Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Vocational Rehabilitation (Combined or General)
The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Portion of the Unified or Combined State Plan [13] must include the following descriptions and estimates, as required by section 101(a) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by title IV of WIOA:
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[13] Sec. 102(b)(2)(D)(iii) of WIOA
j. 1. C. Who have been unserved or underserved by the VR program;
Current Narrative:
Among the groups that DVR considers when examining who has been unserved or underserved by the VR program include: Individuals with minority status (including New Mainers and indigenous populations), Individuals reentering from the corrections system, older workers, Veterans, individuals receiving Temporary Assistnace for Needy Families (TANF), individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Maine DVR is also beginning to examine the representation of individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ related to access to services.
To estimate the number of people eligible for DVR services in Maine, we use information from the American Community Survey (ACS), conducted each year by the United States Census Bureau. In Maine, among the civilian noninstitutionalized population in 2013-2017, 16% reported a disability. The likelihood of having a disability varied by age – from 7% of people under 18 years of age to 53% of people 18 to 64 years old, and to 40% of those 65 and over. ((ACS), 2013-2017). The ACS is designed to provide both national and State level data on demographic, social, economic and housing characteristics of U.S. households.
Per DVR's most recent CSNA https://www.maine.gov/rehab/dvr/stateplan/ , the following discrepancies were noted between the population being served by DVR and those who may be eligible for services:
- DVR participants are generally less educated than the eligible population with 20% lacking a high school diploma versus only 18% in the ACS with a disability sample.
- DVR participants are more likely to be make (56% versus 44%)
- DVR serves proportionately few individuals of racial or ethnic minorities than those identified in the ACS work disability population.