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66–621 PDF 2011

S. Hrg. 112–46 

IMPROVING FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT OF PEOPLE 

WITH DISABILITIES 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, 

THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE, AND THE 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUBCOMMITTEE 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON 

HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

FEBRUARY 16, 2011 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security 

and Governmental Affairs 

( 

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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

MARK BEGICH, Alaska 

SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine 

TOM COBURN, Oklahoma 

SCOTT P. BROWN, Massachusetts 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin 

ROB PORTMAN, Ohio 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

MICHAEL L. ALEXANDER, Staff Director 

BRANDON L. MILHORN, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

TRINA DRIESSNACK TYRER, Chief Clerk 

JOYCE WARD, Publications Clerk and GPO Detailee 

OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, THE FEDERAL 

WORKFORCE, AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUBCOMMITTEE 

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii, Chairman 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

MARK BEGICH, Alaska 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin 

TOM COBURN, Oklahoma 

JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada 

LISA M. POWELL, Staff Director 

CHRISTINE S. KHIM, Counsel 

JENNIFER A. HEMINGWAY, Minority Staff Director 

AARON H. WOOLF, Chief Clerk 

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(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Opening statement: Page 

Senator Akaka .................................................................................................. 1 

WITNESSES 

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010 

Yvonne Jones, Director, Strategic Issues, U.S. Government Accountability 

Office ..................................................................................................................... 2 

Hon. Christine M. Griffin, Deputy Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management ...................................................................................................................... 4 

Hon. Kathleen Martinez, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy ........................................................................................................... 6 

Hon. Chai Feldblum, Commissioner, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity 

Commission ........................................................................................................... 7 

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WITNESSES

Feldblum, Hon. Chai: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 7 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 54 

Griffin, Hon. Christine M.: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 4 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 38 

Jones, Yvonne: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 2 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 25 

Martinez, Hon. Kathleen: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 6 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 43 

APPENDIX 

Background .............................................................................................................. 67 

Statement from Dinah B. Cohen, Director, Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health 

Affairs .................................................................................................................... 72 

Questions and responses submitted for the record from: 

Ms. Jones ........................................................................................................... 86 

Ms. Griffin ......................................................................................................... 89 

Ms. Martinez ..................................................................................................... 92 

Ms. Feldblum .................................................................................................... 96 

Ms. Cohen ......................................................................................................... 98 

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(1) 

IMPROVING FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT OF 

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2011 

U.S. SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT

MANAGEMENT, THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE,

AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

OF THE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY

AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:36 p.m., in room 

SD–342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Daniel K. Akaka, 

Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding. 

Present: Senator Akaka. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR AKAKA 

Senator AKAKA. This hearing will come to order. Aloha and 

thank you all for being here today as the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the 

District of Columbia meets to examine what the Federal Government is doing to improve hiring and accommodations for people 

with disabilities in Federal Government. 

As the Nation’s largest employer, the Federal Government has 

an opportunity and a responsibility to be the model employer to the 

country. We have taken many steps toward that goal, but we have 

so much further to go. Despite great efforts by our witnesses here 

today and the agencies they represent, the number and percentage 

of people with disabilities employed in the Federal workforce has 

declined over the past two decades. Even at their peak, these numbers were not acceptable. But now, people with targeted disabilities 

make up less than 1 percent of our Federal workforce. 

Last year, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Americans 

with Disabilities Act (ADA). This landmark civil rights legislation 

continues to serve the millions of individuals with disabilities in 

our country. These individuals are now better able to participate in 

society because the ADA helped remove barriers in employment, 

transportation, public services, telecommunications, and public accommodations. Despite ADA requirements of equal employment opportunities and reasonable accommodations, people with disabilities continue to face significant barriers to employment. The Federal Government must work to reverse this trend by setting an example of successfully hiring and accommodating people with disabilities. 

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1The prepared statement of Ms. Jones appears in the appendix on page 25. 

