Policy

Washington, D.C., Oct. 17 – Taziki’s Mediterranean Café has teamed up with Magellan Complete Care to create Taziki’s HOPE program. The HOPE program teaches adults with disabilities transferable business skills while working at the Café or growing herbs.

Taziki’s HOPE program is one such example of how this state is improving its employment rate for people with disabilities.

According to the Institute on Disability, 204,103 working-age Virginians with disabilities are employed, putting the state’s disability employment rate at 40.8 percent. That total includes people who are blind or deaf or have other visible conditions such as spinal cord injuries, as well as people with invisible disabilities including learning disabilities, mental health or Autism.

As such, Gov. Ralph Northam has declared October as Disability Employment Awareness Month to help advance opportunities. [continue reading…]

Photo Credit: Jon Austria/Naples Daily News

Washington, D.C., Oct. 16 – Through the StarAbility Foundation, Shawn Denton has become a model employee at Cosmos Pizza Naples. StarAbilty Foundation offers the program trailblazer academy, which helps people with disabilities find employment through vocational rehabilitation and employment readiness.

However, The StarAbility Foundation is an exception, as far too many Floridians with disabilities are out of work. This month is the perfect time to examine why.

According to the Institute on Disability, 428,638 working-age Floridians with disabilities are employed, putting the state’s disability employment rate at 34.1 percent. That total includes people who are blind or deaf or have other visible conditions such as spinal cord injuries, as well as people with invisible disabilities including learning disabilities, mental health or Autism.

As such, Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared October as Disability Employment Awareness Month to help raise this percentage. [continue reading…]

Washington, D.C., Oct. 13 – The country is celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, which began on September 15, 2019 and ends October 15, 2019. National Hispanic Heritage Month recognizes the contributions made and the important presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States and celebrates their heritage and culture. It is important to note this includes 5.1 million Latinx living with a disability in the U.S.

The Disability Statistics Compendium, released by Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire, shows that the employment rate for Latinx people with disabilities stands at 38.6 percent. At the same time, the employment rate for the broader Latinx community without disabilities is 75.3 percent. [continue reading…]

Edmond’s Super Scoop ice cream store

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oct. 12 – Edmond’s Super Scoop ice cream store will continue their tradition of hiring people with disabilities in a new merger with Hank’s Coffee Shop. “So often we forget they are left out,” says the Executive Director of the newly merged store, Not Your Average Joe, about people with disabilities.

Not Your Average Joe is one such example of how Oklahoma is improving its employment rate for people with disabilities.

127,608 working-age Oklahomans with disabilities are employed, putting the state’s disability employment rate at 37.6 percent. That total includes people who are blind or deaf or have other visible conditions such as spinal cord injuries, as well as people with invisible disabilities including learning disabilities, mental health or Autism.

As such, Gov. Kevin Stitt has declared October as Disability Employment Awareness Month to help raise this percentage.

[continue reading…]

Washington, D.C., Oct. 11 – At North Carolina State University, 321 Coffee is a nonprofit coffee shop fully staffed by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities getting payed above minimum wage. CEO Lindsay Wrege is working to open a store front to create more opportunities for people with disabilities.

321 Coffee is an exception, however, as the vast majority of North Carolinians with disabilities are out of work. This month is the perfect time to examine why.

232,875 working-age North Carolinians with disabilities are employed, putting the state’s disability employment rate at 33.8 percent. That total includes people who are blind or deaf or have other visible conditions such as spinal cord injuries, as well as people with invisible disabilities including learning disabilities, mental health or Autism.

As such, Gov. Roy Cooper has declared October as Disability Employment Awareness Month to help raise this percentage. [continue reading…]

• 85% of voters find it very or somewhat important that presidential candidates have campaign events and websites that are open and accessible to people with disabilities, just like everyone else.

• 73% of voters are more likely to support candidates for elected office who will make ensuring that children with disabilities get the education and training they need to succeed a priority.

• 70% of voters are more likely to support candidates for elected office who will make expanding job and career opportunities for people with disabilities a priority, so they can succeed just like anyone else.

Rockville, Maryland, Oct. 10, 2019 – A new poll reveals that 85 percent of registered voters say it is very or somewhat important to them that presidential candidates have campaign events and websites that are open and accessible to people with disabilities, just like everyone else. Voters with disabilities themselves are more enthusiastic about participating in the 2020 elections (52 percent), four points higher than the national average. Despite both of these data points, none of the presidential candidates on either side have made their websites and social media fully accessible to voters with disabilities. [continue reading…]

Four Candidates – Biden, Booker, Warren, Yang – Have Made Substantial Improvements in Website Accessibility

Washington, D.C., Sept. 12 – Nearly three months after a report by the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired found that all of the presidential candidates’ websites block democratic access to voters who are blind or have low vision, an update finds that still none of these websites – Democrat or Republican – are fully accessible. However, the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind found that many of the candidates’ websites do show improvements in accessibility.

The organization issued a challenge for the candidates in June: “ensure their websites are fully ADA compliant and immediately put an accessibility statement on their page.” Four of the candidates now have an accessibility statement on their websites, including both a live email address and phone number that users can contact for additional assistance: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang. Since the report first launched on June 26, 2019, each of these four presidential campaigns also have contacted Miami Lighthouse for Blind for counsel in updating their websites. [continue reading…]

President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act into law.

This year marks the 29th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). After years of hard work, activism and protest by thousands of people with disabilities, an American president lifted his pen to tear down “the shameful wall of exclusion.” In signing the ADA, former President George H.W. Bush called on all Americans to join in the great work to “remove the physical barriers we have created and the social barriers that we have accepted.”

Today, nearly three decades later, the work to remove those barriers continues. “The ADA was meant to ensure that people with disabilities could earn an income and achieve independence, just like anyone else,” said former member of Congress and current Chairman of the national disability organization RespectAbility, Steve Bartlett, while reflecting on the anniversary. “Significant challenges remain to fulfill the promise of inclusion and independence.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, CA, May 7 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities, submitted the following public comments last week to the City of Los Angeles Workforce Development Board. The Board is in the process of finalizing their new Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Year 20/2019-2020 Annual Plan. This plan will guide how the City of Los Angeles invests critical federal resources, builds new collaborations and works to empower people with barriers to employment in the year ahead.

RespectAbility’s public comments, which were jointly written by the organization’s D.C. and L.A. based staff, focused on several critical issues. First, the comments outline key data points about the size and scope of the disability community in Los Angeles. Second, the comments outlined in extensive detail about critical best practices and proven models of empowering job seekers with disabilities to successfully enter the workforce. Third, the comments cover a range of other issues including adopting disability best practices into existing programs to support the reentry population, expanding entrepreneurship opportunities, and supporting the local community through parent engagement as well as community resource fairs. Lastly, the public comments go into detail about how to leverage the incredible power of media and Hollywood to empower people with disabilities by fighting stigmas.

The working draft of the City of Los Angeles Workforce Development Board’s 2020 plan can be found on their website here. Read RespectAbility’s comments in full below. [continue reading…]