Federal employment of those with disabilities hits a new record:
Employment of people with disabilities by the U.S. government is at an all-time high, according to a new federal report.
At the close of fiscal year 2014, Uncle Sam employed more people with
disabilities and these individuals represented a larger share of the
workforce than at any other time since such record keeping began 34
years ago, the Office of Personnel Management said.
The news comes in an annual report
to President Barack Obama issued this month that tracks disability
hiring. Overall, the report found that federal offices hired 20,615
people with disabilities in 2014, bringing the total number of workers
with disabilities to 247,608.
Of them, 1,424 new hires had targeted disabilities, a category that
includes intellectual disabilities, epilepsy, deafness, blindness,
paralysis, missing extremities, dwarfism and psychiatric disabilities.
In 2010, Obama issued an executive order pledging to increase hiring
of people with disabilities by the federal government — the nation’s
largest employer — by 100,000 within five years.
Four years in, the government is “on track” to meet that goal with
72,000 full-time employees with disabilities having been added,
according to Beth Cobert, acting director of the Office of Personnel
Management.
“We are committed to ensuring that the federal government remains a
model employer for people with disabilities. I look forward to achieving
that goal and reporting back to you on our results,” Cobert wrote in
her report to Obama.
Beyond hiring, Cobert said her office is working with federal
agencies to ensure that workers with disabilities are provided training,
mentoring and the reasonable accommodations they need.
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