Former Senator Voinovich and I requested that the Government 

Accountability Office (GAO) study the best practices that agencies 

could use to increase the employment of people with disabilities. 

Last summer, GAO held a forum with experts and advocates from 

across the disability community. I am glad to have Ms. Jones from 

GAO here today to discuss their report on that forum. 

I have been pleased to see this Administration’s renewed commitment to this issue. The Executive Order (EO) President Obama 

issued last summer lays the groundwork for agencies to improve 

their efforts. I am eager to hear from our witnesses today about the 

progress they have made as well as what more needs to be done. 

Each day, disabled veterans return from service overseas and 

they must be a central part of this effort. Whether recently injured 

in Iraq or Afghanistan or disabled in prior service, these veterans 

have demonstrated enormous commitment to this Nation and we 

have a responsibility to provide them opportunities to continue 

their service as civilian employees. 

The Federal Government has started to take some positive steps 

toward improving employment opportunities for people with disabilities, but we still have a long way to go. I am pleased that we 

are able to bring attention to this important issue and I look forward to hearing from each of our witnesses and to continuing to 

work with them on these issues. So thank you all again for being 

here today. 

I want to welcome our panel of witnesses to this Subcommittee 

and this hearing: Ms. Yvonne Jones, Director of Strategic Issues at 

the Government Accountability Office; Ms. Christine Griffin, Deputy Director of the Office of Personnel Management; Ms. Kathleen 

Martinez, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment 

Policy; and Chai Feldblum, Commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

It is the custom of this Subcommittee to swear in all witnesses, 

so will you please raise your right hand. Do you swear that the testimony you are about to give before the Subcommittee is the truth, 

the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God? 

Ms. JONES. I do. 

Ms. GRIFFIN. I do. 

Ms. MARTINEZ. I do. 

Ms. FELDBLUM. I do. 

Senator AKAKA. Let it be noted for the record that the witnesses 

answered in the affirmative. 

Let me also remind all of you that although your oral statement 

is limited to 5 minutes, your full written statements will be included in the record. 

Ms. Jones, will you please proceed with your statement. 

TESTIMONY OF YVONNE JONES,1 DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC 

ISSUES, U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 

Ms. JONES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am 

pleased to be here today to discuss possible strategies for improving 

the rate of Federal employment of individuals with disabilities. My 

testimony today is based on our October 2010 report that discussed 

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3 

barriers to the employment of people with disabilities in the Federal workforce and leading practices that could be used to overcome 

these barriers. 

To identify these barriers and leading practices, we solicited the 

views of a wide range of knowledgeable individuals through a survey and a forum, which took place in July 2010. Federal employees 

and applicants for employment with disabilities are protected from 

discrimination by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Under this Act, 

as amended, a person is considered to be disabled if the individual 

has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one 

or more major life activities, has a record of such impairment, or 

is regarded as having such impairment. 

The Rehabilitation Act also requires that Federal agencies take 

proactive steps to provide equal opportunity to qualified individuals 

with disabilities in all aspects of Federal employment. Federal law 

also provides special hiring authorities for people with disabilities, 

including Schedule A excepted service hiring authority. However, 

even with existing Federal provisions, concerns have been raised 

about the low level of employment of people with disabilities in the 

Federal workforce. 

In brief, Mr. Chairman, participants at the forum said that the 

most significant barrier keeping people with disabilities from the 

workplace is attitudinal. Attitudinal barriers can include bias 

against and low expectations for people with disabilities, a focus on 

disabilities rather than on their abilities. According to participants, 

there is a fundamental need to change the attitudes of hiring managers, supervisors, coworkers, and prospective employees, and that 

cultural change within agencies is critical to this effort. 

Participants acknowledge that there are many existing Federal 

programs and policies to protect the employment rights of people 

with disabilities but stated that efforts to protect these rights will 

only make piecemeal progress until agencies change their workplace cultures. Participants identified eight leading practices generated by the survey that agencies could implement to mitigate 

these barriers and help the Federal Government become a model 

employer for people with disabilities. Participants emphasized that 

these practices would not work in isolation, but instead need to reinforce each other. Here are the practices. 

