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| Denisegilmore Registered user Username: Denisegilmore Post Number: 102 Registered: 10-2000 |
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| Denisegilmore Registered user Username: Denisegilmore Post Number: 106 Registered: 10-2000 |
"EEOC Fact Sheet re People with Intellectual Disabilities" (like me: dg) A Press Release from The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, http://www.eeoc.gov: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 20, 2004 NEW EEOC FACT SHEET ADDRESSES EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES Dispelling Myths and Fears Can Promote Employment Opportunities WASHINGTON - In observance of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today released a fact sheet on the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to persons with intellectual disabilities in the workplace. The new publication is available at www.eeoc.gov. The term "intellectual disability" describes the condition once commonly referred to as "mental retardation." Approximately one percent of the United States' population, an estimated 2.5 million people, have an intellectual disability. Estimates indicate that only 31 percent of individuals with intellectual disabilities are employed, although many more want to work. "More often than not, individuals with intellectual disabilities face barriers in the workplace posed not by mental impairments but by other people's attitudes," said Commission Chair Cari M. Dominguez. "With this fact sheet, the EEOC aims to break down myths, fears and misperceptions that stand in the way of employment opportunities and sometimes even lead to harassment on the job. People with intellectual disabilities want to work and have a lot to contribute. Employers who are not tapping into this community are missing out." The new fact sheet addresses such topics as: * when an intellectual impairment is covered by the ADA; * when an employer may ask an applicant or employee questions about his or her intellectual disability; * what types of reasonable accommodations employees with intellectual disabilities may need on the job; * how to address safety concerns and conduct issues in the workplace; and * how an employer can prevent harassment of employees with intellectual disabilities. This fact sheet helps to advance the goals of the New Freedom Initiative President George W. Bush's comprehensive strategy for the full integration of people with disabilities into all aspects of American life. The New Freedom Initiative seeks to promote greater access to technology, education, employment opportunities, and community life for people with disabilities. An important part of the New Freedom Initiative's strategy for increasing employment opportunities involves providing employers with technical assistance on the ADA. Information about other EEOC-driven activities under this program also is available on the agency's web site. In addition to enforcing Title I of the ADA, which prohibits employment discrimination against people with disabilities in the private sector and state and local governments, and the Rehabilitation Act's prohibitions against disability discrimination in the federal government, EEOC enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which prohibits discrimination against individuals 40 years of age or older; the Equal Pay Act; and sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Contact: Jennifer Kaplan, (202) 663-7084 David Grinberg, (202) 663-4921 (202) 663-4494 (TTY) # # # ===================== JOIN AAPD! There's strength in numbers! Be a part of a national coalition of people with disabilities and join AAPD today. http://www.aapd-dc.org | ||
| Denisegilmore Registered user Username: Denisegilmore Post Number: 107 Registered: 10-2000 |
Here's part of our plight: ------------------------------ "Chicago Tribune Coverage of Disability Vote" From the Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com/: Voting initiative targets disabled By Trine Tsouderos Tribune staff reporter October 20, 2004 Determined to vote in the primary elections earlier this year, Darrell Price said he had to climb out of his wheelchair and crawl down a flight of steps to his polling place in a residential building on the Near South Side. Price eventually had to tip a regular voting booth down toward him, an awkward move that leaves him still wondering whether he voted for the right people. "It was condescending. It was humiliating," said Price, 37, who has cerebral palsy. "All I want to do is vote. I shouldn't have to go through all of this just to vote." With another election looming, advocates say such daunting experiences may become rarer and voters like Price more plentiful if a national campaign aimed at dramatically increasing voting by the disabled is successful. Across the U.S., organizations offering services to the disabled are registering new voters, arranging candidates forums and working to make polling places accessible--all in the hope of transforming a sizable though largely invisible voting bloc into one that can't be ignored. "In the future, you will hear candidates playing