Under the rules, “hiring efforts would be further improved through focused recruitment efforts and simplified access to disability hiring programs and services,” the agency said.
If an agency failed to meet the proposed goals “it would be required to take steps that are designed to increase the hiring and retention of people with disabilities and/or people with targeted disabilities. Exactly which changes would be required would depend on the particular circumstances,” said an EEOC fact sheet.
By law, an employer is allowed to hire someone because he or she has a disability, and a rejected applicant cannot sue an employer for discrimination based on the fact that he or she does not have a disability, it added.
The rules also would require agencies to provide personal assistance services—“unless doing so would impose undue hardship on the agency”–to employees who, because of a disability, need these services to help with activities such as eating and using the restroom while at work.
The agency is accepting comments through April 26.