Top leadership commitment is key to implementing and sustaining improvements in the employment of individuals with disabilities. 

Accountability is critical to success. 

Regularly surveying the workforce on disabilities issues provides 

agencies with important information on potential barriers. 

Better coordination within and across agencies could improve 

employment outcomes for employees with disabilities. 

Training for staff at all levels can disseminate leading practices 

throughout an agency. 

Career development opportunities inclusive of people with disabilities can facilitate advancement and increase retention. 

A flexible work environment can increase and enhance employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. 

And centralizing funding within an agency can help ensure that 

reasonable accommodations are provided. 

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1The prepared statement of Ms. Griffin appears in the appendix on page 38. 

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I would be pleased 

to respond to any questions that you may have. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you very much, Ms. Jones, for your statement. 

Ms. Griffin, will you please proceed with your statement. 

TESTIMONY OF HON. CHRISTINE M. GRIFFIN,1 DEPUTY 

DIRECTOR, U.S. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT 

Ms. GRIFFIN. Chairman Akaka, thank you for the opportunity to 

testify today regarding the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s 

(OPM’s) role in improving Federal employment for people with disabilities. 

Improving the number of people with disabilities within the Federal Government has been a major priority of this Administration 

and it has also been a personal goal of mine for the last 5 years, 

first as a Commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity 

Commission (EEOC) and now currently as Deputy Director of 

OPM. Securing a job with the Federal Government has been a 

challenge for people with disabilities regardless of their education 

level, experience, skills, or abilities. In fact, there has not been 

much progress over the past 38 years, even though the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires Federal agencies to have an affirmative 

employment program for the hiring, placement, and advancement 

of people with disabilities. 

The unemployment rate for people with disabilities in January 

2011 was 13.6 percent. However, this number is deceiving. It only 

refers to those who are currently seeking employment. Only 27 percent of working age people with disabilities are employed, and 

there are currently an estimated 10 million working age people 

with disabilities who are not working and are not seeking work, 

and most of them probably have in the past and have not been able 

to find it. 

Disability hiring is a critical part of the Obama Administration’s 

comprehensive personnel policy reform agenda. The leadership by 

this Administration, including OPM Director John Berry, I think, 

gives me and many others hope that the tools are going to be put 

in place to ensure that applicants and employees with disabilities 

have the opportunity to add significant contributions to our government. 

Mr. Chairman, combining your leadership with the Administration’s leadership, I am convinced this is the year that we will actually see an increase in Federal employment for people with disabilities. 

President Obama has already demonstrated top leadership commitment by signing the Executive Order on July 26, 2010, which 

was the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The President asked agencies to increase hiring of 

people with disabilities in the Federal Government with a goal of 

100,000 people over the next 5 years. He asked OPM to develop, 

in collaboration with other agencies, the model recruitment and 

hiring strategies. We have done that and disseminated that to the 

agencies. Agencies now have to develop plans with goals on the 

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5 

numbers of people with disabilities and those specifically with targeted disabilities that they are going to hire, and those plans are 

due to us by March 8. 

There are also return-to-work provisions, which I am sure my 

colleague, Ms. Martinez, is going to go over because that is a piece 

that the Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for. 

And I think most importantly is a piece regarding accountability. 

We have asked senior officials to be designated—some are from the 

Senior Executive Service (SES)—in every agency who will be responsible for the agency’s progress. Agency hiring managers, 

human resource personnel, as well as agency leaders must be held 

accountable for ensuring that agency staff are working diligently to 

achieve the agency goals. Goals should be evaluated on a regular 

basis, either monthly or at a minimum quarterly, to ensure that 

the strategies being used are successful. Examining success on an 

annual basis is not an acceptable evaluation. 

