The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has launched a web component for its Leadership for the Employment of Americans with Disabilities initiative, launched in June to address the declining number of employees with severe disabilities in the federal government.
The LEAD section on the commission’s website offers basic information on the initiative and on the declining number of blind, deaf, paralyzed, mentally ill, or retarded employees or those with convulsive disorders or distorted limbs or spines, which as a class have dropped to less than one percent of the permanent federal workforce.
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires federal agencies to take proactive steps to provide EEO for these individuals, and agencies are required by executive order to establish effective written procedures for processing reasonable accommodation requests that are submitted to EEOC for review.
The LEAD program is a national outreach and education effort intended to alert hiring officials about the decline in representation, reverse that trend, educate hiring officials about special hiring authorities, educate disabled applicants about how to apply, and to provide information and resources on reasonable accommodation, EEOC said.
It said the initiative draws on educational events, seminars and focus groups with federal managers, hiring officials and other parties to explore the decline and come up with ways to taper it.