as much to disabled voters as they do to women and soccer moms," said Ann Ford, executive director of the Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living, who is spearheading the effort in Illinois. "It seems the only way we will impact people who make those decisions is to have them a little bit afraid of us on Election Day." The potential clout of the disabled is readily apparent in the 2000 census, which showed that 20 percent of the U.S. population is disabled. "If you look at those numbers, we could change elections!" said Karen Tamley, program director of Access Living, a Chicago-based service organization. "We represent huge portions of the population, but the turnout is less than other groups, like seniors and rganized labor." The goal for a loose coalition of 25 organizations working on the issue in Illinois is to get 10,000 new disabled voters to the polls Nov. 2, Ford said. "And this is just for openers," she said. The national objective is to increase Election Day turnout by 1 million new disabled voters, said Jim Dickson, vice president of governmental affairs for the Washington-based American Association of People with Disabilities, which is coordinating the effort. "We are trying to develop the nation's largest voting bloc," Dickson said. In Chicago, Access Living contacted 3,000 disabled and unregistered voters, sending them the materials to do so. Focused on getting out the vote, the organization held a rally Tuesday. Chicago-based Equip for Equality, a non-profit group that offers services to the disabled in Illinois, has trained new election judges in accessibility issues in Cook County. Elsewhere, the DuPage Center for Independent Living in Glen Ellyn registered voters and plans to host a candidates forum on disability issues Wednesday. Downstate, the Springfield Center for Independent Living is working with election boards to make polling places more accessible. The group is also helping disabled voters understand the process of absentee voting. "Nationally ... the disability community is just starting a push in a really concentrated way," Tamley said. And advocates say there is plenty of room for improvement. The disabled are at least 15 percent less likely to vote, according to a study conducted in 1999 for the Bureau of Economic Research and other organizations. In 2000 an estimated 42 percent of eligible disabled voters cast ballots in Illinois, compared with 52.8 percent of all eligible voters, studies show. One of the biggest problems, experts say, is that polling places tend to be difficult, even impossible places to navigate for voters in wheelchairs or for the blind, the deaf and those with other disabilities. "Even today, 14 years after our wonderful Americans with Disabilities Act, there still are many polling places that are not accessible," Ford said. And some that are, aren't so easy to navigate that a vote can be cast with relative ease, she said. Federal and Illinois laws require polling places to be accessible to the disabled except in emergencies or if a suitable building isn't available. Despite the law, many polling places still present tough challenges for the disabled, critics say. For Ray Campbell, a coordinator at the DuPage Center for Independent Living, a visual impairment means never being able to vote privately. Election judges are assigned to read aloud the names of candidates and mark off the choices for the blind. "Nobody else has to do that," Campbell said. "I have voted for almost 21 years and I am a little sick and tired of telling somebody how I want to vote." A 2001 Government Accountability Office survey of more than 500 U.S. polling places during the 2000 general election found that 16 percent were free of impediments to the disabled. Over half had barriers but offered disabled voters the option of casting ballots in their cars. Nearly 30 percent of the polling places had impediments but didn't provide that option. "Isn't that inexcusable?" Ford said. "To think that we allow that to happen to anybody in our society today? If any other minority group were treated like that, imagine what would happen. The outcry would be deafening." Some money is being spent to improve accessibility to polling places. Illinois has received about $2.4 million in federal funds for such purposes through the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Cook County received almost $500,000 in disability access grants and is surveying all 2,400 precincts to try to find ways to improve. "To us, it just absolutely has to happen. I literally pound people about voting, I put them on a real guilt trip," Ford said. "If they can't get in, they are going to get discouraged and they are just going to go home." Of all minority groups, the disabled are among the most victimized, Ford said. "I think we have come to realize of all the groups, the one that is farthest left behind is people with disabilities," she said. "We will not have a voice until we are players in the political process." Copyright ) 2004, Chicago Tribune http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0410200335oct20,1,5478502.story Take a look at justice@jfanow.org or www.aapd-dc.org |
