People with disabilities cross all racial, gender, educational, socioeconomic and organizational lines. Americans with disabilities have a long history of being secluded and barred from participating in mainstream American life. In fact, it has only been in the last few decades that the government has removed some of these barriers and stigmas.

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush first signed the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The signing of this law represented a milestone in this country's commitment to full and equal opportunity for all of its citizens. The ADA was the world's first comprehensive declaration of equality for people with disabilities and its message was clear and simple: For the first time, millions of Americans with disabilities were deemed full-fledged citizens entitled to legal protections that ensure them equal opportunity and a chance to pursue the American dream.

Specifically, Title I of the law prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against individuals with disabilities when it comes to recruitment, hiring, promotions, training, pay, social activities and other privileges enjoyed by other employees.

An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as
having such an impairment.

The disability-rights movement grew out of the civil-rights movement of the 1960s. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination based on age, gender, race or ethnic origin. The law, however, did not include people with disabilities. But it did raise awareness that people with disabilities could achieve equal rights under the law.

Notwithstanding these significant developments, the overall status of people with disabilities in America still remains pretty dismal. People with disabilities are the poorest, least educated and largest minority in America. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the August 2009 unemployment rate of people with disabilities was 16.9 percent, compared with 9.3 percent for people with no ADA-defined disability.

In addition, people with disabilities in the labor force were a mere 23 percent, compared with 72 percent for people with no disability, according to the Department of Labor.

In this section, the DiversityInc staff examines the business case for hiring, promoting and marketing to people with disabilities and tackles a wide range of issues, including workplace trends, laws and best practices for employers. Find out things like how much the purchasing power of people with disabilities has grown over the years, what kind of financial investment will you have to make to accommodate an employee with a disability and how many more students with disabilities are graduating from college than those without disabilities.