Alcohol and Other Drug Problems and Persons with Disabilities: A New Light on an Often Overlooked Problem

This special issue of Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly presents an in-depth perspective of issues surrounding one of the most overlooked populations in addictions research: persons with disabilities (PWDs). Although substantial attention has been given to a variety of unique subpopulations in alcoholism research- includingmembers of ethnicminority groups, women, and college students, to name but a few- to date only limited examination of PWDs has occurred. This fact is both surprising and problematic. It is surprising given the large numbers of PWDs in the United States and most other industrialized nations. In the United States alone some 53 million individuals, or about 20% of the total population, have disabilities (Waldrop & Stern, 2003). Although the numbers of such individuals vary, the percentage PWDs in the populations of both Canada and Great Britain are similar (Disability Rights Commission, 2004; Statistics Canada, 2002).