Every October, National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) offers an opportunity to celebrate the many contributions of America's workers with disabilities and promote policies and practices that support disability employment.

As National Disability Employment Awareness Month comes to a close, we wanted to share the story of a worker with a disability who is making his voice heard as a self-advocate.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and all month we've been celebrating the many contributions of workers with disabilities and highlighting some of our work to remove the barriers that often prevent people with disabilities from working.

According to the National Core Indicators (2015-2016), people with disabilities want to work, and both state and federal policy emphasize work as a priority for public supports. However, only 14% of individuals served by state intellectual and developmental disability agencies work in individual integrated jobs.

One aspect of the Administration for Community Living’s (ACL) mission is to assist American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian Elders to live with dignity and self-determination, while participating fully in their communities. The Administration on Aging, which is part of ACL, implements this mission through its Older Americans Act programs and relationships with other federal agencies and their services.

ACL awarded three grants totaling $1.35 million a year for five years to help develop and test model approaches for enhancing the quality, effectiveness, and monitoring of home and community-based services (HCBS) for people with developmental disabilities. The projects funded by the new grants began on October 1. 

Next Wednesday, ACL will close National Disability Employment Awareness Month with a with a panel discussion spotlighting employment achievements of professional baseball players with disabilities. When: Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017 at 2 p.m. Where: Barbara Jordan Conference Center, 1330 G Street NW in Washington, DC (near Metro Center). At this time, the event is in-person only. We are working on a livestreaming option, and will share those details if we are able to offer that option.  

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is conducting a three-part evaluation of its Title III-C Nutrition Services Program (NSP),

Last week, HHS presented its National Disability Employment Awareness Month Observance. I was enthusiastic about the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion with Commissioner for the Administration on Disabilities Melissa Ortiz and Michael Murray from the Office of Personnel Management. My aim in the discussion was to share high level information, and highlight some of the NIDILRR-sponsored research, training, and knowledge translation activities in employment for people with disabilities conducted by ACL.

This week is National Retirement Savings Week and the occasion gives us an opportunity to highlight a success story. This story is how a 65-year old widow from Massachusetts was helped to recover her lost pension. One of our ACL grantees, The New England Pension Assistance Project helped this widow obtain her monthly benefit and retroactive lump sum from her deceased husband’s pension from the Massachusetts branch of the Service Employees’ International Union (SEIU) pension plan.