>From the web page
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/1016/web-access-10-18-00.asp

Reno: IT, disabled can help workforce

BY William Matthews
10/18/2000


Information technology has dramatically increased the
productivity of the nation's workforce, but disabled people, who
might benefit most from technology, have largely been left
behind, said Attorney General Janet Reno.

It is sadly ironic, Reno told a gathering of federal agency
managers Tuesday, that so many disabled people remain unemployed
even as many high-technology jobs in the United States go
unfilled and a growing number of foreign high-tech workers are
being admitted in an effort to meet the demand for technology
employees.

"Many of these jobs may be ideal for people with disabilities if
only we could make the connection and provide the training,"
Reno said at an Agriculture Department conference on disability
employment. "These are people who want to work, who want so to
contribute, who want to make a difference and be productive."

Of 30 million American adults with serious disabilities, 75
percent are unemployed or underemployed, she said.

"The employment of people with disabilities has not kept pace
with the improvements in technology," she said. "Most technology
is designed without thinking of the disabled." But often, adding
simple features or making small changes during the design phase
would make computers and software usable by disabled persons at
little or no cost to the manufacturer.

Two federal initiatives aim to turn the government into a model
employer for people with disabilities.

One is an executive order issued by President Clinton requiring
government agencies to hire 100,000 disabled workers over the
next five years.

The other is Section 508, a law passed by Congress to compel
agencies to provide disabled employees with computers, software,
telephones and other information technology that enables them to
work.

But the government's progress toward making agencies accessible
to the disabled is moving at a snail's pace. Section 508 was
passed two years ago but remains unenforceable because standards
that will tell agencies what they must do to comply with the law
are incomplete. The latest projected completion date is late
December or January, according to Doug Wakefield, an
accessibility specialist for the U.S. Access Board.

The Access Board was to have finished the standards by last
February and enforcement was to have begun in August. Under the
current schedule, however, enforcement will not begin until June
or July.

When they are finally in place, the Section 508 standards will
be the strongest accessibility mandates in the world, Wakefield
said in an address at an accessibility conference Monday. "If
you don't provide access, it will be seen as a violation of
civil rights. That's serious business." The law permits
employees to take legal action if the accessibility standards
are not met.


Copyright 2000 FCW Government Technology Group


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