[Senate Hearing 112-46]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 112-46
IMPROVING FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
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HEARING
before the
OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT,
THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE, AND THE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUBCOMMITTEE
of the
COMMITTEE ON
HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
FEBRUARY 16, 2011
__________
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov
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COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware SCOTT P. BROWN, Massachusetts
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
JON TESTER, Montana ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
MARK BEGICH, Alaska RAND PAUL, Kentucky
Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director
Brandon L. Milhorn, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
Joyce Ward, Publications Clerk and GPO Detailee
OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE, AND THE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUBCOMMITTEE
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
MARK BEGICH, Alaska JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada
Lisa M. Powell, Staff Director
Christine S. Khim, Counsel
Jennifer A. Hemingway, Minority Staff Director
Aaron H. Woolf, Chief Clerk
C O N T E N T S
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Opening statement:
Page
Senator Akaka................................................ 1
WITNESSES
Wednesday, February 16, 2010
Yvonne Jones, Director, Strategic Issues, U.S. Government
Accountability Office.......................................... 2
Hon. Christine M. Griffin, Deputy Director, U.S. Office of
Personnel Management........................................... 4
Hon. Kathleen Martinez, Assistant Secretary of Labor for
Disability Employment Policy................................... 6
Hon. Chai Feldblum, Commissioner, U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission......................................... 7
Alphabetical List of Witnesses
Feldblum, Hon. Chai:
Testimony.................................................... 7
Prepared statement........................................... 54
Griffin, Hon. Christine M.:
Testimony.................................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 38
Jones, Yvonne:
Testimony.................................................... 2
Prepared statement........................................... 25
Martinez, Hon. Kathleen:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 43
APPENDIX
Background....................................................... 67
Statement from Dinah B. Cohen, Director, Computer/Electronic
Accommodations Program, Office of the Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Health Affairs..................................... 72
Questions and responses submitted for the record from:
Ms. Jones.................................................... 86
Ms. Griffin.................................................. 89
Ms. Martinez................................................. 92
Ms. Feldblum................................................. 96
Ms. Cohen.................................................... 98
IMPROVING FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2011
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Oversight of Government
Management, the Federal Workforce,
and the District of Columbia,
of the Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:36 p.m., in
room SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Daniel K.
Akaka, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senator Akaka.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR AKAKA
Senator Akaka. This hearing will come to order. Aloha and
thank you all for being here today as the Subcommittee on
Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and
the District of Columbia meets to examine what the Federal
Government is doing to improve hiring and accommodations for
people with disabilities in Federal Government.
As the Nation's largest employer, the Federal Government
has an opportunity and a responsibility to be the model
employer to the country. We have taken many steps toward that
goal, but we have so much further to go. Despite great efforts
by our witnesses here today and the agencies they represent,
the number and percentage of people with disabilities employed
in the Federal workforce has declined over the past two
decades. Even at their peak, these numbers were not acceptable.
But now, people with targeted disabilities make up less than 1
percent of our Federal workforce.
Last year, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This landmark civil
rights legislation continues to serve the millions of
individuals with disabilities in our country. These individuals
are now better able to participate in society because the ADA
helped remove barriers in employment, transportation, public
services, telecommunications, and public accommodations.
Despite ADA requirements of equal employment opportunities and
reasonable accommodations, people with disabilities continue to
face significant barriers to employment. The Federal Government
must work to reverse this trend by setting an example of
successfully hiring and accommodating people with disabilities.
Former Senator Voinovich and I requested that the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) study the best practices
that agencies could use to increase the employment of people
with disabilities. Last summer, GAO held a forum with experts
and advocates from across the disability community. I am glad
to have Ms. Jones from GAO here today to discuss their report
on that forum.
I have been pleased to see this Administration's renewed
commitment to this issue. The Executive Order (EO) President
Obama issued last summer lays the groundwork for agencies to
improve their efforts. I am eager to hear from our witnesses
today about the progress they have made as well as what more
needs to be done.
Each day, disabled veterans return from service overseas
and they must be a central part of this effort. Whether
recently injured in Iraq or Afghanistan or disabled in prior
service, these veterans have demonstrated enormous commitment
to this Nation and we have a responsibility to provide them
opportunities to continue their service as civilian employees.
The Federal Government has started to take some positive
steps toward improving employment opportunities for people with
disabilities, but we still have a long way to go. I am pleased
that we are able to bring attention to this important issue and
I look forward to hearing from each of our witnesses and to
continuing to work with them on these issues. So thank you all
again for being here today.
I want to welcome our panel of witnesses to this
Subcommittee and this hearing: Ms. Yvonne Jones, Director of
Strategic Issues at the Government Accountability Office; Ms.
Christine Griffin, Deputy Director of the Office of Personnel
Management; Ms. Kathleen Martinez, Assistant Secretary of Labor
for Disability Employment Policy; and Chai Feldblum,
Commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
It is the custom of this Subcommittee to swear in all
witnesses, so will you please raise your right hand. Do you
swear that the testimony you are about to give before the
Subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, so help you, God?
Ms. Jones. I do.
Ms. Griffin. I do.
Ms. Martinez. I do.
Ms. Feldblum. I do.
Senator Akaka. Let it be noted for the record that the
witnesses answered in the affirmative.
Let me also remind all of you that although your oral
statement is limited to 5 minutes, your full written statements
will be included in the record.
Ms. Jones, will you please proceed with your statement.
TESTIMONY OF YVONNE JONES,\1\ DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC ISSUES, U.S.
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
Ms. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am
pleased to be here today to discuss possible strategies for
improving the rate of Federal employment of individuals with
disabilities. My testimony today is based on our October 2010
report that discussed barriers to the employment of people with
disabilities in the Federal workforce and leading practices
that could be used to overcome these barriers.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Jones appears in the appendix on
page 25.
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To identify these barriers and leading practices, we
solicited the views of a wide range of knowledgeable
individuals through a survey and a forum, which took place in
July 2010. Federal employees and applicants for employment with
disabilities are protected from discrimination by the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Under this Act, as amended, a
person is considered to be disabled if the individual has a
physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or
more major life activities, has a record of such impairment, or
is regarded as having such impairment.
The Rehabilitation Act also requires that Federal agencies
take proactive steps to provide equal opportunity to qualified
individuals with disabilities in all aspects of Federal
employment. Federal law also provides special hiring
authorities for people with disabilities, including Schedule A
excepted service hiring authority. However, even with existing
Federal provisions, concerns have been raised about the low
level of employment of people with disabilities in the Federal
workforce.
In brief, Mr. Chairman, participants at the forum said that
the most significant barrier keeping people with disabilities
from the workplace is attitudinal. Attitudinal barriers can
include bias against and low expectations for people with
disabilities, a focus on disabilities rather than on their
abilities. According to participants, there is a fundamental
need to change the attitudes of hiring managers, supervisors,
coworkers, and prospective employees, and that cultural change
within agencies is critical to this effort.
