FOR RELEASE ON JUNE 2, 1999 PITTSBURGH BUSINESSWOMAN TO BE HONORED AT WHITE HOUSE FOR FURTHERING EMPLOYMENT OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES (Washington, DC—June 2, 1999) President Bill Clinton will present Joyce Bender, president of Bender Consulting Services, Inc., with the 1999 President’s Award in the East Room of the White House on Friday, June 4, at 2:00 p.m. The President’s Award is America’s highest honor for achievement in furthering the employment and empowerment of people with disabilities. During this event, the President also will honor the co-recipients of the 1998 President’s Award. James H. Click, Jr. is the founder of the Tucson, Arizona, non-profit LINKAGES program, which connects employers and job seekers with disabilities. Laura Hershey is the interim Executive Director of the Disability Center for Independent Living in Denver, Colorado. Bender Consulting Services (BCS) actively recruits and hires people with disabilities who have expertise in information technologies. BCS contracts its employees as consultants to client companies throughout the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware, areas. “Joyce Bender’s commitment to furthering the employment of Americans with disabilities is unsurpassed. Instead of focusing on barriers, she looks for challenges. By developing a network within the information technology industry, Joyce has been able to identify current needs as well as provide ‘foot in the door’ opportunities for IT professionals with disabilities,” said President’s Committee Chairman Tony Coelho. Bender is involved in numerous community efforts aimed at enhancing the employment of people with disabilities. She is a board member of Tech-Link, a local project of the President’s Committee’s national High School/High Tech program, which introduces high school students with disabilities to careers in high-tech fields. She recently founded the Pittsburgh Disability Employment Project for Freedom, a non-profit organization that trains and provides work opportunities in the information technology networking industry. Bender serves on the Business Advisory Committee for the Institute of Advanced Technology, a computer programming training program for individuals with disabilities. She also chairs the employment sector of Pittsburgh’s Disability Agenda 2000 project. On the state level, Bender is a member-at-large of the Pennsylvania Governor ’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. On the national level, she serves on the Executive Board of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and on the Board of Directors of the Epilepsy Foundation. Bender’s commitment to employment opportunities for people with disabilities stems from her personal experiences. In 1985, she sustained a life-threatening epileptic attack that caused an intracranial hemorrhage requiring brain surgery. She returned to work with a seizure disorder, a 40 percent hearing loss in one ear and a renewed respect for the attitudinal obstacles faced by people with disabilities. The President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities is a small federal agency based in Washington, DC. The Committee’s mission is to communicate, coordinate and promote public and private efforts to enhance the employment of people with disabilities. The Committee provides information, training and technical assistance to America’s business leaders, organized labor, rehabilitation and service providers, advocacy organizations, families and individuals with disabilities. It also operates the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a toll-free information service on workplace accommodations and the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Additional information about the President’s Committee is available on the Internet at <www.pcepd.gov>. VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List. To join or leave the list, send a message to [log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type "subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations. VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html