Inclusion Daily Express -- Federal Workforce Disability Rates Drop To Near 1984 Levels

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Federal Workforce Disability Rates Drop To Near 1984 Levels
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 16, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC--Despite legislation and initiatives targeted at improving employment rates of people with disabilities, the numbers of such workers in federal jobs continue to drop, almost to the levels from before the 1991 Americans with Disabilities Act.

According to a report published Tuesday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal government employed 23,490 workers with disabilities in fiscal year 2006, amounting to about .97 percent of the total federal workforce. That compares to nearly 30,000 a decade earlier.

It is close to the lowest point of .96 percent in 1984.

In 1994, 1.24 percent of federal workers had disabilities.

The specific disabilities the EEOC measured were "deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorders, mental retardation, mental illness, and distortion of the limb and/or spine."

While the employment levels of federal workers with disabilities have dropped, the numbers of harassment complaints have increased -- from 1,393 in 2003 to 1,602 in 2006.

"The federal government is supposed to be the model employer," said EEOC Commissioner Christine M. Griffin in a press statement. "Some agencies have embraced this concept when it comes to individuals with targeted disabilities, but most have not."

"Very few agencies are actually setting hiring goals or making concrete plans to meet those goals. This must change."

Related Report:
"Improving the Participation Rate of People with Targeted Disabilities in the Federal Work Force" (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/report/pwtd.html

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