By Tamar Asedo Sherman
The percentage of federal employees with targeted disabilities has declined each year since 1993 to the lowest participation rate in 20 years, despite the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 1990-18 years ago-which specifically prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in regards to employment.
Under the aegis of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Offi ce of Federal Operations (OFO) undertook a review of federal agencies to determine what barriers exist to the hiring and advancement of People with Targeted Disabilities (PWTD), a category which includes deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorders, mental retardation, mental illness, and distortion of the limb and/or spine.
“It is imperative that people with disabilities who can and want to work are supported in their efforts to do so,” the report stated. “The ultimate goal is to make the federal government the employer of first choice for PWTD.” Approximately 1.25 million people with disabilities are actively looking for work at this time, according to the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics at Cornell University. The employment rate of working age people with disabilities was 37.7 % in 2006 compared to 79.7% of working age people without disabilities. The OFO report lists several common obstacles which apply to private as well as public employers:
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• Unfounded fears, myths and stereotypes persist regarding the employment of people with disabilities;
• Few agencies within or without the federal government have developed strategic plans to improve the recruitment, hiring and retention of PWTD;
• The federal application process is daunting to most, but especially to individuals with disabilities;
• Employers lack knowledge about how to respond to requests for reasonable accommodation and how to implement retention strategies for PWTD;
• There is inadequate coordination between the federal agencies and/ or programs that were created specifically to meet the employment needs of individuals with disabilities.
The full text of this report is available at www.eeoc.gov/initiatives/ lead/index.
In order to significantly increase the population of individuals with severe disabilities employed by the federal government, the LEAD Initiative was launched (Leadership for the Employment of Americans with Disabilities) by the EEOC in June 2006. It is not an employment program, however. Its staff works with HR personnel and hiring officials of federal agencies to encourage them to hire and advance more individuals with severe disabilities.
“Under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, federal agencies have an affirmative action requirement to hire and advance individuals with disabilities,” said Christine Griffin, the EEOC commissioner who launched the LEAD Initiative, “yet 35 long years later there is little progress. Agency leaders must make this issue a priority.”
Accessible Employment is a national job board dedicated to including employees with disabilities in the workforce started by the New Jersey Business Leadership Network (NJ BLN), which in turn was established with support from the Henry H. Kessler Foundation. “Twenty-first century employers will require a diverse pool of skilled candidates to accomplish their goals. Our site is dedicated to closing the gap between employers searching for qualified workers and disabled candidates searching for employment,” the website states.
The website says that people with disabilities represent the single largest minority group seeking employment in today’s market. According to the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE), companies that employ individuals with disabilities report that:
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• Employees with disabilities learn to persevere and develop problem solving, planning, and people skills as part of managing a disability.
• Statistically, employees with disabilities have better retention rates.
• Workers with disabilities are rated consistently as average or above average in performance, quality and quantity of work, flexibility, and attendance.
Job seekers can register by filling out a brief form and start searching for jobs. You can post an existing resume or create one on the site, sign up for alerts of jobs that might be of interest and access other information at www.accessibleemployment.org or call Stacy Harris at 908-963-0760 for an interview with a disability workforce expert.
The Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy is getting involved also. “The talents of Americans with disabilities are not fully tapped in our economy,” said Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor, in awarding a $2.3 million grant to a consortium of organizations that will establish a center aimed at increasing the employment and economic self-sufficiency of adults with disabilities.
For information on current vacancies in the federal government, visit www.usajobs.opm.gov, and/or the website of individual federal agencies. Additionally, you may find useful information on the OPM Disability Resource page: www.opm.gov/disability.
Tamar Asedo Sherman is an employment specialist. She can be reached at tsherman@unitedspinal.org.