Participants acknowledge that there are many existing
Federal programs and policies to protect the employment rights
of people with disabilities but stated that efforts to protect
these rights will only make piecemeal progress until agencies
change their workplace cultures. Participants identified eight
leading practices generated by the survey that agencies could
implement to mitigate these barriers and help the Federal
Government become a model employer for people with
disabilities. Participants emphasized that these practices
would not work in isolation, but instead need to reinforce each
other. Here are the practices.
Top leadership commitment is key to implementing and
sustaining improvements in the employment of individuals with
disabilities.
Accountability is critical to success.
Regularly surveying the workforce on disabilities issues
provides agencies with important information on potential
barriers.
Better coordination within and across agencies could
improve employment outcomes for employees with disabilities.
Training for staff at all levels can disseminate leading
practices throughout an agency.
Career development opportunities inclusive of people with
disabilities can facilitate advancement and increase retention.
A flexible work environment can increase and enhance
employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
And centralizing funding within an agency can help ensure
that reasonable accommodations are provided.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I would be
pleased to respond to any questions that you may have.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Ms. Jones, for your
statement.
Ms. Griffin, will you please proceed with your statement.
TESTIMONY OF HON. CHRISTINE M. GRIFFIN,\1\ DEPUTY DIRECTOR,
U.S. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Ms. Griffin. Chairman Akaka, thank you for the opportunity
to testify today regarding the U.S. Office of Personnel
Management's (OPM's) role in improving Federal employment for
people with disabilities.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Griffin appears in the appendix
on page 38.
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Improving the number of people with disabilities within the
Federal Government has been a major priority of this
Administration and it has also been a personal goal of mine for
the last 5 years, first as a Commissioner at the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and now currently as
Deputy Director of OPM. Securing a job with the Federal
Government has been a challenge for people with disabilities
regardless of their education level, experience, skills, or
abilities. In fact, there has not been much progress over the
past 38 years, even though the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
requires Federal agencies to have an affirmative employment
program for the hiring, placement, and advancement of people
with disabilities.
The unemployment rate for people with disabilities in
January 2011 was 13.6 percent. However, this number is
deceiving. It only refers to those who are currently seeking
employment. Only 27 percent of working age people with
disabilities are employed, and there are currently an estimated
10 million working age people with disabilities who are not
working and are not seeking work, and most of them probably
have in the past and have not been able to find it.
Disability hiring is a critical part of the Obama
Administration's comprehensive personnel policy reform agenda.
The leadership by this Administration, including OPM Director
John Berry, I think, gives me and many others hope that the
tools are going to be put in place to ensure that applicants
and employees with disabilities have the opportunity to add
significant contributions to our government.
Mr. Chairman, combining your leadership with the
Administration's leadership, I am convinced this is the year
that we will actually see an increase in Federal employment for
people with disabilities.
President Obama has already demonstrated top leadership
commitment by signing the Executive Order on July 26, 2010,
which was the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Americans
with Disabilities Act. The President asked agencies to increase
hiring of people with disabilities in the Federal Government
with a goal of 100,000 people over the next 5 years. He asked
OPM to develop, in collaboration with other agencies, the model
recruitment and hiring strategies. We have done that and
disseminated that to the agencies. Agencies now have to develop
plans with goals on the numbers of people with disabilities and
those specifically with targeted disabilities that they are
going to hire, and those plans are due to us by March 8.
There are also return-to-work provisions, which I am sure
my colleague, Ms. Martinez, is going to go over because that is
a piece that the Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for.
And I think most importantly is a piece regarding
accountability. We have asked senior officials to be
designated--some are from the Senior Executive Service (SES)--
in every agency who will be responsible for the agency's
progress. Agency hiring managers, human resource personnel, as
well as agency leaders must be held accountable for ensuring
that agency staff are working diligently to achieve the agency
goals. Goals should be evaluated on a regular basis, either
monthly or at a minimum quarterly, to ensure that the
strategies being used are successful. Examining success on an
annual basis is not an acceptable evaluation.
Increased use of Schedule A, a hiring authority that Ms.
Jones described, is an expedient way for Federal agencies to
hire people with disabilities into the Federal Government. OPM
has already created two very short creative online training
courses for Federal agencies as well as applicants.
Another useful tool that is really proving to be successful
was developed by OPM in collaboration with the Chief Human
Capital Officer Council (CHCOC) and it is a list of people with
disabilities covered by Schedule A who already are qualified,
deemed to be qualified to fill a variety of entry-level
positions that the Council members identified as ones which all
agencies have a constant demand for.
OPM, in collaboration with my colleagues here at this table
and the Computer/Electronic Accommodation Program (CAP) at the
Department of Defense (DOD) and our colleagues at the
Department of Education (DOE) Rehabilitation Services
Administration (RSA) are all working together. We have provided
multiple trainings to Federal agencies. We will do four more of
those trainings over the next couple of weeks.
But the bottom line is, the Federal Government has to make
significant improvements in hiring and retaining employees with
disabilities before it becomes a model employer. Attitudinal
barrier, as you have heard, continue to be the biggest
challenge that people with disabilities are facing when they
seek employment. And maybe this is not unique to the Federal
Government, but in my experience, the only way to actually get
rid of attitudinal barriers is to hire people with
disabilities. That is it. That is the bottom line.
So we look forward to working with you on this and we
appreciate your leadership and I would be happy to answer any
questions that you have.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Ms. Griffin.
Ms. Martinez, you may proceed with your statement.
TESTIMONY OF HON. KATHLEEN MARTINEZ,\1\ ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF
LABOR FOR DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT POLICY
Ms. Martinez. Thank you very much, and I would like to say
aloha and mahalo----
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Martinez appears in the appendix
on page 43.
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Senator Akaka. Aloha.
Ms. Martinez [continuing]. For having this hearing, and I
want to thank you for the opportunity to testify today and
discuss the efforts of the U.S. Department of Labor and its
Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), to improve the
hiring of folks with disabilities in the Federal Government.
At the Department of Labor, Secretary Hilda Solis and ODEP
are wholly committed to the goal of improving employment
opportunities and outcomes for people with disabilities, no
matter whether it is in what sector, be it public, private, or
nonprofit.
I know this hearing is specifically focused on Federal
hiring practices, and one of my guiding beliefs in leading ODEP
is that the Federal Government, as the Nation's largest
employer, as you said, can do a lot more to be a model and an
example for everyone with regard to hiring folks with
disabilities.
I am going to skip, because otherwise we might be here for
a while.
At ODEP, we embrace and do all we can to encourage this
trend. We were established in 2000 as an office within the
Department of Labor to bring a committed focus to disability
employment policy and to advance the employment of people with
disabilities. I strongly believe in this mission and its
importance to our economic vitality. Each person that finds a
job strengthens the U.S. economy and our Nation's financial
future. Implementing sound and innovative policies that improve
employment opportunities for people with disabilities is
especially important because this population continues to be
markedly under-represented in the United States workforce.
