[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 40 (Monday, October 5, 1998)]
[Pages 1932-1933]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7128--National Disability Employment Awareness Month, 1998

September 29, 1998

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Today America is enjoying great prosperity, with the prospect of an 
even brighter future in the 21st century. Our economy is the strongest 
it has been in a generation. We have created more than 16 million new 
jobs in the past 5 years, and we are witnessing the lowest inflation 
rate in three decades, the lowest unemployment rate in 28 years, and the 
smallest welfare rolls in 29 years. But we cannot consider ourselves 
truly successful until all Americans, including the 30 million working-
age adults with disabilities, have access to the tools and opportunities 
they need to achieve economic independence.
    The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is making it possible for 
millions of Americans to participate more fully in our society. However, 
8 years after the ADA's passage, the unemployment rate among people with 
disabilities is still far too high. Almost 75 percent of working-age 
Americans with severe disabilities remain unemployed. If America is to 
live up to its promise of equal opportunity, and if our economy is to 
continue to strengthen and expand, we must be able to draw on the 
untapped energy, talents, and creativity of this large and capable 
segment of our population.
    Last March, I issued an Executive order to establish the National 
Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities and begin to break 
down the remaining barriers for people with disabilities. I charged the 
Task Force with creating a coordinated and aggressive national strategy 
to make equality of opportunity, full participation, inclusion, and 
economic self-sufficiency a reality for all working-age Americans with 
disabilities. I have also directed the Attorney General, the Chair of 
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Administrator of 
the Small Business Administration to increase

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public awareness of rights and responsibilities under the ADA. It is 
particularly important to reach out in this effort to the small business 
community, because it employs most of our Nation's private work force.
    Employment is the best path to economic security and to personal and 
professional fulfillment. I salute disability community leaders, 
business and labor leaders, government officials, community 
organizations, and concerned citizens who are working together to remove 
the remaining obstacles on that path so that all Americans with 
disabilities have the opportunity to contribute to our national life.
    To recognize the great potential of people with disabilities and to 
encourage all Americans to work toward their full integration in the 
work force, the Congress, by joint resolution approved August 11, 1945, 
as amended (36 U.S.C. 155), has designated October of each year as 
``National Disability Employment Awareness Month.''
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby proclaim October 1998 as National 
Disability Employment Awareness Month. I call upon government officials, 
educators, labor leaders, employers, and the people of the United States 
to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities that 
reaffirm our determination to fulfill both the letter and the spirit of 
the Americans with Disabilities Act.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth 
day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-
eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two 
hundred and twenty-third.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., October 1, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on October 
2.