Later this month, when our country marks the 22nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, many of the law's champions will lament that the employment situation for our citizens with disabilities has not improved since the ADA was signed.
In recent years, that situation has gotten worse. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the disability workforce shrank by over 10 percent during the recession, five times faster than the non-disability workforce, which shrank by only about two percent.
And BLS data released earlier this month reveal that as the rest of the workforce has slowly begun to recover, the disability workforce has lagged. The number of working age Americans without disabilities participating in the labor force grew by almost 3 million in the past year. During the same period, the number of workers with disabilities declined by 94,000. Even at the high water mark for disability employment before the recession, only 37 percent of working age adults with disabilities were in the labor force.
Today, in my role as chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, I am releasing a report urging Congress, the Administration, the business community, and society at large to make the issue of disability employment a national priority. Any of us can acquire a disability at any time, and all of us have a stake in making equal employment opportunity the rule rather than the exception.
As sobering as the disability employment statistics can be, I believe that we are on the verge of substantial gains in this area, provided we get serious about welcoming people with disabilities into the workforce.
Why the optimism?
First, we have a new generation of young people with disabilities entering the labor force. Unlike many in earlier generations, they grew up in integrated classrooms and accessible communities, expect to work in mainstream jobs and are unwilling to accept living in poverty with meager supports from the government. I have had the pleasure of having members of this generation intern in my office and testify before my Committee, and they give me great hope for the future of disability employment.
Add to this group the wounded warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with a powerful desire to work and support their families, and you can see that we have a critical mass of disabled youth and young adults who are well positioned to drive change in the workplace.
Second, we are seeing public- and private-sector employers getting more serious about setting concrete goals and measuring their progress in the area of disability employment. In 2010, on the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), President Obama called on the federal government to hire an additional 100,000 workers with disabilities by 2015. Last year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called on the private sector to increase the disability labor force by over 1 million workers by 2015. And just yesterday, the new Chair of the National Governors Association (NGA), Jack Markell of Delaware, announced that boosting disability employment will be his signature issue during his tenure as the leader of the NGA.
Plus, the U.S. Department of Labor has issued a proposed rule calling on federal contractors to work toward the goal that at least seven percent of their workforce, at all levels, are people with disabilities. Companies including Walgreens, Lowe's and Best Buy did not wait for the Department of Labor's initiative, and were already setting ambitious goals for disability employment, and praising the business benefits that have come from their focused emphasis on recruiting, retaining and promoting this talent pool. These benefits include better productivity, fewer missed days of work, reduced turnover of personnel and innovative thinking.
Third, I am sensing a growing recognition in Washington that we should not force people with disabilities to prove they cannot work in order to be eligible for supports from the government. The 1956 definition of disability in the Social Security Act, and the entitlement programs that have grown up around that definition, need to be modernized so they are in alignment with the ADA's goals of equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency.
During my lifetime, I have seen the workforce open up for women, older workers, minorities and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. I believe our country's ability to tap into the talent of its diverse population has spurred innovation and made us a global leader in so many areas. It is time to take the next step, to open wide the doors to the workplace for our citizens with disabilities. In doing so, we will increase our workforce diversity; tap into a valuable, talented, underutilized population, and marshal all of our available resources to maintain America's leadership in the global economy.
Follow Sen. Tom Harkin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@SenatorHarkin
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Now when someone has lost his/her job and burned up his unemployment they also apply for SSI. Law firms, for a fee will help get them SSI. Being no longer on the role of unemployed has lowered the unemployment rate for America. (Good political move) However it has raised the SSI rate. The ADA's honorable goals of equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency are being trashed by the dis honorable in our society.
If by "child payments" you mean the small pittance the government affords through one's SSI or SSD, they are laughable. I've worked all my life and get a lousy $44. Law firms only help if you already have a doctor approving your disability. I actually fired mine, as they did nothing, not even return phone calls from SSDs agents.
Finally, you cannot use running out of UI benefits as an excuse to apply for SSI/D. As I've said before, the tiny handful of people that are able to fake a disability is hardly worth worrying about.
"Third, I am sensing a growing recognition in Washington that we should not force people with disabilities to prove they cannot work in order to be eligible for supports from the government. The 1956 definition of disability in the Social Security Act, and the entitlement programs that have grown up around that definition, need to be modernized so they are in alignment with the ADA's goals of equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency."
This is nutty. The system is so abused with fraud as it is that if this is allowed then those of us with "real" disabilities will once again be at the back of the line. I would really like a clarification.
Those of us with "real disabilities," you'd like on the front lines of...what?? I am on disability because I got hit by a truck while walking to the corner store. I am now permanently wheelchair confined. If you meant at the front of the line for jobs, I gotta tell you, I cannot work with this injury, I am lucky if I can sit up for more three hours at a time. A job? I wish. The deciding factor in getting disability is that you CAN'T work. And it takes a boatload of detailed documentation, years of doctor's visits and forms filed....if you think it's so easy, try it. You have every right to turn it down if you are approved.
As an adult the deficit is subtle but there. It does not impair my work. I am considered highly among my peers. I teach. I have been interviewed by national media. I have a leadership position in a national professional organization.
But I am closeted because I am a physician. It doesn't matter that I graduated with honors from a top 20 school or that I was chief resident at a top residency in my specialty. It doesn't matter that I have co-authored books and papers. If I "came out" I would get sued into oblivion in any malpractice case. (I've only had one ever which I lost rightfully because I made a mistake.) However were my disability known I would have lost spectacularly more because any attorney would have painted me a retarded quack. I doubt I could even get Malpractice Insurance as an individual (despite fewer cases than colleagues with half my years).
I would love to go to gatherings that parents and children who share my condition have. I probably will when I near retirement. But now there is too much to lose. Count all of us with disabilities on the DL and you'll find more than you'd imagine.
11Q
Will there ever be a hiring quota for able-bodied white guys? How about one for people with IQ's over 120?
What he should not do, in my opinion, is be able to sign off on documents as true and correct then deny the substance of what that document leads the reader to believe in good faith.
In his case a quasi regulatory agency that is not well thought of by many because of its failure to properly regulate the filings before it.
If his current position is that it does not count because he was only keeping ownership as leverage to negotiate his retroactive retirement, then it is my belief that he should fess up to being disingenious at a minimum. .
I'd stated in an earlier post that even if one can find a wheelchair accessible potential workplace, chances are they'll hire the other candidate. To have ANY disabled person in one's employment means there will be real work-time deficits, regardless of the disability. Whether by the need to provide special equipment for that person, or if the person would require more breaks during the day, or if modifications would have to made to the work site.
Unless the disability is in plain sight, like mine, people will hide it; I was ill before the wheelchair, and hid it from every employer I had.
Maybe the ADA and other anti-discrimination laws need stronger enforcement (hint: quit weakening organizations like the DOJ and EEOC - they're among those who enforce the anti-discrimination laws) along with greater penalties for violations. Perhaps this would get the point across. Window dressing campaigns won't. Those will hire a few of us - though I do like that someone is finally addressing we can do more than be part time minimum wage jobs like greeters, fast food or other totally unskilled jobs (such as the proposed DOL rule requiring disabled people to be hired at ALL levels among federal contractors).
Time for people to get healthy and get to work.
Please don't assume anything.
I believe you can probably go to work....
Congress could lead the way here. All they need to do is stop exempting themselves from compliance with the laws they pass.
Everyone nowadays seems to think that SSI pays for everything, and people can just quit their jobs, and live a life of luxury.
Nevermind that, at most, it pays 698 dollars a MONTH and that's Hardly enough to live on :/