The most recent report issued this month by the Department
of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that only 31.6
percent of working age people, 16 to 64, with disabilities are
actually in the American labor force. In comparison, for people
representing no disabilities, the participation rate is 76.4
percent. Closing this gap would likely yield savings for the
government as it would mean that millions of Americans who are
currently disconnected from the economy would begin earning
income, paying taxes, and reducing their dependence on public
benefits.
The President demonstrated his personal commitment to this
goal when on the 20th anniversary of the Americans with
Disabilities Act in July 2010 he signed the Executive Order,
and I think we are pretty familiar with that. Although ODEP was
one of several agencies to provide input into the development
of this Executive Order, we appreciate that its actions take--
that it is the actions taken in response to this order that
really matter the most.
In addition to helping agencies implement the Executive
Order, ODEP also provides information and technical assistance
through several different methods and mediums that can be used
to assist Federal agencies in becoming model employers. One of
the areas that we have studied extensively is the concept of
accommodations. We all know we all require some type of
productivity tool to work and for folks to perform their jobs,
whether it is lights, whether it is chairs, whether it is pens
and pencils. Most accommodations for folks with disabilities
are not cost prohibitive, especially when taking into account
the increased productivity that results from their use. In
fact, data suggests that more than half of all accommodations
cost nothing, and most employers actually report financial
benefits from providing accommodations as the cost of training
new employees goes down and worker productivity goes up.
I am going to skip. It is just going to take me a little
longer here because of the Braille.
In addition to accommodations, we also provide a searchable
online database of recruitment resources as well as a call
center through our Employer Technical Assistance Center and the
Employer Assistance Resource Network (EARN). This resource is
available to all employers, including Federal employers, at
www.askearn.org, and I encourage all Federal managers and
supervisors to take a look at it.
ODEP also cosponsors the Workforce Recruitment Program
(WRP), with the Department of Defense. The Workforce
Recruitment Program is a recruitment and referral program that
connects Federal managers and supervisors with post-secondary
students and recent graduates with disabilities who are eager
to prove their abilities in the workplace through summer
internships or permanent jobs. Since 1995, the WRP has provided
Federal employment opportunities to over 5,500 students.
Improving Federal employment outcomes for those of us with
disabilities holds great potential. As a model employer, the
Federal Government can be a catalyst for raising the labor
participation rate for those of us with disabilities and
thereby add to the economic dynamism that has made our Nation
special from its earliest days. ODEP is proud to play a role in
this effort and is proud of the commitment this Administration
has shown to this goal.
And with that, I would be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Ms. Martinez.
Ms. Feldblum, you may proceed with your statement.
TESTIMONY OF HON. CHAI FELDBLUM,\1\ COMMISSIONER, U.S. EQUAL
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION
Ms. Feldblum. Thank you, Chairman Akaka, for holding this
hearing. My name is Chai Feldblum. I am one of five
Commissioners who make up the bipartisan Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission and I thank Chair Jacqueline Berrien for
asking me to represent the Commission at this hearing.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Feldblum appears in the appendix
on page 54.
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It was thrilling on July 26, 2010, and indeed it is
thrilling today, to read President Obama's Executive Order
13548 and to imagine that the challenge of that Executive Order
would actually be fulfilled--that in 5 years, there would be an
additional 100,000 people with disabilities employed in the
Federal workforce. But as we all know, those clarion calls have
been made before, including in an Executive Order issued in
2000 calling for the hiring of 100,000 people with disabilities
within 5 years, and they have not succeeded.
So our challenge now in 2011 is to actually succeed. The
time for words and clarion calls have come and gone. Now is the
time for results.
We are off to a very good start because a great deal of
thought went into this Executive Order, both in terms of its
requirements and its many details. And I must say that we have
Christine Griffin's leadership, among others, to thank for that
detailed thoughtfulness. But real success will require the full
engagement of three component actors: Congress, various
agencies within the Executive Branch, and the workforce itself.
I start with Congress because the EEOC's authority and
responsibility regarding the employment of people with
disabilities in the Federal workforce derives from the
statutory mandate Congress has given us. That mandate sets out
our job. Given that fact, Congress must remain engaged with our
efforts. It must hold our feet to the fire to see if we are
carrying out our statutory responsibilities and it must ensure
that we are being given the tools and the authority to carry
out that mandate.
With regard to the second component actor, the executive
agencies, you have arrayed before you several of the relevant
agencies and part of my optimism that we will actually succeed
this time comes because of some of the leaders at this table.
But with regard to the EEOC, as you have heard, EEOC received
its statutory authority almost 40 years ago in Section 501 of
the Rehabilitation Act in which Congress told the agencies they
had to have an affirmative action program plan for the hiring,
placement, and advancement of people with disabilities. EEOC
was given authority to review those plans, and in Title 7,
Section 717, we are given broad authority for making sure that
equal employment opportunity is being achieved in the Federal
workforce.
So in my written testimony, I describe a number of things
that EEOC is doing to carry out that statutory responsibility.
I want to highlight two elements here.
The first is EEOC's Management Directive 715, which is our
statement to the agencies, our instructions to them of how we
expect them to carry out Congress's statutory mandate of equal
employment opportunity. We tell them that they have to
demonstrate commitment from agency leadership for equal
employment opportunity and have successful management and
program accountability. And we do not leave agencies on their
own with those obligations. We tell them what data we want to
see. We review that data. We give them multi-year trend
analyses.
Here is my key point. Our goal at the EEOC is going to be
to use the MD-715 process as effectively as possible to bring
about the results called for in the President's Executive
Order. There is data that we can collect through those reports.
There is technical assistance we can offer based on those
reports that can and should operate synergistically with the
data that OPM will be collecting and technical assistance OPM
will be providing through the Executive Order.
Second, the Committee had asked about the Leadership for
the Employment of Americans with Disabilities Initiative (LEAD)
that was started by then-Commissioner Griffin at EEOC, and my
written testimony describes that. The one point I want to say
here is that I view the Executive Order as an even more robust
follow up to the LEAD Initiative. So we at the EEOC are very
happy to be continuing the training, technical assistance, and
analysis that started with the LEAD Initiative but now is part
of this bigger and better effort.
Third, the final component is the workforce itself,
including people with disabilities who are just waiting to step
up and contribute to the workplace. As I note in my written
testimony, as a person with anxiety disorder that is medicated,
I am keenly aware of the stereotypes and assumptions that can
hold people with disabilities back. And as the October 2010 GAO
report notes, we must change managers' and supervisors'
assumptions and opinions about disabilities if we are to change
outcomes.
Increasing the numbers of people with targeted disabilities
in the Federal workforce is a great way to begin that task. It
is hard to continue believing that someone who has a mobility
impairment, has cerebral palsy, who is deaf or blind, or who
has a mental illness or an intellectual disability--is
incapable of being a good employee when you are already working
next to such a good employee.
