If you’re the type of person who looks for comfort in numbers, don’t visit the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) web site today to look at the latest job statistics for people with disabilities. The unemployment rate for this population rose almost half a percentage point in June, just as it did during the [...]
We’ve spent a lot of time recently praising the federal government’s number of initiatives to improve career training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities. But a report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) at the end of June wonders whether more necessarily equals better. The subtitle of the 91 page Employment for People with Disabilities [...]
It’s been a little more than a week now since the United State Supreme Court ruled that the majority of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (referred to as ACA) was constitutionally allowable. People with disabilities will be impacted by the decision as much as any single group of individuals; and, by and large, [...]
The new Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) guide, Business Strategies That Work: A Framework for Disability Inclusion (PDF) wraps up with the section “Grow Success: Accountability and Continuous Improvement Systems.” The section includes practices for providing personnel training and setting up mechanisms by which success can be assessed at regular intervals. Accountability is the root [...]
Where section three of the Office of Disability Employment Policy guide, “Business Strategies That Work: A Framework for Disability Inclusion” (PDF), focused on physical accommodations in the workplace for employees with disabilities, the section entitled, “Be Tech Savvy: Accessible Information and Communications Technology,” pertains to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools a company implements [...]
The next section of the Office of Disability Employment Policy’s guide, “Business Strategies That Work: A Framework for Disability Inclusion,” (PDF) focuses on the internal and external communication of many of the strategies and goals set forth in earlier sections. Many of the strategies seem like common sense: announcing newly crafted policy statements in company [...]
Section four of “Business Strategies That Work: A Framework for Disabilities Inclusion” begins with a question: “Where can I find qualified applicants with disabilities?” Then it goes on to say that most employers cite this as a primary barrier to hiring individuals with disabilities. But finding qualified applicants is evidently a barrier to hiring, period. [...]
Creating an accommodating work environment is probably the most crucial aspect of any successful initiative toward recruitment and retention employees with disabilities. A workspace must be navigable and the equipment must be accessible in order for these employees to perform to the level of expectation set forth by the employing organization. Section three of the [...]
Section two of “Business Strategies That Work: A Framework for Inclusion,” entitled “Hire (And Keep) The Best: Personnel Processes” (PDF), gets to some of the thorny issues the U.S. Department of Labor is grappling with in its proposed rule that federal contractors strive for 7% of their workforce to be comprised of people with disabilities. [...]
Yesterday’s post announcing the publication of “Business Strategies That Work: A Framework for Inclusion,” by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), referenced different facets of building an actionable plan that enables organizations to recruit, hire, and keep employees with disabilities. Each of those warrants further exploration and provides an opportunity [...]