Senator urges agencies, Congress to hire more disabled employees<\/p>\n
By Alyssa Rosenberg arosenberg@govexec.com<\/p>\n
April 14, 2008 <\/p>\n
The federal government must hire more people with disabilities to
\nmeet its obligation as a model employer, said Sen. Richard Durbin,
\nD-Ill., in a Monday lecture at New York Law School. <\/p>\n
“We should show employers by example why it makes good sense to hire
\nand promote people with disabilities,” he told students and professors
\nduring the fourth annual Tony Coelho Lecture in Disability Employment
\nLaw and Policy in New York. <\/p>\n
Durbin cited a January 2008 report from the Equal Employment
\nOpportunity Commission on the federal employment of people with
\ndisabilities. That report found that there were only 90 people with
\ntargeted disabilities, which include blindness, deafness and mobility
\nloss, in senior pay grades in the federal government. Overall, EEOC
\nconcluded, the federal government employs fewer people with
\ndisabilities now than it has at any point during the last 20 years. <\/p>\n
The Illinois Democrat also noted that Congress was equally far behind
\nin its efforts to hire people with disabilities. <\/p>\n
“Congress, we should look at ourselves,” he said. “We honestly don’t
\nknow how many people with disabilities work in Congress. In the
\nSenate, each office is its own little kingdom. There is no central
\neffort to engage more people with disabilities.” <\/p>\n
Durbin has two disabled staffers in his office, and Coelho, who
\nauthored the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act when he served in
\nthe House, said Durbin has vowed to push his colleagues to commit to
\nadding 10 people with disabilities to their Senate staffs each year.
\nThe <\/p>\n
House already has a similar commitment in place. <\/p>\n
Hiring more people with disabilities is important, Durbin said,
\nbecause it allows companies and the government to tap a largely
\nignored talent pool of motivated, efficient workers at relatively low
\ncost. <\/p>\n
Another recent study found that disabled workers consistently scored
\nas well or slightly better on performance reviews than their
\nable-bodied counterparts. They also took fewer scheduled and
\nunscheduled days of leave. The average cost of accommodating a
\ndisabled worker was $313, and the most commonly requested
\naccommodation was a flexible schedule, according to the report,
\nprepared by DePaul University researchers, the Illinois Department of
\nCommerce and Economic Opportunity, and the Chicagoland Chamber of
\nCommerce. <\/p>\n
“When millions of Americans with talents and skills our nation
\ndesperately needs are shut out of the workforce, you don’t need a
\nPh.D. in economics to tell that’s bad for the economy,” Durbin said. <\/p>\n
The best way to improve the federal government’s hiring practices is
\nnot through legislation, he said, but via a change in culture and
\nthrough presidential initiative, such as the one President Bill
\nClinton announced in 2000 to hire an additional 100,000 federal
\nemployees with disabilities. <\/p>\n
Durbin acknowledged that it would take time for the federal
\ngovernment to change attitudes about disabled employees, but said
\noutstanding examples already exist. <\/p>\n
“Who would believe that a few months after being shot down and losing
\nher legs that could run for Congress and run the
\n?” Durbin asked. “Her husband
\nis deployed. She is living by herself as a double amputee. As she does
\nthat, she dispels the myth that being a double amputee means that it’s
\nover.”<\/p>\n
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Senator urges agencies, Congress to hire more disabled employees By Alyssa Rosenberg arosenberg@govexec.com April 14, 2008 The federal government must hire more people with disabilities to meet its obligation as a model employer, said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., in a…<\/p>\n