At the same time, while targeted disabilities represent a
good and essential barometer for progress, and people with
disabilities must play an important role in shaping efforts to
determining how those goals for people with targeted
disabilities can be achieved, I believe we must also make clear
that we all exist along a spectrum of ability and disability.
Some of us have impairments that generate a significant amount
of discrimination, fear, and myths, and some of us have
impairments that generate less. Some of us do not have
impairments now, but we will down the road. If we can convince
supervisors and workers, both in the Federal workforce and
elsewhere, that there is not a sharp divide between people with
disabilities, otherwise known as ``them,'' and everyone else in
the workplace, often known as ``us,'' the better off all of us
will be.
Thank you very much, and I look forward to your questions.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much for your statement, Ms.
Feldblum.
I would like to start with a question to the entire panel.
Participants at the GAO forum cited attitudes, attitudes such
as low expectations and bias, as the key barrier to employing
people with disabilities in the Federal Government. Why do you
believe this remains such a significant challenge, and what can
we do to address it? Ms. Jones.
Ms. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We believe it is a
significant problem because so many of the participants at the
forum discussed it and because the eight practices that were
identified at the forum were, in part, derived from what
participants viewed as attitudinal issues. And the eight
practices are actions that the participants at the forum
identified as necessary for changing attitudes.
For example, leadership, communication, and commitment
shapes how others in an agency or an organization will deal
with issues and a second also surveying the workforce was aimed
at determining what the attitudes or views of a specific
organization or agency would be and could help suggest ways to
change attitudes in the agency. Those are a couple of examples
from the forum. Thank you.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Griffin.
Ms. Griffin. Mr. Chairman, I have looked at this for a long
time in every which way and the bottom line is society still is
in a place where they think people with disabilities are
somehow less qualified to work. If you grow up thinking that
people with disabilities need help, should be pitied, things
like that, you just are never going to grasp the fact that they
are just like you and they want to work. So attitudinal bias
persists society-wide, so it is no surprise that it is in the
Federal Government, as well.
And we have done 40 years of this disabilities awareness
stuff in the Federal Government. At least once a year in
October, every Federal agency has some little program where
they bring in someone with a disability or they discuss
accommodations or they do something to recognize employment
awareness, but it never results in employment and I am not sure
that it results in awareness, either.
So I have actually come to this conclusion, that the only
way to actually change attitudinal bias is to hire people. Hire
people with disabilities. They are the ones that actually
change the attitudes of people who have any type of fear, myth,
or stereotype in their head. It is only when you are working,
as Commissioner Feldblum said, ``You are working side by side
with someone with a disability and they are doing the same job
you are'' that you finally say, oh, OK. This person--Chris
Griffin is just like me. Kathy Martinez is just like me. They
may do their job a little bit differently with an
accommodation, but they are still doing the same job and they
are just as capable and they are just as qualified. And that is
the bottom line. It is actually getting more people with
disabilities in the workplace that I think will change not only
the Federal Government, but society's views overall.
Senator Akaka. Thank you, Ms. Griffin. Ms. Martinez.
Ms. Martinez. Senator Akaka, I was born blind and when I
was in grade school, I was mainstreamed and was the only blind
person in my class. The children in my class, in kindergarten
through sixth grade, had not ever dealt with a person with a
disability, so their expectations of me were just like the
expectations they had of each other.
As I grew up and kind of learned about the attitudes as
people grew older and older, I graduated from high school and I
was a client of the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) and I
was placed in a lock factory. My case was closed and the
rehabilitation counselor considered himself having placed a
successful employment case. Well, I decided that was not going
to be my life's work, being a punch press operator in a lock
factory, and here we are today.
I think, as Christine said, I heard somebody call it
contact theory. The more contact you have with somebody, the
more you know them and the less you fear them. And
unfortunately, because of thousands of years of systematic
discrimination, people with disabilities--there is a major fear
factor that we have to--that we can only address by being a
part of society.
And the way that anybody feels productive, the way that
most people have dignity is through work and pride and
everything else that work provides. When people see us as
productive, contributing members of society through our ability
to contribute--we might not do things the same way as each
other, but we get the job done--they will value us at a higher
level. And again, we cannot emphasize enough the best way to
change attitudes is to hire someone.
Senator Akaka. Thank you, Ms. Martinez. Ms. Feldblum.
Ms. Feldblum. Thank you. Let me just put some context to
what you just heard, because I think you are hearing the same
thing from all of us. If you imagine someone having four
candidates in front of them to hire and they all have the basic
qualification standards, they all went to law school or they
all have their engineering degree, and three of them look just
like the person who is doing the hiring and one of them is
blind, or three of them look just like that person doing the
hiring and one of them has cerebral palsy and is using a voice
box to talk--that person doing the hiring is thinking, OK, I
now have to hire someone, how that person performs is going to
reflect on me because I have to produce for my boss, no matter
how many disability awareness programs they have gone to, they
are going to figure out a reason that it is better not to hire
the person who is blind or who has cerebral palsy or who is
using a wheelchair. And they are going to do that because they
think, I am not going to look as good to my boss because this
person is not going to produce.
So what you are hearing is that the only way to change
attitudes is to actually increase the numbers. And I wrote my
answer here without having talked to Deputy Director Griffin
before--because I am convinced, as well, that the only way you
change that attitude is by forcing people to have that
experience.
So the question, then, again, because your second question
is what can be done, and so I think there are two answers here.
One is what the Executive Order does, which is to say, we do
not care how much outreach you do. We want to see your bottom
line numbers. And the second, it does not do as explicitly, but
I think the Federal Government can, is to start putting in the
performance evaluation of that manager, how well have you done
on diversity hiring, because then that person has a reason to
actually push himself or herself to think, well, maybe I do
want to hire this person who is blind or uses this wheelchair.
The second piece of it, though, is my understanding that it
is not them and us. That is my point of saying, I am a person
with a disability. You would not know it unless I come out and
tell you I have anxiety disorder that is medicated. There are
thousands of people out there in this country who have anxiety
disorder and depression and they do not think they are people
with disabilities. So remember I started by saying three people
who look like the supervisor and one who does not? Well, some
of those people--the supervisor him or herself could have a
disability without knowing it.
Senator Akaka. Thank you.
Ms. Griffin, from the Office of Personnel Management, I
would like to ask a question about the Executive Order. As we
have discussed, the President issued an Executive Order last
July which required agencies to develop recruitment and hiring
strategies for people with disabilities. These plans are due
next month. Have agencies responded positively to the Executive
Order and have they been working with OPM to develop their
strategies?
Ms. Griffin. In fact, they actually have been working with
us. And one of my senior advisors behind me, John Benison, can
certainly testify to the numbers of phone calls and emails he
gets on a daily basis, and certainly they are increasing as we
get closer to the due date.
But I really do believe agencies are engaged in this, and
engaged because they have to do it and they are being held
accountable, which is that key piece. And they are in the
process of developing their goals. They actually get to do that
based on their own strategic hiring plans that they developed.
So they have to look at the numbers of people they are going to
hire over the next couple years and then develop their goals.
