News & Advocacy in Disability Rights

October awareness and barriers

By William G. Stothers

October is traditionally designated as "disability awareness" month, with particular emphasis on the employment of persons with disabilities. For more than 50 years, the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities (PCEPD) has been toiling to increase the jobs and workplace opportunities for people with disabilities in the nation.

For all its efforts, however, the employment rate has stubbornly resisted much growth over the years. The rate hovers at about 29 percent - down from 34 percent in 1986 - and that means that about 74 percent of working age people with disabilities don't have jobs. The figure is stunning in a nation that is supposed to be surging ahead economically at near full employment.

Earlier this year, President Clinton seemed to acknowledge the failure of the PCEPD to make much impact. With some fanfare, the President announced a new presidential task force on employment of adults with disabilities. This task force, with representatives from several departments of the government, is supposed to tackle this persistent problem over the next four years and come up with some solutions.

Maybe they will have better luck than the PCEPD. But they've got their work cut out for them. Disability is still a hard sell. A year or so ago, a poll reported that employers supported the Americans with Disabilities Act and welcomed the opportunity to employ persons with disabilities. No doubt some employers are hiring qualified people with disabilities, but the continuing high jobless rate among people with disabilities made more than a few skeptics raise an eyebrow about that poll.

Nonetheless, the ADA is making a difference for people with disabilities. We do have more access þ it's not perfect and may never be. But it is better. It is easier to get around town and into public places. We're still excluded by barriers in health care and jobs, even if efforts are being made to remove those blocks.

Elsewhere in this magazine, there is a list of communities and groups across the country that celebrated the eighth anniversary of the signing of the ADA in July. Thousands of people with disabilities, their families and friends attended these events - the most since the ADA was enacted.

The celebrations were varied and magnificent. It is only too bad that more people did not participate. The several thousand who attended are only a tiny fraction of the estimated 54 million people with disabilities in the country.

According to a recent Harris Poll conducted for the National Organization on Disability, some 46 percent of persons with disabilities have never even heard of the ADA. But the good news is that the figure is down from 60 percent four years ago. Only one out of three persons polled thought that the ADA has made his or her life better.

These findings are a sobering reminder that, despite all of our achievements as a community in the past decade, we still have much to do.

In the end, it boils down to organizing. Most people with disabilities are not connected to what we call the "disability community." For many people, disability is a personal "problem." It is not always easy to get past the "personal tragedy" feeling of disability to an understanding of the common limitations imposed by society.

This October is a good time to be aware of those limits and barriers, and to make other people with disabilities aware. Doing this would be an excellent first step in organizing. Organizing can lead to action and power - and that's what it will take to finally knock those barriers down.

William G. Stothers is editor of MAINSTREAM.

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