Policy

In this month’s partner spotlight, we look at the fantastic work the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative (AADI) is doing. AADI seeks to bring a haven for Asian Americans with disabilities online and in person.

AADI came about when Founder and Executive Director, Jennifer Lee, began recognizing and understanding her disability while grappling with the anti-Asian hate that rose during the COVID pandemic.

Young Asian Americans with disabilities drive AADI, including former RespectAbility Entertainment and News Media Fellow Dennis Tran, who is on Jennifer’s team as a Directory Manager on their External Relations Committee. [continue reading…]

March was a particularly a strong month for our policy department, both in terms of teaching and networking.

On March 3, Senior Policy Advisor Matan Koch taught more than 50 workforce professionals how to advocate for disability inclusion in their work places using the business case. You can watch that webinar and download the fully accessible presentation on RespectAbility’s website.

Wally Tablit and Peter Bernick, Assistant Professor at Nagasaki University

A few days later, Wally Tablit, our Senior Director of Policy and Workforce Development, was honored to have presented at the 38th Annual Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability and Diversity on March 6 and 7 in Honolulu, HI. The event was hosted by the Center on Disability Studies College of Education, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Immediately after the Pacific Rim Conference, Wally presented at the 1st Annual Hawaiian Employment First Summit in Honolulu on March 8, presented by the HI Chapter of APSE (Association of People Supporting Employment First). These two events gathered several hundred people from all over the Pacific Rim region. Wally made connections with people from Japan, New Zealand, Hawaii, and more. [continue reading…]

Our nation’s workforce system is a crucial aspect of the economy. It consists of many organizations, laws, and programs that connect people to jobs. But one significant component of the modern workforce system is in need of reauthorization.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, or WIOA, combined more than a dozen workforce development programs under a single legislative roof. Each program served one population with a barrier to employment, such as veterans, at-risk youth, or people with disabilities. The idea behind WIOA was that one integrated workforce program would be stronger and more effective than several isolated programs. The integrated workforce program serves all clients, regardless of which barrier(s) to employment they face. It is also subject to updated standards for performance and transparency.

The initial WIOA funding expired in 2020, but Congress has included funds in the budget every year since then. Some representatives have tried to officially re-authorize WIOA to ensure funding stability and make improvements to the legislation. In 2022, the House passed a WIOA re-authorization bill along party lines. The bill never made it through the Senate.

When considering the ideal form in which to reauthorize WIOA, we need to answer two questions: Is WIOA working as intended? If not, how can we improve it? The answer to these questions is found by examining the successes of WIOA as it relates to people with disabilities, and analyzing the causes in those places where the goals were not met. [continue reading…]

This month’s Data Corner again examines the tracking data of National Trends In Disability Employment (nTIDE). In March 2023, the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities yet again set an all-time high of 40.2% compared to 37.8% in March 2022. This is encouraging as it means the gap is narrowing between workers with and without disabilities. Workers without disabilities also experienced an uptick in the labor force participation rate, which rose from 77.2% in March 2022 to 77.6% in March 2023.

Likewise, the employment-to-population ratio for people with disabilities rose from 34.1% in March 2022 to 36.6% in March 2023. For those without disabilities, the employment-to-population ratio increased from 74.5% to 74.9%. [continue reading…]

On the last day of February 2023, I joined a roomful of employers, job seekers, and advocates in a conference center in San Francisco all united by one passion – building a workforce that was diverse, inclusive, and welcoming to all. This one-day event, hosted by Roy Baladi of Jobs for Humanity and cosponsored by the California Department of Rehabilitation, was a whirlwind of trainings, hands-on activities, and mentorship all oriented around this one singular goal.

The keynote remarks were delivered by Ken Oliver, Executive Director of Checkr.org. An employer himself, Oliver shared his story about rising from solitary confinement in prison where he educated himself in the law enough to realize that his civil rights were being violated, forming the foundation of a case that led to his eventual release. His experience and emergence into the job market later in life taught him the value of persistence and second chances, something that he has made into a career as a leader of the philanthropic arm of a company valued at $4.6 billion.

Throughout the day, Oliver’s charge to us rang in our ears, that many people don’t get a second chance, and that walking in the shoes of those we are committed to supporting is essential to eliminating bias and promoting fair chance. [continue reading…]

President Biden released his budget last week, and it has tremendous potential to advance the disability community, but only if disabled people are included and remain vigilant.

The budget includes a number of programs which are framed as making the economy more competitive and Americans more secure. The first thing of note is the specific call out of Home and Community-based Services (HCBS). The budget would invest $150 billion over 10 years to improve and expand Medicaid HCBS, to, in the words of the press release, “allow older Americans and individuals with disabilities to remain in their homes and stay active in their communities as well as improve the quality of jobs for home care workers.” This is the time to be strong advocates and partners to ensure not only that this funding becomes law, but that we continue to modernize programs to allow Medicaid recipients to work, to marry, and to fully participate in society.

The other direct mention of disability comes in the President’s educational priorities, where the press release by the White House specifically affirms that “[e]very child with a disability should have access to the high-quality early intervention, special education services, and personnel needed to thrive in school and graduate ready for college or a career.” This statement prefaces an announcement of a proposed $2.1 billion increase in Pre-K through 12 IDEA spending, and almost a billion dollars in early intervention spending. This is a prime opportunity to bring our collective voices to ensuring passage while strengthening special education practices and access throughout the country so that the money leads to the best outcomes. [continue reading…]

I recently researched three disability organizations in the countries of Afghanistan, India, and Kenya to find out the differences and similarities between what they and RespectAbility do. Upon exploring them, I realized the unifying thread that was the Convention on Rights for Persons with Disabilities. I believe that the U.S. should immediately ratify the treaty.

Here’s what I learned: [continue reading…]

Last month, we shared monthly employment data from the BLS. In this month’s Data Corner, we examine the National Trends In Disability Employment (nTIDE) and their work tracking employment for people with disabilities. We will also explore some educational data that shows some encouraging progress.

In February 2023, the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities rose to an all-time high of 40.2%, compared to 36.6% in February 2022. This is encouraging as we work towards closing the gap between workers with and without disabilities. Workers without disabilities experienced a smaller uptick in the labor force participation rate, which rose from 76.9% in February 2022 to 77.3% in February 2023.

Likewise, the employment-to-population ratio for people with disabilities rose from 33.1% in February 2022 to 36.9% in February 2023. For those without disabilities, the employment-to-population ratio increased from 73.8% to 74.4%. [continue reading…]

The Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act (TCIEA) was introduced in February 2023 in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-VA) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MA). The bill is designed to end the exception to the minimum wage enacted in the 1930s which allows certain employers of people with disabilities to pay wages significantly under the minimum wage, as little as pennies an hour, colloquially known as subminimum wage. We recognize that this would realize one of our main strategic policy goals.

Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 instructed the Department of Labor (DOL) to provide certificates to employers specifically involved in the training of people with disabilities, allowing them an exemption to minimum wage standards. The original purpose of this exemption was to allow workshops for people with disabilities to continue operating through the end of the Great Depression, despite the fact that the federal government had enacted a minimum wage. It has long outlived this purpose, and has in fact created inequitable outcomes, and diverted people with disabilities from the more effective training programs available this century. [continue reading…]