So it is not--we are not forcing a number on them. They have to
develop what is right for them and then we have to assess
whether we are going to meet the overall goals by doing that.
In addition to them developing plans, we have not really
just said, this is some new initiative and it begins when you
submit your plan on March 8. We have been saying, it really is
not a new concept, but it took an Executive Order to once again
say to you as an agency, we are not kidding about this. We
really mean you have to do it. So we are counting what agencies
do during this year. We are not counting as of March 8. This is
something that we have been counting for many years and we will
continue to do so.
We have done a lot of trainings. Folks from Kathy's shop,
including Kathy herself as well as EEOC, myself, Kareem Dale,
who is the President's Special Assistant on Disability issues
at the White House participates in these trainings,
Rehabilitation Services Administration folks, Dinah Cohen, who
is Director of the CAP Program, the centralized accommodation
program with DOD. We have all been working together not only to
develop the model strategies, but now roll them out in in-
person trainings that we are doing for the Federal agencies.
John Berry is spearheading a campaign with the Chief Human
Capital Officers Council meetings every month. In between
meetings, we are sending reminders to them. So there is a lot
of activity, a lot of engagement, and we just are delighted to
see activity in this area.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. I am glad to hear you mention
training, because we think that good training is always a
challenge to changing how the Federal Government does things.
Ms. Feldblum, as you mentioned in your testimony, each
year, the EEOC analyzes and reports on agency efforts to
improve hiring and accommodations for people with targeted
disabilities. Although the overall trend is negative, I
understand that certain agencies have had some success in these
efforts. My question to you is which agencies have been most
successful and what lessons can we take from them to help other
agencies?
Ms. Feldblum. Well, I list in my written testimony 11
agencies that have reached the target of 2 percent of people
with targeted disabilities that the EEOC had set a few years
ago. But to be honest, as I also note in that testimony, they
tend to be the smaller agencies. Some of them deal with
disability issues, the Access Board, EEOC itself. So among the
large agencies, the Department of Treasury actually had some of
the best numbers.
And I think, in general, we find that it really does have
to do with engagement by the supervisors, the line management
folks, as well as really leadership from the top level. So I
think we are at a point where we can actually see some
significant change through a combination of having an Executive
Order with these actual goals if the agencies feel like there
will be some repercussions if they do not meet those goals. So
that is the part about the agency commitment.
And then, two, if the agencies feel like reaching that goal
fits into their strategic mission. I mean, in the directive
that we sent out to them where we asked for information, we say
that part of their obligation is to tell us how diversity fits
into their strategic goals. So if you are the Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Homeland Security,
Transportation, I mean, you are worried about housing and
transportation and homeland security. And part of what we are
trying to say to them, based on what Congress has said, is
diversity will help you achieve those strategic goals. We want
you to think about how that will work.
So I think, it is not rocket science, but it does require a
stick.
Senator Akaka. Thank you.
This question is for all of the agency witnesses. Your
agencies provide oversight, guidance and assistance to other
Federal agencies on hiring, retaining, and accommodating people
with disabilities. How are you coordinating your efforts to
improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities? Ms.
Griffin.
Ms. Griffin. I can begin by saying that one of the first
things that we did, and certainly we began long before this,
but in response to the Executive Order, we actually all
collaborated on developing the model strategies on recruitment
and hiring for the Federal agencies. So we all got together and
talked about it and really actually began that process even
before there was an Executive Order signed because we were
hoping to issue guidance to agencies, whether we had an
Executive Order or not.
So we really began talking about this quite some time ago
and trying to strategize about how we actually got agencies to
do what they were supposed to do and how we actually could help
them the best. So if they were saying, ``We cannot find people
with disabilities,'' we said, ``Well, we will find them for
you.'' We will hand them to you. If they said, ``Well, we want
people with disabilities to fill these types of jobs,'' then we
said we will find those types of people for you. If they said,
``We have trouble retaining people once we hire them,'' we
said, well, let us talk about that. What is going on at your
agency? Are you accommodating them? Are you asking them when
they are leaving why they are leaving? That is probably where
you should begin.
So we have really developed a lot of strategies, and
frankly, every one of our agencies, especially EEOC and Office
of Disability Employment Policy, long before this point in
time, have been trying to help agencies do this. I think that
the differences right now, we actually have them paying
attention.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Martinez.
Ms. Martinez. One of the things I wanted to comment on is
in addition to helping people with disabilities who come into
the Federal Government as a person with a disability, we also
included in the Executive Order a focus on retaining Federal
workers who become injured on the job, and I think that is a
very critical part of the Executive Order, because for so long,
Federal workers have just been disappearing onto the disability
rolls. So one of the focuses that we have is to encourage the
use of accommodations to better educate Federal employees
themselves about when they become injured that they can work.
And really, again, back to the mantra, the way they know that
is by seeing somebody else who has a disability who may be
working alongside them.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Feldblum.
Ms. Feldblum. The EEOC's Office of Federal Operations (OFO)
is the division within the EEOC that is in contact with
agencies all the time about their equal employment opportunity
obligations, which include filling out this form once a year,
but obviously includes doing work all through the year. So the
EEOC holds meetings four times a year of all the EEO directors,
and I happen to have attended the one 2 days ago at the
Commission. I am going to do a shout-out for a woman who works
at the Office of Federal Operations, and if I get her name
wrong, I am reserving my right to correct the name for the
record, but this woman, whose name, I believe, is Lori Grant,
over 6 months ago said, ``Well, why can we not figure out a way
to have agencies talk to each other in an easier fashion by
being able to upload their documents, their best practices, for
us to be able to give them feedback? '' She did this amazing
presentation of a web system she has now set up which harnesses
technology to ensure better communication.
So there are ways to, in fact, ensure that the information
gets to folks. Again, there has to be some incentive, not just
for that Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Director to go on
the webpage and learn something, but for the Deputy Secretary
of some agency, or for the Secretary to feel that they want to
listen to that EEO person. So getting the communication out
there is only half of it. The other half is whether that is
going to reach a receptive audience by someone who can make a
difference.
Senator Akaka. Thank you.
Ms. Jones, GAO observed that improved coordination could
help agencies reduce duplication and take advantage of the
economies of scale. This could better serve people with
disabilities and make better use of taxpayers' money. Would you
please elaborate on how this could be done?
Ms. Jones. Well, in terms of coordination, within agencies,
the responsibility for assisting people with disabilities is
often dispersed throughout the agency. So, for example, there
may be some responsibilities for people with disabilities in
the hiring office or the EEO-civil rights office or in the
information technology office. So the idea was that there could
be better communication and coordination between these offices
so that they would both know what is going on but also so that
they could develop a kind of, if you will, overarching program
to help individuals with disabilities.
The participants mentioned that sometimes when the
responsibilities are dispersed across an agency, one group of
people will think that an issue that affects persons with
disabilities is being taken care of by another group. With
better communication and coordination, then the different
responsible parties would know what each other is doing.