Increased use of Schedule A, a hiring authority that Ms. Jones 

described, is an expedient way for Federal agencies to hire people 

with disabilities into the Federal Government. OPM has already 

created two very short creative online training courses for Federal 

agencies as well as applicants. 

Another useful tool that is really proving to be successful was developed by OPM in collaboration with the Chief Human Capital Officer Council (CHCOC) and it is a list of people with disabilities 

covered by Schedule A who already are qualified, deemed to be 

qualified to fill a variety of entry-level positions that the Council 

members identified as ones which all agencies have a constant demand for. 

OPM, in collaboration with my colleagues here at this table and 

the Computer/Electronic Accommodation Program (CAP) at the Department of Defense (DOD) and our colleagues at the Department 

of Education (DOE) Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) 

are all working together. We have provided multiple trainings to 

Federal agencies. We will do four more of those trainings over the 

next couple of weeks. 

But the bottom line is, the Federal Government has to make significant improvements in hiring and retaining employees with disabilities before it becomes a model employer. Attitudinal barrier, as 

you have heard, continue to be the biggest challenge that people 

with disabilities are facing when they seek employment. And 

maybe this is not unique to the Federal Government, but in my experience, the only way to actually get rid of attitudinal barriers is 

to hire people with disabilities. That is it. That is the bottom line. 

So we look forward to working with you on this and we appreciate your leadership and I would be happy to answer any questions that you have. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you very much, Ms. Griffin. 

Ms. Martinez, you may proceed with your statement. 

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6 

1The prepared statement of Ms. Martinez appears in the appendix on page 43. 

TESTIMONY OF HON. KATHLEEN MARTINEZ,1 ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF LABOR FOR DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT POLICY 

Ms. MARTINEZ. Thank you very much, and I would like to say 

aloha and mahalo—— 

Senator AKAKA. Aloha. 

Ms. MARTINEZ [continuing]. For having this hearing, and I want 

to thank you for the opportunity to testify today and discuss the 

efforts of the U.S. Department of Labor and its Office of Disability 

Employment Policy (ODEP), to improve the hiring of folks with disabilities in the Federal Government. 

At the Department of Labor, Secretary Hilda Solis and ODEP 

are wholly committed to the goal of improving employment opportunities and outcomes for people with disabilities, no matter whether it is in what sector, be it public, private, or nonprofit. 

I know this hearing is specifically focused on Federal hiring practices, and one of my guiding beliefs in leading ODEP is that the 

Federal Government, as the Nation’s largest employer, as you said, 

can do a lot more to be a model and an example for everyone with 

regard to hiring folks with disabilities. 

I am going to skip, because otherwise we might be here for a 

while. 

At ODEP, we embrace and do all we can to encourage this trend. 

We were established in 2000 as an office within the Department of 

Labor to bring a committed focus to disability employment policy 

and to advance the employment of people with disabilities. I 

strongly believe in this mission and its importance to our economic 

vitality. Each person that finds a job strengthens the U.S. economy 

and our Nation’s financial future. Implementing sound and innovative policies that improve employment opportunities for people with 

disabilities is especially important because this population continues to be markedly under-represented in the United States 

workforce. 

The most recent report issued this month by the Department of 

Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that only 31.6 percent of 

working age people, 16 to 64, with disabilities are actually in the 

American labor force. In comparison, for people representing no 

disabilities, the participation rate is 76.4 percent. Closing this gap 

would likely yield savings for the government as it would mean 

that millions of Americans who are currently disconnected from the 

economy would begin earning income, paying taxes, and reducing 

their dependence on public benefits. 

The President demonstrated his personal commitment to this 

goal when on the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 2010 he signed the Executive Order, and I think 

we are pretty familiar with that. Although ODEP was one of several agencies to provide input into the development of this Executive Order, we appreciate that its actions take—that it is the actions taken in response to this order that really matter the most. 

