Building Inclusion

[guess]

http://social.dol.gov/blog/building-inclusion/

"I find myself thinking about just how much the conversation about disability and employment has changed in recent years, and for the better. Throughout the workshops and presentations, one message has resounded loud and clear: The way forward is less about individual policies and programs and more about culture and commitment. It's about choosing and building inclusion.

This affirmed my deep-seated belief that true progress on disability employment requires a broader view than we as a society have afforded it in the past. That's not to say individual policies and programs aren't important, because they are. But they alone are not enough. Rather, they're the individual building blocks that support a larger structure, one we all play an important role in shaping, whether we have a disability or not.

To me, this new paradigm is encapsulated beautifully in this year's NDEAM theme: Expect. Employ. Empower. Those three brief but powerful words provide a framework for a more holistic approach to increased workforce inclusion of those of us with disabilities. And we have seen significant strengthening of this framework in just the last few months. For example, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which is modernizing and improving our nation's workforce development system, includes a specific focus on increasing competitive, integrated employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including significant disabilities. In this way, it's helping increase expectation.

Furthermore, historic updates to Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act have established, for the first time ever, metrics against which those who do business with the federal government must measure their success in employing qualified workers with disabilities. They are also facilitating the success of those contractors by increasing their access to a large, diverse pool of qualified workers. In this way, they're helping increase employment."


(posted from my auto delivered ODEP subscription)

[ajasfolks2]

Nice.   

And if we work to foster

choosing and building inclusion

in the schools where our future employees and employers are educated,

we'll get there.