[Nfbf-l] New commision by the Governor
Kirk
kvharmon54 at gmail.com
Wed Jul 27 13:37:10 UTC 2011
Perhaps now would be a good time to ask for more funds for the budget of DBs
to allow for our kids to get adaptive equipment at home as well as school
classrooms so they can do their homework easily and achieve the best
education they can for jobs in their futures! Since they have to rely on
their minds rather than their body's more so than the sighted children for
employment we need to ensure they have all the tools needed to succeed
when they graduate, mature, and move into the job market and off SSDI ! KH
Wed, Jul 27, 2011 | Updated: 8:34 AM
Commission to look into unemployment among workers with disabilities
By Paul Flemming Florida Capital Bureau
July 27, 2011
Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday created a commission to address high unemployment
among
workers with disabilities.
Scott's executive order was signed on the anniversary of the Americans with
Disabilities
Act, signed into law in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. It sets up the
Governor's
Commission on Jobs for Floridians with Disabilities. It's charged with
identifying
shortcomings in the efforts of state and local programs to help people with
disabilities.
Unemployment is an epidemic among Floridians with disabilities.
U.S. Census Bureau data from 2009 showed there were 342,941 working-age
Floridians
with disabilities who had jobs. That's a 32-percent employment rate among
the more
than 1 million people with disabilities in Florida. The rate has stayed
almost the
same in the 21 years since the ADA became law.
Members of the commission still are being identified. A release said its
members
will come from education and job-training fields, include private-sector
employers
and people with disabilities.
"As we work to grow Florida's private-sector jobs by making our state the
best place
to start, grow or move a business, we need to also make sure we are ensuring
job
opportunities for Floridians with disabilities," Scott said in a release.
Bryan Vaughn, acting director of the state's Agency for Persons with
Disabilities,
said he expected members to be named to the new commission within a month.
Vaughn said studies by the University of Florida indicate the state's
population
of people who self-identify as having disabilities is about 7 million. The
commission's
work to address unemployment, therefore, is important not only to those
individuals,
but also as a policy matter for the state.
"It really does become an economic issue as well as a huge public-policy
issue,"
Vaughn said. "The majority of people with disabilities that I know want to
work."
The commission Scott created is a successor to a series of state groups
designed
to address the challenges of people with disabilities going back to 1993 and
then-Gov.
Lawton Chiles. He created the Florida Coordinating Council for the Americans
with
Disabilities Act to encourage cooperation between state and local
governments implementing
the ADA. Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist created their own versions. Vaughn
previously
was named executive director of Crist's Commission on Disabilities.
"Right now it's a really good time to focus on jobs," Vaughn said. "It's
great to
show employers that here we have this huge, highly talented, highly educated
pool
of employees that wants to work."
Kirk Harmon
President & CEO
Florida Disabled Citizens
for Progress
P.O.Box 61794
Jacksonville, FL 32236
Call our Toll Free number: 1-888-955-fdcp
PH(904) 783-9896
Cell: (407) 473-2176
DAV/BVA
Life Member
FCB/NFB member
Please check out our website: www.fdcp.org and link on to our "How you can
Help" Every little bit You can help will help many! We at the FDCP,Inc.
Thank You!"
TURNING HOPE INTO REALITY"
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