Federal Agency Employment Strategies A Framework for Disability Inclusion

Federal agencies need talented workers to meet new challenges and complete new missions in the 21st century. Currently, there is an underutilized community of talented individuals who want to work and specifically want to work for the Federal Government. In order to better utilize this untapped pool of talent, on July 26, 2010, President Obama signed Executive Order (EO) 13548 on Increasing Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EO works to establish the Federal Government as a model employer of individuals with disabilities and to improve efforts to employ workers with disabilities through increased recruitment, hiring, advancement, and retention of these individuals. It requires Federal agencies to increase the hiring of people with disabilities by 100,000 over the next five years. EO 13548 is not an isolated effort, but works in coordination with EO 13518 on Employment of Veterans in the Federal Government issued on November 9, 2009; Presidential Memorandum on The Presidential POWER Initiative: Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment issued on July 19, 2010; and EO 13583 on Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce issued on August 18, 2011, to recruit, hire, and retain workers with disabilities. EO13583 directs Federal departments and agencies to develop and implement a more comprehensive, integrated, and strategic focus on diversity and inclusion as a key component of their human resources strategies. These Executive Orders augment and complement the requirements under Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act and implementing regulations and Management Directive 715 (MD-715) requiring Federal departments, agencies, and instrumentalities in the executive branch to prepare an affirmative action program for the hiring, placement, and advancement of individuals with disabilities. Due to the implementation of promising and emerging practices by Federal agencies, more people with disabilities work for the Federal Government now than in the past 20 years. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, there were 204,189 employees with disabilities working for the Federal Government, or 11 percent of the Federal workforce. Of these, 18,738 joined the Federal workforce that year, representing 14.7 percent of all new hires. Despite this progress, there is still a great deal of work to be done. In FY 2011, there were 17,845 people with targeted disabilities working for the Federal Government, or 0.96 percent of the Federal workforce. Of these, 1,122 joined the Federal workforce that year, representing 0.88 percent of new hires. To meet the requirements under EO 13548, there are still approximately 60,000 people with disabilities that need to be hired in FY 2012, FY 2013, and FY 2014. Federal Agency Employment Strategies: A Framework for Disability Inclusion identifies existing, promising, and emerging proactive and dynamic employment strategies and practices for recruiting, hiring, advancing, and retaining qualified individuals with disabilities. This tool can assist Federal agencies in making their workplaces inclusive of and welcoming to people with disabilities.