Our Impact

“Employers are recognizing they may be unnecessarily eliminating applicants,” said Susanne Bruyère, academic director at the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, sharing how health issues can create gaps in a job candidate’s employment history that may cause an AI to screen out a qualified job candidate.

“I think all of us find identity in our job, in our work. … We want to make sure that what we’re doing and how we’re spending our time matters,” said Wendy Strobel Gower, executive director of the Yang-Tan Institute, in a keynote speech covered in this article.

This article relays specific advice about improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities that was offered by Susanne Bruyère, academic director of the Yang-Tan Institute, in her opening keynote to the Inclusive Design for Employment Access (IDEA) Symposium at the University of Toronto.

“They just don’t have energy to keep fighting,” says Debora Wagner, work incentives associate at the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, about people with mental health disabilities whose application for disability benefits is denied by the Social Security Administration.

“This kind of work … satisfies not only the needs of job seekers who are autistic, but really helps the economy,” said Susanne Bruyère, academic director of the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, when commenting on a federal cut to a study on employment barriers for autistic job seekers.

Now in its fifth year, the 2024-25 New York at Work report draws on ILR expertise, research-based data and policy analysis on a broad range of key issues affecting the state’s workers, unions, communities and employers.