Project Director's Report
A New Name, a New Attitude and Hopefully -- New Results
The 2004 report from the President's Committee for People with Mental Retardation features the committee's new name -- the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities (ID). The name change was made to emphasize a more positive approach aimed at counteracting discriminating attitudes.
As part of their comprehensive report, the President's Committee stated that 90% of people with intellectual disabilities are unemployed. Some of the report's recommendations include working with employers to help them resolve issues regarding employing people with intellectual disabilities. The recommendations coincide nicely with several findings in a recently published book, The Decline in Employment of People with Disabilities (Stapleton and Burkhauser, 2003). These authors examine potential causes for the decline of employment for people with disabilities during one of the most economically expansive decades in US history -- the 1990's. Their findings detail:
- Increases in the severity of impairments and health conditions among those with disabilities;
- The unintended consequences of the passage and implementation of the ADA; and
- Eligibility and benefits expansion in the SSI and SSDI program.
Stapleton and Burkhauser's book also outlines the implications for policy change and successful efforts to increase the employment of people with disabilities. Some strategies include efforts to clarify:
- whom the ADA protects and under what circumstances, and
- what constitutes reasonable accommodation.
The authors believe that continued education to employers on these issues will significantly reduce ADA compliance costs and increase the employment of people with disabilities who are determined to be protected under the law-especially new hires.
This issue of Access New England highlights a new Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) publication dealing with the rights of workers with intellectual disabilities. This publication dispels myths and fears and can be a useful guide in promoting employment opportunities (See: New EEOC Fact Sheet About Intellectual Disabilities and Employment). In one of this issue's feature stories, Stereotypes and Intellectual Disabilities: A Multinational Study, an international study reveals stereotypical views as one of the greatest barriers to a better quality of life for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
The ADA & IT Centers have been providing the employer training & technical assistance vital to facilitating voluntary compliance under the ADA.
As we approach the 15th year anniversary of the ADA, we continually see the need for changing not only attitudes, but actions. Will new language and strategies invigorate efforts to increase the employment rate for people with intellectual disabilities? We at the ADA & IT Centers nation-wide are planning on finding out. Lots of hard work and time will tell.
Best Wishes,
Oce
References
President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities 
(www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/pcpid). A Charge We Have To Keep: A Roadmap to Personal and Economic Freedom for People with Intellectual Disabilities in the 21st Century. A Report by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Telephone: 202-619-0634.
Stapleton, David and Richard Burkhauser. 2003. The Decline in Employment of People with Disabilities: A Policy Puzzle. W.E. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Upjohn Research Institute for Employment of People with Disabilities.
