National Council on Disability Says Increase Employment Opportunities for People with Disabilities

WASHINGTON, D.C. The National Council on Disability (NCD) today, on the first day of National Disability Employment Awareness month, released a report that presents the best practices in the public and private sectors and the promising public policies and initiatives that increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

The employment rate of working age people with disabilities remains only half that of people without disabilities (38 percent compared with 78 percent in 2005).

The report, Empowerment for Americans with Disabilities: Breaking Barriers to Careers and Full Employment, www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2007/NCDEmployment_20071001.htm comprehensively reviews the issues integral to the employment of people with disabilities. It has two broad aims:

1. to summarize the existing knowledge regarding the employment of people with disabilities in a series of short issue briefs; and
2. to present new information on the perspectives of employers, people with disabilities, and disability specialists on the key barriers and facilitators of employment.

According to NCD chairperson John R. Vaughn, "For Americans with disabilities, no less than for all other citizens, the opportunity to earn a living and be self-supporting is a universally held goal. Yet in perhaps no area of public policy has the expectations gap so stubbornly resisted our efforts to achieve equality.

Whatever set of statistics one chooses from among the varying estimates of disabled Americans´ employment rates, the rate and level of employment for this population remain far too low. These employment and earnings gaps are a substantial public and policy concern. A lack of employment opportunities limits the ability of many people with disabilities to fully participate in society, since employment plays a number of important roles and functions for individuals."

To read the rest of the press release, including NCD´s recommendations for improving employment opportunities for people with disabilities, go to:
http://www.aapd.com/News/empissues/071001ncd.htm

SOURCE: National Council on Disability