Senator Akaka. This question is for all of our agency
witnesses. We have a responsibility to provide our disabled
veterans with opportunities to continue their service as
civilian employees. In her testimony, Ms. Martinez mentioned
the Executive Order on veterans' hiring and the opportunity to
coordinate these efforts to promote employment for disabled
veterans. My question is, how are the disability and veterans'
hiring initiatives working together to serve our disabled
veterans? Ms. Griffin.
Ms. Griffin. Mr. Chairman, this is something that we
actually talk about at OPM all the time. We are responsible for
implementing the veterans' Executive Order as well as, with my
colleagues, the disability Executive Order, and we--at every
training we go to, every time we speak about this, we talk
about the fact that a veteran with a disability is a person
with a disability and they, too, can actually have multiple
vehicles into the Federal Government and, in fact, can use
Schedule A as an opportunity to get in through the same type of
expedient process that other people with disabilities use.
And we are encouraging agencies to actually honor and meet
the goals of both Executive Orders by, in fact, hiring more
veterans with disabilities. As a matter of fact, what I tell
them is that in hiring reform, they have a hiring reform agenda
they must meet. They have to decrease the amount of time it
takes to actually hire anybody into the Federal Government.
Then if they actually hire a veteran with a disability through
Schedule A, they can meet the goals of the Administration's
personnel reform agenda.
For us, it does not really matter how you acquire your
disability. If you are a veteran with a disability, you have
right and have other avenues available to you to get into the
Federal Government and we owe you, I think, as a veteran with a
disability, a debt and should honor that by offering you
Federal employment.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Martinez.
Ms. Martinez. At the Office of Disability Employment
Policy, we are working hand-in-hand with our Veterans
Employment Training Office in the Department of Labor. One of
the programs that we are actually handing over to them is
called America's Heroes at Work, where we kind of cross-
pollinate with that office to make sure that veterans with
disabilities are getting information about what is out there,
that employers, including Federal employers, are getting
information about hiring veterans with disabilities, including
information about traumatic brain injury and different
disabilities that veterans acquire in the various theaters, and
we have found that the collaboration has been extremely
productive.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Feldblum.
Ms. Feldblum. So there are two sets of laws here that I
think we should be focused on in terms of veterans. The first
is the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights
Act (USERRA). This is a very strong law that requires private
sector employers to keep open jobs for people who have been
deployed, and there is an entire section of that law that deals
with veterans with disabilities. That is a law that is actually
quite strong on paper, but for it to have teeth, you need good
enforcement, and I know that is in the enforcement side of the
Department of Labor, USERRA is one of the things that they are
very focused on.
Because again, if you think about a person, a veteran who
is disabled, if that person can go back to his or her original
job where the employees actually knows the person, that is the
best. So we have a law that is quite strong, as I said, and on
paper, it requires sometimes keeping a job open for 5 years.
But employers are often not doing that. So that is one piece of
the puzzle.
Second, if USERRA is not going to be applied, then I agree
with Christine Griffin that certainly the Federal Government
should be a place where veterans should be more than welcome. I
would say, there, the fact that Congress passed the Americans
with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 2 years ago, and
the EEOC will shortly be issuing regulations on that, I think
has helped create a renewed focus on disability rights
generally.
So, for example, I have given probably four talks to
Federal personnel folks, including one at Fort Meade, where I
started with the ADA generally but also moved to some of the
issues in terms of the Rehabilitation Act, Section 501. So I am
hoping that this will all help in terms of the focus. But
again, focus is just the first step and then it is about making
sure we get results.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Feldblum, I understand that the EEOC's
authority to enforce compliance with disability employment laws
differs within the public and private sector. What can the EEOC
do to make sure Federal agencies comply, and do you believe you
need additional authority to do that?
Ms. Feldblum. Yes. That is a great question. I have to say,
I have been a civil rights employment lawyer for almost 25
years and I did not realize the extensive authority that EEOC
had with regard to the Federal sector until I became a
Commissioner. So right there, I think we need to increase the
visibility of that authority.
But the key difference is that in the private sector, what
Congress has told us is to essentially facilitate the
processing of discrimination charges. So people file charges
with the EEOC. We investigate. If there is reasonable cause, we
try to conciliate. If that does not work, we litigate. But we
are in a facilitative role.
In the Federal sector, what you, Congress, did was give us
a much more direct enforcement role. That is, you said Federal
agencies should not be discriminating, should be engaged in
affirmative action with regard to people with disabilities, and
you, the EEOC, should actually be enforcing that. Now, you did
say that, but there were not a lot of, as I say, sticks and
hammers that came along. You know, we can sort of slap the
hands of Federal agencies. We can say, oh, bad boy. We can put
them up on the website that they are not doing well. But that
is where I say it has to be an ongoing communication between us
and Congress, because I do not see, personally, the Congress
handing us authority to fine the Department of Housing and
Urban Development $100 billion. But I think the more that you
are asking us, how are agencies doing, and the more that you
are thinking, how do I reward or, I do not know, penalize, but
have some repercussions, I think the more that there is good
communication between us and Congress, the better off we will
be.
Senator Akaka. Thank you.
Ms. Martinez, your testimony on the Workforce Recruitment
Program was especially interesting to me because I believe the
Federal Government needs to do more to reach into colleges and
universities to train students for Federal jobs. Would you
please tell us more about how this program works and if you
think it might be a useful model for other student intern
programs?
Ms. Martinez. Well, we are very proud of the Workforce
Recruitment Program. Like I mentioned in my testimony, it has
been in existence since 1995 and we partner very closely with
the Department of Defense and they deserve their kudos because
they hire many, many people from that program.
Let me start with something that I would like to change
about it. One of the things about it that is difficult is that
it is a separate program, so I would like to see people with
disabilities ultimately be a part of all internship programs
that are available to young people in the Federal Government.
But given that has not happened, the WRP has been, I would say,
very successful in that we do recruit all over the country. I
think our numbers--we reach out to approximately 250 colleges
and universities. We are making specific efforts to reach out
to the Hispanic Colleges and Universities (HCU), and the
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). And
really, the goal is to get qualified folks with disabilities in
front of hiring managers and supervisors so they have their
first opportunity as an intern or as a permanent job in the
Federal Government.
Now, you should know also that this database has become so
popular that private employers are also availing themselves of
it, and we are very proud of that. But we feel like folks--
there are a lot of qualified--we know that there are a lot of
qualified students with disabilities who want to work and this
is one way that they can have an opportunity to become a part
of the Federal workforce.
Senator Akaka. Thank you.
Now, this question is for all of the witnesses. People with
disabilities tend to leave Federal service at a higher rate
than other employees. In fact, they are leaving Federal service
at nearly twice the rate that they are being hired. My question
is, why is this and what can we do to reverse this trend? Ms.
Martinez.
