About The Policy

Behind every program is a policy. The policy tells us “why” something is needed; the program gives us a way to get it done.

Did you know that the national employment or labor force participation rate (LFPR) for people with disabilities hasn’t changed significantly since it was first recorded in 1971? The LFPR was 33% then and remains around 33% now – in spite of our many years of good work around improving employment models; continuous employer education efforts; access and accommodation supports; and, employment nondiscrimination laws. 

Why haven’t we made better progress? What are we missing?  

One vital missing piece of our employment efforts has been the need for better consumer-focused “employment empowerment” efforts.

Employment is a "supply" vs "demand" equation. You need both to meet where they must (on the competitive level) or else it won’t work. For too long we have thought our inability to realize better employment outcomes was mostly the fault of employers. Over the years, we've focused much of our policy attention around developing employer acceptance, access and accommodation. Given our lack of employment (LFPR) progress, it's time for us to think and act in a more balanced and complete way. Increasingly, employers are willing to hire, but they still need job applicants with disabilities to show up in their systems ready to compete in the usual ways. However, negative disability labels, definitions and expectations deter too many youth and adults with disabilities from entering this competition or being adequately prepared to compete. 

Therefore, a policy is needed to build-up our existing disability programs and services to better develop their participants self-confidence, ambition and workplace readiness to compete. Thus, the policy is for all of us to pursue and strengthen our “employment empowerment” efforts. This needed policy can and should be considered for adoption by every local, state and national/federal education, workforce, rehabilitation, independent living, parental and disability agencies and organizations. 

Such "employment empowerment" efforts are a natural extension of our longstanding "disability empowerment" philosophy. Therefore, all our disability employment related programming should offer “employment empowerment” instruction. 

These include:

  • Education programs (secondary and post-secondary)

  • Public and private rehabilitation programs

  • Workforce system programs

  • Centers for Independent Living (CIL’s or ILC’s)

  • Return to Work programs

  • Subminimum wage transition programs

  • Disability consumer and parent organizations

The “Godfather” of the ADA, Justin Dart, Jr., always said, "With rights come responsibilities.” We've done and should continue to do good work around the "rights" part (employers), now we need to better foster the "responsibilities" part (people with disabilities). 

With an “employment empowerment” policy we can achieve better employment (LFPR) outcomes.