friends informally at least weekly. This rate was exceeded by youth in the categories of learning disability and visual impairment (92 percent), emotional disturbance (84 percent), and speech/language, hearing, and other health impairment (88 percent, 82 percent, and 79 percent, respectively). Youth with visual, hearing, or other health impairments also were more likely than youth with mental retardation to have belonged to an organized community group, taken extracurricular lessons or classes, or taken part in volunteer service activities (82 percent, 59 percent, and 58 percent, respectively, vs. 28 percent).
• In the financial domain, youth in most disability categories were more likely to have used several types of financial tools than were youth with mental retardation. For example, compared with youth with mental retardation, youth with hearing or other health impairments were more likely to have a savings account (65 percent and 66 percent, respectively, vs. 41 percent), checking account (63 percent and 58 percent, respectively, vs. 26 percent), or credit card (37 percent and 36 percent, respectively, vs. 9 percent), and those with visual or speech/language impairments or learning disabilities were more likely to have a checking account (71 percent, 57 percent, and 49 percent, respectively) or credit card (51 percent, 34 percent, and 31 percent, respectively).

From 65 percent to 92 percent of those in every disability category had engaged in school, work, or training for work since leaving high school. With the exception of youth with multiple disabilities, more than half of youth in each category (59 percent to 92 percent) saw friends at least weekly, and from 59 percent to 78 percent were registered to vote.

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