|
Recently, the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing on Improving Employment Opportunities for People with Intellectual Disabilities to a standing room crowd. Senator Harkin, in his opening remarks, stated, "Recognizing the scope and urgency of this issue, fifteen of the most significant organizations working with people with developmental disabilities have joined together to form the Alliance for Full Participation. The Alliance will hold a conference in November focusing on competitive, integrated employment, and will set a goal of doubling the employment participation rate of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities by 2015." Speaker Joan Evans, in her testimony on the work that Wyoming has done to help persons with disabilities find meaningful employment in a competitive and integrated work environments, identified the formation of a Wyoming AFP State Team as one of the Developmental Disabilities Division's strategies for improving competitive employment opportunities for persons with disabilities within their state.
The hearing focused on the barriers to employment faced by individuals with intellectual disabilities and featured testimony from:
Lynnae Ruttledge, Commissioner, Rehabilitative Services Administration (RSA), U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC; Sharon Lewis , Commissioner, Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC; Joan Evans, Director, Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, Cheyenne, WY; Randy Lewis, Senior Vice President, Walgreens, Co., Deerfield, IL; David Egan, Distribution Clerk, Booz Allen Hamilton, Vienna, VA; William Kiernan, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Community Inclusions, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA.
Visit the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions website to download testimony and archived videos.
|
