[Jobs] Disabled People Need Not APPLY, 5/16/08, Assistive Technology News Blog

[Nightingale, Noel]

Link:
http://www.atechnews.com/blog/

Text:
Disabled People Need Not APPLY
May 16th, 2008
By John M. Williams

The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) has asked Congressman
Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform, to conduct a hearing on the status of employment of people with
disabilities in the federal government, which should include review of
the Schedule A Hiring Authority. Schedule A enables hiring managers to
hire qualified applicants with disabilities expeditiously through a
non-competitive process. 

In a letter sent to Waxman, NCIL (www.ncil.org) stated, "NCIL members
remain extremely concerned that in a workforce of 2.6 million federal
employees, less than one percent are people with "targeted"
disabilities. NCIL does not accept this data as anything close to what
we might describe as successful employment statistics for the United
States." The letter further states, "If the federal government were to
carry out the mandate of the Rehabilitation Act and hire qualified
people with disabilities, it could serve as a model employer to states
and private sectors and help end decades of stagnant employment rates,
which perpetuate painful economic consequences for people with
disabilities."

The letter asks that in conducting hearing NCIL urges your Committee to
review and analyze the employment of people with targeted disabilities
in the federal workforce, with detailed focus on use of the Schedule A
Hiring Authority. NCIL believes it is important to provide an overall
assessment of the federal government's compliance with Section 501 of
The Rehabilitation Act, with the objective to enhance the recruitment,
hiring, placement, and advancement opportunities for people with
disabilities "by each department, agency, and instrumentality in the
executive branch of Government."               

The letter states the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
reports that among cabinet level agencies, the Department of the
Treasury has the most employees with targeted disabilities and that
Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the State Department are
rated as the agencies that employ the least number of people with
targeted disabilities. The Department of State has trailed all cabinet
level agencies since 2004.             

Calls to the U.S. Department of State, the asking for an explanation
about why it employed few people with disabilities are employed there
were not returned.  

NCIL believes the hearing could:

Call on the federal government to lead and increase its engagement
levels on the stagnant employment rates of Americans with disabilities
in and out of the federal government; Highlight factors supporting the
economic importance and business success of hiring people with targeted
disabilities; Show best practices of agencies that have successfully
hired more people with targeted disabilities; Provide a forum to discuss
ways to ensure improvement in all agencies, including staffing at the 15
Cabinet level Agencies (66% of the federal work force); Assess the
collection and dissemination tools used for annual data and information
collected from each agency indicating their compliance with the
Rehabilitation Act, EEOC regulations and MD 715, and; Review Office of
Program Management (OPM) activities to ensure the effective and
appropriate use of the Schedule A Hiring Authority throughout the
federal government and suggestions for improving their online
application process. 

NCIL believes that individuals with disabilities who have been denied
employment with the federal government, despite their education and
experience, would provide valuable and practical testimony about the
barriers that prevent them from obtaining federal employment. NCIL's
Fact Sheet on Schedule A shows that most federal managers are either
unaware of or do not appropriately use this critical tool, which has the
potential to measurably increase the number of federal employees with
disabilities. (www.ncil.org/news/ScheduleA.html). 

In its Waxman letter, NCIL noted that the National Council on Disability
(NCD) focused a recent report on "Empowerment for Americans with
Disabilities: Breaking Barriers to Careers and Full Employment."
However, NCIL was dismayed that the federal workforce was not discussed
in this report.                          

NCIL believes that conducting a hearing on the recruitment, hiring,
retention, and advancement of people with targeted disabilities in the
federal government would fill this serious omission in the NCD report.


The letter urged Waxman to contact EEOC Commissioner Christine M.
Griffin, who created the initiative LEAD - Leadership for the Employment
of Americans with Disabilities. LEAD focuses on the declining rate of
employment of people with targeted disabilities in the Federal
Government. Christine has extensive information and data about current
employment rates and expert ideas on how the federal government, working
with its partners, can work to improve the current situation.


Waxman's staff has urged NCIL to obtain support from other organizations
working in the disability before a hearing can be scheduled. NCIL's web
site (www.ncil/org) provides a place for organizations to sign up for
support.  

The Bush Administration came into office with the intention of down
sizing the federal government. Not hiring people with disabilities is
one way to accomplish these goals. With eight months left in office, the
Bush Administration could change its policy and start hiring people with
disabilities. The next administration could build on this hiring
incentive. 

NCIL and other organizations representing people with disabilities
should press for the hearing and for the federal government to hire
people with disabilities. They should exercise their voting power to
guarantee the hearing is held. The result could be that people with
disabilities could be hired nationwide in the public and private
sectors.