Ms. Martinez. Well, I want to say that I think part of the
problem is our lack of access to technology. Again, as a person
with a visual impairment, technology, for the most part, is not
accessible, and we have our 508 standards, but I think that
people leave because if they do not have access to information
which comes over email, Blackberries, other types of
communication devices, then we cannot do our jobs, basically.
So what happens is if I do not have the appropriate
technology to kind of keep me up to date with the changing
technology in the government, I fall further and further
behind. So if I am unable to get my emails at home over the
weekend, I may have missed something very critical which might
be due on Monday morning. That impacts my job performance,
which impacts my desire if I have a negative job evaluation, a
negative job performance, then it becomes very discouraging,
especially when it is because of the circumstance that I have
no control over. So I think what happens for many people is
that the government is not purchasing accessible technology and
we fall further and further behind and come discouraged.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. Ms. Griffin.
Ms. Griffin. I agree with Kathy and I think that is one of
the factors in this equation when we are looking at why people
leave in the Federal Government. But I think more troubling to
me has always been the fact that we do not ask people why they
are leaving. We do not have data. We only know anecdotally what
Kathy is saying. We know we have the greatest centralized
accommodation program in the world, probably, with the CAP
program over at the Department of Defense, which provides
technology-based accommodations for all Federal employees, but
what Kathy is talking about really is not covered sometimes by
what they do. And so we do have to do a better job as a
government adhering to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act,
which says, we should not contract with anyone who does not
provide whatever it is in an accessible format that is updated
and accessible for everyone.
But there are a lot of other factors impacting why people
leave and we do not know exactly what they are. So one of the
things, the strategies we are using in the model strategies and
we are going to require agencies to do in compliance with the
Executive Order is to start asking people who have
disabilities, when they are leaving the Federal Government, why
they are leaving and start providing data so that they can
change what is going on.
Just to give you an example, the Chief Human Capital
Officer at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
just told us in the last couple of weeks that although they are
actually doing a lot more with regard to hiring people with
disabilities, she is watching the retention rate and she is
seeing people still leave. So she has immediately implemented
something with her hiring managers that says you must start
collecting data on why people are leaving. But we have to do
that government-wide because--there are certainly barriers to
employment or to keeping people employed that we are not
addressing because we are just not asking the right questions.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Feldblum.
Ms. Feldblum. One of the great things I think sometimes
about hearings is it does force some of us as we are preparing
to look at some of these questions and figure out where we need
more information. So a chart that you have, I am sure was
submitted for the record, and if not, we can, is this trend
analysis that the Office of Federal Operations at EEOC did of
individuals with targeted disabilities and it is very
interesting when you parse down to see where the decreases
happen and then to ask ourselves, do we know why.
So, for example, in terms of people who are deaf, in 2000,
there were about 5,200 deaf people in the Federal Government
and in 2009, 4,200. So that is a decrease of 1,000 people. Now,
what is that about? Some of it is probably about not getting
the accommodations. Is some of it that we have restructured
jobs that a large number of people who are deaf had? I do not
know. I mean, I plan to go back and ask my Office of Federal
Operations, and if we do know, I will submit it for the record,
and if we do not, I will let you know how we are trying to
figure out why.
In comparison to that, people who are blind, there were
around, 2,600 people in 2000 and about 2,600 in 2009. So not a
decrease there. But there, what we should focus on is that we
have 2,600 blind people, that is all, out of a workforce of 2.8
million?
The other, I thought, interesting change was people with
intellectual disabilities at 2,500 in 2009. It is about 1,600
decrease--2,500 in 2000 and 1,600 in 2009. Again, a thousand
person decrease, as opposed to people with mental illness,
5,600 in 2000, 6,800 in 2009, a thousand person increase.
So to me, for us to be doing our job, we really do need to
be digging down into these questions. And again, this is why I
said that this Executive Order in 2010 is very different from
the Executive Order of 2000. They are similar in that they each
called for hiring 100,000 people with disabilities. The
difference is that the 2010 Executive Order really went through
and said, and there are various things we want you to do,
including getting training, having goals, and finding out why
people are leaving.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. Ms. Jones.
Ms. Jones. Mr. Chairman, this is not really a question that
the forum looked at directly, but supporting what Ms. Martinez
said, participants at the forum did say that sometimes hiring
managers are reluctant to look at hiring people with
disabilities because they have a perception or a belief that it
would be very expensive to provide accommodations for them,
whereas in reality, there are many times when it is not as
expensive as they might have imagined, and that is one of the
reasons why one of the practices that was listed at the forum
was providing a centralized budget for accommodations for
people with disabilities. Excuse me.
Senator Akaka. Thank you.
Ms. Martinez, the cost of providing accommodations,
especially personal assistant services, is one issue some
managers raised as a barrier to hiring people with
disabilities. In your testimony, you talk about how some
agencies, including the Department of Labor, include an
accommodations fund in the general agency budget so that small
offices do not feel burdened by the cost. This is also one of
the retention strategies described in the President's Executive
Order. My question is, how widely is this practice used and why
is it so important?
Ms. Martinez. Mr. Chairman, that is an excellent question
and I will--let me start with the second part, why is it so
important, and I will have to defer to my colleague, Christine,
with regard to how widely it is used in the different agencies.
I can speak specifically for the Department of Labor. We
started ours in 2010. It is important exactly for the reason
that you said, which is that it frees up small budgets, or
different departmental budgets, so that if there is an
expensive accommodation, it can be absorbed by the pool.
So, for example, in the Department of Labor, there is a
certain percentage that is put into our centralized
accommodations fund so that if there are higher-cost
accommodations, such as sign language interpreters and personal
assistant services, those can be absorbed by the entire
Department.
And I would say that the savings that the government enjoys
by hiring folks with disabilities with regard to the fact, A,
they are not depending on benefits, B, they are paying taxes,
would completely overshadow the cost of workplace
accommodations or sign language interpreters.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Griffin.
Ms. Griffin. Mr. Chairman, we have not done what I would
say, a widespread study on this, but just anecdotally talking
to the different agencies and asking this question, the answer
is it is not widely used.
One of the things I learned when I was a Commissioner at
EEOC, and I am sure they could provide you with statistics on
this, is that there are lots of cases and complaints filed when
somebody with a disability who is a Federal employee asks for
an accommodation and it is not provided, a lot of times because
the person in charge of their small division, their department,
thinks that their budget is going to have to cover the cost of
that and that they cannot afford to do it. The wasted time and
money on those cases that are clear cut types of cases under
the Rehabilitation Act really could be used by the agency more
appropriately in providing the accommodation.
And so one of the things the EEOC did when I was there and
continues to do today is not only centralize the budget, but
centralize even the decision making. So you actually take the
decision making, a legally-based decision that has to be made
on whether the person has a disability or not and whether they
should provide the accommodation or not, take that away from
the local manager so they are not thinking about it with regard
to whether the employee deserves it or not or whether they can
afford it or not.