In addition to helping agencies implement the Executive Order, 

ODEP also provides information and technical assistance through 

several different methods and mediums that can be used to assist 

Federal agencies in becoming model employers. One of the areas 

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7 

1The prepared statement of Ms. Feldblum appears in the appendix on page 54. 

that we have studied extensively is the concept of accommodations. 

We all know we all require some type of productivity tool to work 

and for folks to perform their jobs, whether it is lights, whether it 

is chairs, whether it is pens and pencils. Most accommodations for 

folks with disabilities are not cost prohibitive, especially when taking into account the increased productivity that results from their 

use. In fact, data suggests that more than half of all accommodations cost nothing, and most employers actually report financial 

benefits from providing accommodations as the cost of training new 

employees goes down and worker productivity goes up. 

I am going to skip. It is just going to take me a little longer here 

because of the Braille. 

In addition to accommodations, we also provide a searchable online database of recruitment resources as well as a call center 

through our Employer Technical Assistance Center and the Employer Assistance Resource Network (EARN). This resource is 

available to all employers, including Federal employers, at 

www.askearn.org, and I encourage all Federal managers and supervisors to take a look at it. 

ODEP also cosponsors the Workforce Recruitment Program 

(WRP), with the Department of Defense. The Workforce Recruitment Program is a recruitment and referral program that connects 

Federal managers and supervisors with post-secondary students 

and recent graduates with disabilities who are eager to prove their 

abilities in the workplace through summer internships or permanent jobs. Since 1995, the WRP has provided Federal employment 

opportunities to over 5,500 students. 

Improving Federal employment outcomes for those of us with disabilities holds great potential. As a model employer, the Federal 

Government can be a catalyst for raising the labor participation 

rate for those of us with disabilities and thereby add to the economic dynamism that has made our Nation special from its earliest 

days. ODEP is proud to play a role in this effort and is proud of 

the commitment this Administration has shown to this goal. 

And with that, I would be happy to answer any questions. Thank 

you. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you very much, Ms. Martinez. 

Ms. Feldblum, you may proceed with your statement. 

TESTIMONY OF HON. CHAI FELDBLUM,1 COMMISSIONER, U.S. 

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION 

Ms. FELDBLUM. Thank you, Chairman Akaka, for holding this 

hearing. My name is Chai Feldblum. I am one of five Commissioners who make up the bipartisan Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and I thank Chair Jacqueline Berrien for asking me to represent the Commission at this hearing. 

It was thrilling on July 26, 2010, and indeed it is thrilling today, 

to read President Obama’s Executive Order 13548 and to imagine 

that the challenge of that Executive Order would actually be fulfilled—that in 5 years, there would be an additional 100,000 people 

with disabilities employed in the Federal workforce. But as we all 

know, those clarion calls have been made before, including in an 

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8 

Executive Order issued in 2000 calling for the hiring of 100,000 

people with disabilities within 5 years, and they have not succeeded. 

So our challenge now in 2011 is to actually succeed. The time for 

words and clarion calls have come and gone. Now is the time for 

results. 

We are off to a very good start because a great deal of thought 

went into this Executive Order, both in terms of its requirements 

and its many details. And I must say that we have Christine Griffin’s leadership, among others, to thank for that detailed thoughtfulness. But real success will require the full engagement of three 

component actors: Congress, various agencies within the Executive 

Branch, and the workforce itself. 

I start with Congress because the EEOC’s authority and responsibility regarding the employment of people with disabilities in the 

Federal workforce derives from the statutory mandate Congress 

has given us. That mandate sets out our job. Given that fact, Congress must remain engaged with our efforts. It must hold our feet 

to the fire to see if we are carrying out our statutory responsibilities and it must ensure that we are being given the tools and the 

authority to carry out that mandate. 

