Fw: Article: Senator Calls On Businesses To Boost Disability Employment

[Guest guest]

Follow up information from Health Education Labor and Pensions Senate

Committee Chair Tom Harkin's push for increased employment numbers -- now

he's calling on the U.S. Chamber to give suggestions on policies/incentives

to increase people with disabilities in the workforce. Would have loved to

have been a fly on the wall in that meeting!

Article: Senator Calls On Businesses To Boost Disability Employment

The following article is forwarded to you by the DBTAC-Great Lakes ADA

Center (www.adagreatlakes.org) for your information:

disabilityscoop (www.disabilityscoop.com)

April 12, 2011

Senator Calls On Businesses To Boost Disability Employment

By Shaun Heasley

Amid staggering unemployment, a key senator is challenging business

leaders to increase hiring of people with disabilities more than 20

percent by 2015.

In a speech at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event in Washington Tuesday

morning, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, asked business leaders to help him in an

effort to increase the number of Americans with disabilities in the

workforce from 4.9 million currently to at least 6 million in 2015.

" The ADA and the special education laws have combined to produce the

best-educated population of people with disabilities in U.S. history, "

Harkin told the gathering of CEOs and business owners. " Yet, while the

majority of them would like to be working, the shocking fact is that more

than two thirds of Americans with disabilities are without a job. "

Currently, Americans with disabilities are leaving the labor force at 10

times the rate of workers in the general population, Harkin said. He

pointed to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor indicating that

395,000 fewer workers with disabilities were on the job in March as

compared to two years prior.

Harkin told the business leaders that he wanted their input on what types

of policies could help bring about greater employment for those with

disabilities.

Last month, the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee,

which Harkin chairs, heard testimony from employers, government officials,

disability advocates and people with special needs about the experiences

of those with intellectual disabilities in the workplace.

Harkin has said that policies promoting increased competitive employment

among this population are a priority for him.

Source:

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2011/04/12/senator-boost-disability-employmen

t/12890/

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