[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 192 (Wednesday, October 5, 2022)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 60251-60252]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-21774]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 87 , No. 192 / Wednesday, October 5, 2022 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 60251]]


                Proclamation 10460 of September 30, 2022

                
National Disability Employment Awareness Month, 
                2022

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                During National Disability Employment Awareness Month, 
                we celebrate the essential contributions to our 
                workplaces, economy, and Nation made by disabled 
                Americans and recommit to promoting equal opportunity 
                for all people.

                For far too long in this country, employers could 
                refuse to hire you if you were disabled. Stores could 
                turn you away. If you used a wheelchair, there was no 
                real way to take a bus or train to work or school. 
                America simply was not built for all Americans. In 
                1945, President Truman established National Disability 
                Employment Awareness Month and issued the first 
                national call for disabled people to access all the 
                opportunities and rewards of work. Forty-five years 
                later, in 1990, the Congress came together to pass the 
                Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which helps to 
                ensure our workforce is more productive, prosperous, 
                and inclusive by banning disability discrimination, 
                including in the workplace. Courageous activists of all 
                backgrounds had fought for decades to lay the 
                groundwork and change public consciousness, and I was 
                proud to cosponsor this groundbreaking civil rights 
                law. Since then, the ADA has not only transformed 
                lives, but it has also inspired over 180 other 
                countries to pass similar laws and brought us closer to 
                realizing the full promise of our Nation.

                Still, we have a long way to go. Studies have found 
                that Americans with disabilities are especially 
                productive and motivated workers--but they still have a 
                harder time getting jobs, promotions, and fair pay. 
                They are three times less likely than others to be 
                employed and often earn sub-minimum wages for their 
                work. That is wrong. We have an obligation to change 
                that, and as the Nation's largest employer, the Federal 
                Government has a responsibility to set an example as a 
                model workplace where everyone is valued and treated 
                with respect. Last year, I issued an Executive Order 
                putting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility 
                front and center across the entire Federal Government. 
                To ensure our Federal workforce actually looks like 
                America, the Executive Order directs agencies to find 
                and remove barriers to hiring and promotion and to 
                recruit more recent graduates with disabilities.

                Meanwhile, my Administration's Labor Department is 
                protecting the rights of workers with disabilities in 
                the private sector, cracking down on employers who 
                discriminate, and ending the unfair use of sub-minimum 
                wages. The Departments of Education, Labor, Health and 
                Human Services, and the Social Security Administration, 
                are helping State and local governments, employers, and 
                nonprofits that hire people with disabilities to access 
                funding for competitive integrated employment 
                opportunities. My Administration's Bipartisan 
                Infrastructure Law is expanding access to transit, 
                updating old train stations and airports so more people 
                with disabilities can travel and work. We are working 
                to ease the added threat the pandemic has posed to the 
                disabled community and its support networks. Where long 
                COVID has now risen to the level of a disability, we 
                are helping people understand their rights and get the 
                workplace accommodations they need.

[[Page 60252]]

                This month, let us acknowledge workers with 
                disabilities who make our communities, our economy, and 
                our Nation stronger. Let us continue the legacy of 
                generations of disability rights activists who have 
                fought for equal employment opportunities, integrated 
                workplaces, and equal pay for equal work. Let us 
                deliver the promise of America to all Americans.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of 
                the United States of America, by virtue of the 
                authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws 
                of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2022 
                as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. I 
                urge all Americans to embrace the talents and skills 
                that workers with disabilities bring and to promote the 
                right to equal employment opportunity for all.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                seventh.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2022-21774
Filed 10-4-22; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F3-P