With regard to the second component actor, the executive agencies, you have arrayed before you several of the relevant agencies 

and part of my optimism that we will actually succeed this time 

comes because of some of the leaders at this table. But with regard 

to the EEOC, as you have heard, EEOC received its statutory authority almost 40 years ago in Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act 

in which Congress told the agencies they had to have an affirmative action program plan for the hiring, placement, and advancement of people with disabilities. EEOC was given authority to review those plans, and in Title 7, Section 717, we are given broad 

authority for making sure that equal employment opportunity is 

being achieved in the Federal workforce. 

So in my written testimony, I describe a number of things that 

EEOC is doing to carry out that statutory responsibility. I want to 

highlight two elements here. 

The first is EEOC’s Management Directive 715, which is our 

statement to the agencies, our instructions to them of how we expect them to carry out Congress’s statutory mandate of equal employment opportunity. We tell them that they have to demonstrate 

commitment from agency leadership for equal employment opportunity and have successful management and program accountability. And we do not leave agencies on their own with those obligations. We tell them what data we want to see. We review that 

data. We give them multi-year trend analyses. 

Here is my key point. Our goal at the EEOC is going to be to 

use the MD–715 process as effectively as possible to bring about 

the results called for in the President’s Executive Order. There is 

data that we can collect through those reports. There is technical 

assistance we can offer based on those reports that can and should 

operate synergistically with the data that OPM will be collecting 

and technical assistance OPM will be providing through the Executive Order. 

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9 

Second, the Committee had asked about the Leadership for the 

Employment of Americans with Disabilities Initiative (LEAD) that 

was started by then-Commissioner Griffin at EEOC, and my written testimony describes that. The one point I want to say here is 

that I view the Executive Order as an even more robust follow up 

to the LEAD Initiative. So we at the EEOC are very happy to be 

continuing the training, technical assistance, and analysis that 

started with the LEAD Initiative but now is part of this bigger and 

better effort. 

Third, the final component is the workforce itself, including people with disabilities who are just waiting to step up and contribute 

to the workplace. As I note in my written testimony, as a person 

with anxiety disorder that is medicated, I am keenly aware of the 

stereotypes and assumptions that can hold people with disabilities 

back. And as the October 2010 GAO report notes, we must change 

managers’ and supervisors’ assumptions and opinions about disabilities if we are to change outcomes. 

Increasing the numbers of people with targeted disabilities in the 

Federal workforce is a great way to begin that task. It is hard to 

continue believing that someone who has a mobility impairment, 

has cerebral palsy, who is deaf or blind, or who has a mental illness or an intellectual disability—is incapable of being a good employee when you are already working next to such a good employee. 

At the same time, while targeted disabilities represent a good 

and essential barometer for progress, and people with disabilities 

must play an important role in shaping efforts to determining how 

those goals for people with targeted disabilities can be achieved, I 

believe we must also make clear that we all exist along a spectrum 

of ability and disability. Some of us have impairments that generate a significant amount of discrimination, fear, and myths, and 

some of us have impairments that generate less. Some of us do not 

have impairments now, but we will down the road. If we can convince supervisors and workers, both in the Federal workforce and 

elsewhere, that there is not a sharp divide between people with disabilities, otherwise known as ‘‘them,’’ and everyone else in the 

workplace, often known as ‘‘us,’’ the better off all of us will be. 

Thank you very much, and I look forward to your questions. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you very much for your statement, Ms. 

Feldblum. 

I would like to start with a question to the entire panel. Participants at the GAO forum cited attitudes, attitudes such as low expectations and bias, as the key barrier to employing people with 

disabilities in the Federal Government. Why do you believe this remains such a significant challenge, and what can we do to address 

it? Ms. Jones. 

Ms. JONES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We believe it is a significant problem because so many of the participants at the forum discussed it and because the eight practices that were identified at the 

forum were, in part, derived from what participants viewed as attitudinal issues. And the eight practices are actions that the participants at the forum identified as necessary for changing attitudes. 

For example, leadership, communication, and commitment 

shapes how others in an agency or an organization will deal with 

issues and a second also surveying the workforce was aimed at deH605-41331-79W7 with DISTILLER

10 

termining what the attitudes or views of a specific organization or 

agency would be and could help suggest ways to change attitudes 

in the agency. Those are a couple of examples from the forum. 

