Part of what made last week’s jobs report so bleak was the slowdown in growth across key economic sectors. But while private businesses in some industries still managed to add jobs, the public sector actually lost 13,000 jobs in the month of May, according to Tami Luhby’s report for CNNMoney.
Two years ago, President Obama signed an executive order that called for the federal government to hire 100,00 workers with disabilities by the year 2015. However, just two days before the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its May jobs report that revealed a 0.4% increase in unemployment among this population, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued this report, saying the actual numbers were lagging behind.
Disability Scoop reporter Shaun Heasley wrote that the GAO report indicated only 20,000 individuals with disabilities have been hired since 2010. While his article gave lip service to the potential pitfalls surrounding data collection, Heasley notes the GAO’s report attributed the reason for the lack of progress to poor planning:
Nearly half of agencies did not include an exact goal in their plan for the number of people they expected to hire. And, many agencies failed to identify a senior official responsible for the initiative. GAO indicated that more training is needed for government workers so that they know how to employ and accommodate those with disabilities.
This part of the report must have been particularly vexing to the folks in the Labor Department’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), who have invested a great deal of time and effort in developing the Job Accommodation Network, a compendium of resources for all things related to workplace accessibility and accommodation.
One only needs to look smack-dab in the center of the AskJAN home page to find clearly labeled links to resources for all levels of government, plus private businesses, individuals, and special interest groups. Under the “Federal” link, you can find a dozen different Federal Accommodation Programs, a section for “Accommodation Ideas,” categorized by type of disability; and email addresses, phone numbers, and live chat options to speak immediately with a real human being.
Opportunities for individuals with disabilities to work for federal, state, and local government should be more plentiful. New York state has already quantitatively demonstrated how effective these people can be performing a variety of jobs. With organizations like ATI providing contract services and career training for people with disabilities, there’s no need for workplace accommodation to be an obstacle toward reaching the federal government’s goal.
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Image by Yahoo! Accessibility Lab, used under its Creative Commons license.