EEOC Q&A Guide Promotes Federal Hiring of Workers with Disabilities

[Guest guest]

EEOC Q & A Guide Promotes Federal Hiring of Workers with Disabilities

http://www.ohsonline.com/articles/66900/

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently

issued a new question-and-answer guide aimed at promoting the hiring

and advancement of individuals with disabilities in federal

government employment.

Announcing the resource publication for federal agencies on Aug. 26,

Commission Chair Naomi C. Earp said, " The EEOC is doing everything it

can to provide agencies with useful guidance on how to be the

nation's model employer, providing equal opportunity to all

Americans, including those with disabilities. "

The percentage of federal employees with targeted disabilities, which

are severe physical or mental disabilities that historically have

resulted in barriers to employment, has declined each year since

reaching a peak of 1.24 percent in Fiscal Years 1993 and 1994. In FY

2007, the participation rate of people with targeted disabilities

declined to 0.92 percent of the federal government's total work

force, the lowest participation rate in more than 20 years.

" Even though the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 has long required federal

agencies to engage in affirmative action to hire and advance

individuals with disabilities, the federal government has failed to

meet this challenge, " said , EEOC commissioner. " We

must and can do better. This question-and-answer guide will help

agencies make concrete progress. "

has overseen the EEOC's Leadership for the Employment of

Americans with Disabilities Initiative (LEAD), which aims to boost

the ranks of individuals with disabilities in federal employment to 2

percent by 2010.

The issued question-and-answer guide responds to frequently asked

questions about what the law allows and requires federal agencies to

do with respect to affirmative hiring and employment of individuals

with disabilities. Among other topics, the publication discusses:

Special regulations that allow federal agencies to hire individuals

with severe disabilities who are qualified for jobs without going

through the usual competitive hiring process;

Procedures that agencies are required to have for providing

reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with

disabilities; Specific types of accommodations that enable people

with disabilities to work in federal sector jobs;

How an agency's obligations under the Rehabilitation Act interact

with obligations under other federal laws and how agencies should

handle reasonable accommodation issues when they enter into

relationships with other entities (such as other federal agencies or

private companies that provide training for agency employees); and

The kinds of questions that agencies may (and may not) ask about an

applicant's or employee's disability.

The new publication is available at www.eeoc.gov/federal/qanda-

employment-with-disabilities.html.