Thank you. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Griffin. 

Ms. GRIFFIN. Mr. Chairman, I have looked at this for a long time 

in every which way and the bottom line is society still is in a place 

where they think people with disabilities are somehow less qualified to work. If you grow up thinking that people with disabilities 

need help, should be pitied, things like that, you just are never 

going to grasp the fact that they are just like you and they want 

to work. So attitudinal bias persists society-wide, so it is no surprise that it is in the Federal Government, as well. 

And we have done 40 years of this disabilities awareness stuff 

in the Federal Government. At least once a year in October, every 

Federal agency has some little program where they bring in someone with a disability or they discuss accommodations or they do 

something to recognize employment awareness, but it never results 

in employment and I am not sure that it results in awareness, either. 

So I have actually come to this conclusion, that the only way to 

actually change attitudinal bias is to hire people. Hire people with 

disabilities. They are the ones that actually change the attitudes of 

people who have any type of fear, myth, or stereotype in their 

head. It is only when you are working, as Commissioner Feldblum 

said, ‘‘You are working side by side with someone with a disability 

and they are doing the same job you are’’ that you finally say, oh, 

OK. This person—Chris Griffin is just like me. Kathy Martinez is 

just like me. They may do their job a little bit differently with an 

accommodation, but they are still doing the same job and they are 

just as capable and they are just as qualified. And that is the bottom line. It is actually getting more people with disabilities in the 

workplace that I think will change not only the Federal Government, but society’s views overall. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you, Ms. Griffin. Ms. Martinez. 

Ms. MARTINEZ. Senator Akaka, I was born blind and when I was 

in grade school, I was mainstreamed and was the only blind person 

in my class. The children in my class, in kindergarten through 

sixth grade, had not ever dealt with a person with a disability, so 

their expectations of me were just like the expectations they had 

of each other. 

As I grew up and kind of learned about the attitudes as people 

grew older and older, I graduated from high school and I was a client of the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) and I was placed in 

a lock factory. My case was closed and the rehabilitation counselor 

considered himself having placed a successful employment case. 

Well, I decided that was not going to be my life’s work, being a 

punch press operator in a lock factory, and here we are today. 

I think, as Christine said, I heard somebody call it contact theory. The more contact you have with somebody, the more you know 

them and the less you fear them. And unfortunately, because of 

thousands of years of systematic discrimination, people with disabilities—there is a major fear factor that we have to—that we can 

only address by being a part of society. 

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And the way that anybody feels productive, the way that most 

people have dignity is through work and pride and everything else 

that work provides. When people see us as productive, contributing 

members of society through our ability to contribute—we might not 

do things the same way as each other, but we get the job done— 

they will value us at a higher level. And again, we cannot emphasize enough the best way to change attitudes is to hire someone. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you, Ms. Martinez. Ms. Feldblum. 

Ms. FELDBLUM. Thank you. Let me just put some context to what 

you just heard, because I think you are hearing the same thing 

from all of us. If you imagine someone having four candidates in 

front of them to hire and they all have the basic qualification 

standards, they all went to law school or they all have their engineering degree, and three of them look just like the person who is 

doing the hiring and one of them is blind, or three of them look 

just like that person doing the hiring and one of them has cerebral 

palsy and is using a voice box to talk—that person doing the hiring 

is thinking, OK, I now have to hire someone, how that person performs is going to reflect on me because I have to produce for my 

boss, no matter how many disability awareness programs they 

have gone to, they are going to figure out a reason that it is better 

not to hire the person who is blind or who has cerebral palsy or 

who is using a wheelchair. And they are going to do that because 

they think, I am not going to look as good to my boss because this 

person is not going to produce. 

So what you are hearing is that the only way to change attitudes 

is to actually increase the numbers. And I wrote my answer here 

without having talked to Deputy Director Griffin before—because 

I am convinced, as well, that the only way you change that attitude 

is by forcing people to have that experience. 

