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Our Story

For over 60 years, the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability in the Cornell University ILR School has conducted a unique combination of research and outreach. With a mission of advancing the inclusion and full participation of people with disabilities in the workplace and community, our research, training, and technical resources expand knowledge about disability inclusion, leading to meaningful change.

About the Institute

Our Work

Businessman in a wheelchair is using a digital tablet while having a discussion with a colleague in the corridor of a co-working space.

Our Areas of Focus

Benefits planning

School-to-work transition

Disability inclusion at work

Systems-based work & collaboration

Emerging work & innovation

Browse YTI Projects

YTIOnline Learning

Learn from YTI’s experts to improve your knowledge and gain practical skills in benefits planning and employment services for people with disabilities. Earn professional credentials and certificates though a wide variety of courses and classes, both in-person and virtually.

Visit YTIOnline

Our Impact

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Matt Saleh Asks Questions, Spurs Impact

Matt is fascinated by the law and its relationship to disability and criminal justice. He is an energetic teacher and researcher in Cornell University’s ILR School, and he has taken on roles involving equity in employment.
Matt Saleh smiles thoughtfully while looking directly at the camera and sitting on a couch in front of a window.
Matt Saleh Asks Questions, Spurs Impact

Best Paper Award Won by Yang-Tan Researchers

Jennifer D. Brooks and Sarah von Schrader investigated how access to remote work for people with disabilities has been affected since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jennifer Brooks sits in her office while viewing the title page of her award-winning paper on her computer screen.
Best Paper Award Won by Yang-Tan Researchers

How Social Security Can Stop Penalizing Workers with Disabilities: Op-Ed

An op-ed in The Hill recommends improvements for how the Social Security Administration manages overpayments to workers with disabilities.
Jen Brooks, seated in her powerchair in the lobby of the Yang-Tan Institute, is smiling at the camera.
How Social Security Can Stop Penalizing Workers with Disabilities: Op-Ed

Our News & Events

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Celebrating Value and Talent: Supporting Employees through Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work Programs

Free webinar about effective stay-at-work/return-to-work programs
Two workers wearing hard hats. One holds a tablet and is supervising the other.
Celebrating Value and Talent: Supporting Employees through Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work Programs

Disability Rights Employment Awareness Month (DREAM) Symposium

Free, in-person, two-day event in Albany, NY
DREAM 2025 logo, including text saying 2025 New York State DREAM (Disability Rights & Employment Awareness Month) Symposium
Disability Rights Employment Awareness Month (DREAM) Symposium

When the Employer Requests Documentation of Disability

Free webinar about employer requests for medical documentation to verify disability
An office worker reviews a sheet of paper while seated at a table.
When the Employer Requests Documentation of Disability

YTI Newsletter - September 2025

Read our September 2025 newsletter online or subscribe to our monthly mailing list.

Read the September Edition

Our Team

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It’s not possible to determine what somebody can achieve based on some disability or diversity characteristic that they have. Everyone has a right to participate in society to the best of their ability.
– WENDY STROBEL GOWER, THOMAS P. GOLDEN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Wendy Strobel Gower Outdoors

Get in Touch with YTI

Yang-Tan Institute
ILR School, Cornell University
201 Dolgen Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853 

Phone: 607-255-7727 
Email: ilr_yti@cornell.edu

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