So, you can see that individuals with learning disabilities are impacted greatly in their career aspirations before they even leave high school. This brings us to discuss the general barriers that individuals with learning disabilities face with employment.

Employment Barriers for Adults with Learning Disabilities

"The key to success is hard work. Tenacity is more valuable than knowledge and skills. The difference between success and failure is that when you fall down a million times you fail, and when you get up a million and one times, you succeed. All you need is one. (as cited in Reiff, Gerber, & Ginsberg, 1994 p. 33)"³

There are several barriers that adults with learning disabilities face surrounding employment issues. First and foremost is the fact that there is a definite lack of awareness by employers when it comes to learning disabilities. Many employers don't even realize that learning disabilities impact a person beyond cognitive factors. Also, employees may display as being lazy, disorganized or incompetent to their employers. Often individuals with learning disabilities are not even aware of how their learning disability impacts them in the workplace and therefore are not able to explain their learning disability to employers.

One of the most prevalent barriers to employment for adults with learning disabilities are social skill deficits. In fact, some studies have shown that up to 70% of individuals with learning disabilities are at risk for exhibiting problems with social skills. Although, difficulty socializing and forming relationships, and depression are associated with those who have learning disabilities, these problems do not necessarily always coexist.

Some of the social skill deficits that affect adults with learning disabilities include; lack of judgment, deficient perception regarding the feelings of others, difficulty in making and keeping friends, difficulty with socializing and interpreting social cues, non-assertiveness, problematic family relationships and poor self concept. These social skill deficits may manifest in individuals in many different ways, however, the impact they have on employment is always significant. For instance, some individuals might have difficulty picking up the phone to inquire about a job, some may present themselves awkwardly in an interview and others may simply have difficulty getting along with co-workers on the job.