The federal government should finalize its proposed hiring goal for federal contractors, the National Council on Disability said in a report to President Obama. But the feds also need to improve their own hiring practices, the council said.
These are among the recommendations contained in the council’s National Disability Policy: A Progress Report, released Sept. 18. NCD is an independent federal agency that provides an annual status update on disability living, education and employment to the president.
Other recommendations included permanent tax breaks for businesses that hire veterans and a streamlined disability benefits program.
Implement Goal for Contractors
One of the report’s recommendations to the president dealt with proposed regulations from the U.S. Department of Labor.
DOL proposed a disability hiring goal for federal contractors late last year. Entities subject to the regulations would have to aim to have individuals with disabilities make up 7 percent of their workforce. (See Feds Consider Requiring Contractors to Meet 7% Hiring Goal for Workers With Disabilities and Congress, Stakeholders Challenge OFCCP’s Proposed EEO Quota.
Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities and already requires employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that exceed $10,000 to take affirmative action to hire, retain and promote qualified individuals with disabilities. However, because individuals with disabilities continue to have a disproportionately high unemployment rate, DOL said its current regulations were “clearly … not working” and that it needed another way to hold employers accountable.
NCD said it supports the goal and urged DOL to finalize the necessary regulations.
Improve Federal Hiring
But contractors aren’t the only ones that need to improving their hiring practices, NCD said.
All federal agencies need to hire more employees with disabilities in accordance with Executive Order 13548, the council said in its report.
The executive order requires agencies to improve their hiring, retention and promotion of individuals with “targeted disabilities,” which the U.S. Office of Personnel Management defines as: impairments affecting hearing or vision; missing extremities; partial or complete paralysis; epilepsy; severe intellectual disabilities; psychiatric disabilities; and dwarfism.
But merely more individuals from those groups isn’t enough, NCD said. The term “targeted disabilities” needs updating. OPM and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission should work together to redefine “targeted disability” to “reflect current needs and priorities and to incorporate disability categories whose underrepresentation in the workforce has become evident more recently, such as people on the autism spectrum and people with other developmental disabilities,” the council said.
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