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The Post-High School Outcomes of Youth With Disabilities up to 4 Years After High School
NCSER 2009-3017
April 2009

Youth With Sensory Impairments

  • For example, youth with visual or hearing impairments were more likely to attend postsecondary school (78 percent and 72 percent, respectively) than were those with speech/language, other health, or orthopedic impairments; learning disabilities; multiple disabilities; emotional disturbances; or mental retardation (55 percent, 55 percent, 54 percent, 47 percent, 35 percent, 34 percent, and 27 percent, respectively).
  • Youth with visual or hearing impairments also were more likely to consider themselves to have a disability (83 percent and 71 percent, respectively) than were youth in the categories of orthopedic, other health, or speech/language impairment; mental retardation; traumatic brain injury; learning disability; or emotional disturbance (69 percent, 43 percent, 26 percent, 60 percent, 53 percent, 43 percent, and 37 percent, respectively). Postsecondary students with visual or hearing impairments were more likely to have disclosed that disability to their postsecondary schools (79 percent and 65 percent, respectively) than were youth with orthopedic, other health, or speech/language impairments; mental retardation; traumatic brain injuries; learning disabilities; or emotional disturbances (63 percent, 38 percent, 18 percent, 56 percent, 52 percent, 36 percent, and 21 percent, respectively). Youth with visual or hearing impairments also were more likely to have received accommodations and supports from their schools because of a disability (58 percent and 56 percent, respectively) than were youth in the categories of traumatic brain injury; orthopedic, other health, or speech/language impairment; mental retardation; learning disability; and emotional disturbance (46 percent, 40 percent, 19 percent, 10 percent, 26 percent, 24 percent, and 13 percent, respectively).
  • Employed youth with visual or hearing impairments were more likely to have disclosed a disability to employers (65 percent and 60 percent, respectively) compared with youth with other health impairments, mental retardation, emotional disturbances, learning disabilities, or speech/language impairments (29 percent, 25 percent, 18 percent, 16 percent, and 15 percent, respectively).
  • Youth with hearing or visual impairments also were more likely to use computers at least daily to e-mail, instant message, or participate in chat rooms (39 percent and 45 percent, respectively) compared with youth with mental retardation (12 percent); youth with visual impairments also exceeded those with emotional disturbances (19 percent) in their use of electronic communication. Youth with visual impairments were more likely to have taken lessons or classes outside of formal school enrollment (52 percent) than were youth in the categories of emotional disturbance (19 percent) or mental retardation (9 percent). They also had a significantly higher rate of participation in volunteer or community service activities (67 percent) than did youth in seven disability categories: learning disability (25 percent); mental retardation (20 percent); emotional disturbance (24 percent); hearing, orthopedic, and other health impairment (26 percent, 28 percent, and 24 percent, respectively); and autism (16 percent). Youth with visual impairments also were more likely to have belonged to an organized community or extracurricular group than youth with mental retardation (46 percent vs. 12 percent

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