Nearly $2.3 million in funds to employ people with disabilities will be available through a new initiative called “Add Us In,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis on July 30, 2010, in remarks celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
President George H.W. Bush signed into law on July 26, 1990, civil rights legislation that was designed to break down barriers to inclusion and access that people with disabilities face.
The Department of Labor (DOL) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) celebrated the ADA with a series of activities that included panel discussions, recognition of progress in accessibility, and induction of disability rights advocates Helen Keller and Justin Dart Jr. into the DOL Hall of Fame.
There were repeated references during the more than weeklong observance for the need to continue work on behalf of equality, access and inclusion for people with disabilities.
“Add Us In” is among the latest of those efforts and is designed to help companies employ individuals with disabilities, particularly businesses owned and operated by African Americans; Asian Americans; Latino or Hispanic Americans; women; members of federally recognized tribes and Native Americans; and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The initiative will fund up to four cooperative agreements, and allotments will range from $500,000 to $625,000 to use in the development and evaluation of replicable models, strategies and policies to ensure youth and adults with disabilities from diverse communities have access to a broader range of employment and mentoring opportunities, according to an Aug. 2, 2010, announcement from DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Policy. Sept. 1, 2010, is the grant application deadline.
During the celebration, Christine Griffin, deputy director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), pointed to a July 26, 2010, Executive Order—timed to mark the ADA’s anniversary—to increase the number of people with disabilities who are recruited, hired and retained to work in the federal government.
Among other stipulations, the order calls for developing mandatory training programs for HR professionals and hiring managers working in the federal government on employing people with disabilities.
“We have to stop celebrating after this and get back to work,” Griffin noted, “and in the words of Secretary Solis, get good jobs for everyone.”
The posthumous induction of Dart and Keller into the DOL’s Hall of Fame concluded the DOL’s and EEOC’s ADA anniversary observance.
Dart, whom President Ronald Reagan appointed as vice-chair of what is now the National Council on Disability, is widely regarded as the father of the legislation aimed at ending discrimination against people who have disabilities.
He later headed the Rehabilitation Services Administration, a federal agency that oversees an array of programs for people with disabilities. Other appointments included co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities and chair of the President’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities. In 1998 he received the nation’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His wife Yoshiko Dart accepted the honor in his behalf.
Keller, who became deaf and blind as an infant, was a well-known author and humanitarian working on behalf of a number of causes.
She raised funds and campaigned to alleviate the living and working conditions of the visually impaired throughout her 40 years with the American Foundation for the Blind. She lobbied for laws for educating and protecting persons who were blind, including pushing the federal government to include people who are blind in the definition of disabled under the Social Security Act so they could receive financial help.
She advocated for state-assisted programs for job training and placement, programs to prevent blindness, and campaigned to make Braille the standard system for reading and writing for people with vision loss. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work.
The world has progressed tremendously since Helen Keller was born June 27, 1880, noted Solis, who called Keller “a huge factor in that progress.”
Keller Johnson-Thompson, Helen Keller’s great-grand niece, said during the ADA celebration that her aunt would have been very proud of Dart and others who worked on behalf of a policy that for 20 years “helped so many people to overcome the obstacles … and to be such productive members of society.”
Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News.
Related Articles:
Keep Building Upon ADA to Dismantle Discrimination, Panelist Urges, HR News, July 30, 2010
Government Seeks to Lead in Disability Employment, SHRM Online Diversity Discipline, July 28, 2010
SHRM’s Role in ADA Recalled 20 Years Later, HR News, July 22, 2010
Has the Americans with Disabilities Act Made a Difference? SHRM Online Diversity Discipline, July 9, 2010
Government Faulted on Hiring, Retaining Workers with Disabilities, HR News, April 6, 2010
Related Resources:
Disability Employment Resource Page, SHRM Online Diversity Discipline