[Nfbf-l] New commision by the Governor

[Kirk]

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"