And the other important factor that a lot of people do not
know is that those types of accommodations for personal
assistance, readers, sign language interpreters, we can
actually hire them as employees using Schedule A, as well. That
is a little-known piece of information that we try and remember
to tell people. You can actually hire all of these folks the
same way you can hire people with disabilities, expediently, so
you get them the accommodations they need, and folks can hire,
let us say, a sign language interpreter to do interpreter
services for all the deaf employees as well as for meetings and
meetings with the outside, stakeholders and other folks who may
include people who are deaf. When they are not doing those
duties, they actually can be assigned to do other duties within
the agency. So that is a key piece of information that I think
agencies do not know enough about or pay enough attention to.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Griffin, I have been working with OPM to
increase the use of telework in the Federal Government and my
Telework Enhancement Act was signed into law last year. A
number of the witnesses today have mentioned that telework and
other workplace flexibilities can play a role in attracting and
retaining people with disabilities. My question to you is how
is OPM encouraging agencies to use telework and other
flexibilities as a tool for people with disabilities?
Ms. Griffin. Mr. Chairman, I think you know how strongly
Director Berry at OPM feels about telework as an important tool
for all Federal employees, especially in times of, let us say,
snow closures and other events that happen within the Federal
Government. So it is key that we have telework as a significant
tool for all of our Federal workforce.
But more importantly for people with disabilities, this
will give lots of people with disabilities who, for whatever
reason, cannot utilize transportation, do not have access to
transportation, to be very productive citizens and do the work
right from their home. We demonstrate that with lots of people
now every single day, and as you know because of your Telework
Act, there is training about that and the culture change that
is taking place in the Federal Government and increasing
telework every day.
I think we are celebrating Telework Week this week and we
have lots of people at OPM who have been encouraged, as I think
other Federal agency heads have done, to telework, and we have
not only employees with disabilities who are teleworking as
employees for OPM this week but lots of others, as well.
This is a critical tool. We have, again--I cannot say
enough about the Department of Defense CAP program, the
computer and electronic accommodations program that provides us
with the electronically-based accommodations for all of the
Federal Government. They will, in a case where it is a
reasonable accommodation for someone with a disability to
telework, they will actually provide the equipment that is
needed for the person to do that.
So we have--we have no excuses and no reasons not to do
this. This is a wonderful tool that allows people to be
productive.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much.
I want to thank you for your responses. You have been
generous in your time. So this is my final question for all of
the witnesses. The President's Executive Order is moving us
forward and bringing renewed attention to these issues across
government. In your opinion, what is the most important thing
the Federal Government could do to improve employment
opportunities for people with disabilities, and what can
Congress do to assist in these efforts?
Ms. Griffin. I will begin.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Griffin.
Ms. Griffin. The most important thing they can do--we
cannot say this enough--is hire them, hire them, hire them. We
have done a really good job, I think, not perfect, but a good
job in this country of educating people with disabilities. We
have people that have all the degrees, advanced degrees, the
education, the training, the skills, the abilities to do all of
the jobs that we have in the Federal Government. It is not a
matter of we cannot find them. It is a matter of we currently
are not hiring them. We have to hire more people with
disabilities. That is the most important thing that we can do.
What you can do in Congress is to help us hold the agencies
accountable. The President talked a lot about this when he
signed the Executive Order, when he said the difference between
this one and the one that President Clinton signed was the
accountability piece. He told us at OPM to make sure that we
put up on a website the progress that agencies were making so
that all could see and it would be transparent to everyone
whether we were meeting our goals or not.
But I think, more importantly, Congress can play a role in
helping us hold agencies accountable and asking agencies that
do not meet their goals what is going on. Why not? Ask OPM why
agencies are not doing a good job of meeting their goals. I
think that would be very helpful.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Martinez.
Ms. Martinez. Well, Mr. Chairman, I know many talented
people from the State of Hawaii who would love to work for you,
and I think that one thing in addition to holding folks
accountable that you as leaders can do is to hire folks with
disabilities. As you are role models, so follow your troops.
And I think that is one very tangible thing you can do.
I also think we have to recognize that the Federal
workforce, like our population as a whole, is changing, and
Federal workers are aging on the job. One thing that we will
have to remember while implementing this Executive Order is
that many of the people who will be availing themselves of the
accommodations provided for those of us with disabilities are
aging Federal workers, and I think it is important to just
acknowledge that our population is aging and the Federal
workforce is aging. So I think there will even need to be more
of an understanding about technology, about buying accessible
technology and usable technology, and also about the whole
accommodations process. Thank you for the opportunity.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. Ms. Feldblum.
Ms. Feldblum. OK. So there really is not a telepathic bond
between Deputy Director Griffin and me, but I did write down in
response to your question, the most important thing, in a
sense, has been done, which is require the agencies to set
targeted goals, and therefore, the most important thing
Congress could do is to figure out ways to convey to the
agencies that it is watching this Executive Order, as well, and
that it will use whatever capacities it has through various
authorizing and appropriating Committees to ask for
accountability.
So given that is exactly the same answer that you just
heard, I want to add one other thing which goes to your
question before about workplace flexibility, including
telework. For 7 years before I was named to the Commission, I
started and then co-directed an enterprise called Workplace
Flexibility 2010, and I, in fact, worked with various folks on
your staff. I think Thomas Richards was stolen by OPM, maybe,
away from you, but he was someone we worked with.
I think the main thing we found there is that you need the
right actors involved, which includes Congress, executive
agencies, and the workforce, but as well, the private sector,
and that means the private for-profit and nonprofit sector, in
order to start changing the norm of how the workplace is set
up, to start changing the expectations of how you are going to
judge whether someone is a good employee. And it is not going
to be because they showed up X-amount of time, but instead it
is about what did they produce. If we can move our entire
workforce model more to an outcome evaluative manner--that we
are evaluating you and your outcomes and that we actually teach
our managers how to do that, both inside the public sector as
well as private--that will have significant ripple effects for
lots of people.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. Ms. Jones.
Ms. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me start with your
second question first. The participants at the forum recognize
that there are laws like the Rehabilitation Act and the
Americans with Disabilities Act and regulations like the
Management Directive 715 and also the Executive Order of July
2010, so the participants did not state that there were actions
that Congress needed to undertake. Rather, they recognized the
value of the existing laws and regulations.
With respect to your first question, in terms of improving
the employment of individuals with disabilities in the Federal
workforce, what the participants agreed on is that the eight
practices, which were identified in the forum are key and that
they need to be implemented together in order to reinforce each
other. They were very clear that the practices would not work
in isolation, so that agencies need to be encouraged to
undertake all of them.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, all of you, for your
thoughts and your recommendations. Your work reminds us all of
the importance of getting past stereotypes so we focus on
workers' abilities and qualifications rather than their
disabilities. I believe that with your leadership, we will see
an improvement in employment outcomes for people with
disabilities in the Federal Government. I encourage all of you
to continue working together and with this Subcommittee, also,
on this issue. We certainly want to make some improvements
here.
The hearing record will remain open for 1 week for Members
to submit additional statements or questions. And again, thank
you all for your time and your responses.
This hearing is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:01 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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