So the question, then, again, because your second question is 

what can be done, and so I think there are two answers here. One 

is what the Executive Order does, which is to say, we do not care 

how much outreach you do. We want to see your bottom line numbers. And the second, it does not do as explicitly, but I think the 

Federal Government can, is to start putting in the performance 

evaluation of that manager, how well have you done on diversity 

hiring, because then that person has a reason to actually push himself or herself to think, well, maybe I do want to hire this person 

who is blind or uses this wheelchair. 

The second piece of it, though, is my understanding that it is not 

them and us. That is my point of saying, I am a person with a disability. You would not know it unless I come out and tell you I 

have anxiety disorder that is medicated. There are thousands of 

people out there in this country who have anxiety disorder and depression and they do not think they are people with disabilities. So 

remember I started by saying three people who look like the supervisor and one who does not? Well, some of those people—the supervisor him or herself could have a disability without knowing it. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. 

Ms. Griffin, from the Office of Personnel Management, I would 

like to ask a question about the Executive Order. As we have discussed, the President issued an Executive Order last July which required agencies to develop recruitment and hiring strategies for 

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12 

people with disabilities. These plans are due next month. Have 

agencies responded positively to the Executive Order and have they 

been working with OPM to develop their strategies? 

Ms. GRIFFIN. In fact, they actually have been working with us. 

And one of my senior advisors behind me, John Benison, can certainly testify to the numbers of phone calls and emails he gets on 

a daily basis, and certainly they are increasing as we get closer to 

the due date. 

But I really do believe agencies are engaged in this, and engaged 

because they have to do it and they are being held accountable, 

which is that key piece. And they are in the process of developing 

their goals. They actually get to do that based on their own strategic hiring plans that they developed. So they have to look at the 

numbers of people they are going to hire over the next couple years 

and then develop their goals. So it is not—we are not forcing a 

number on them. They have to develop what is right for them and 

then we have to assess whether we are going to meet the overall 

goals by doing that. 

In addition to them developing plans, we have not really just 

said, this is some new initiative and it begins when you submit 

your plan on March 8. We have been saying, it really is not a new 

concept, but it took an Executive Order to once again say to you 

as an agency, we are not kidding about this. We really mean you 

have to do it. So we are counting what agencies do during this 

year. We are not counting as of March 8. This is something that 

we have been counting for many years and we will continue to do 

so. 

We have done a lot of trainings. Folks from Kathy’s shop, including Kathy herself as well as EEOC, myself, Kareem Dale, who is 

the President’s Special Assistant on Disability issues at the White 

House participates in these trainings, Rehabilitation Services Administration folks, Dinah Cohen, who is Director of the CAP Program, the centralized accommodation program with DOD. We have 

all been working together not only to develop the model strategies, 

but now roll them out in in-person trainings that we are doing for 

the Federal agencies. John Berry is spearheading a campaign with 

the Chief Human Capital Officers Council meetings every month. 

In between meetings, we are sending reminders to them. So there 

is a lot of activity, a lot of engagement, and we just are delighted 

to see activity in this area. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. I am glad to hear you mention training, because we think that good training is always a challenge to 

changing how the Federal Government does things. 

Ms. Feldblum, as you mentioned in your testimony, each year, 

the EEOC analyzes and reports on agency efforts to improve hiring 

and accommodations for people with targeted disabilities. Although 

the overall trend is negative, I understand that certain agencies 

have had some success in these efforts. My question to you is which 

agencies have been most successful and what lessons can we take 

from them to help other agencies? 

Ms. FELDBLUM. Well, I list in my written testimony 11 agencies 

that have reached the target of 2 percent of people with targeted 

disabilities that the EEOC had set a few years ago. But to be honest, as I also note in that testimony, they tend to be the smaller 

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13 

agencies. Some of them deal with disability issues, the Access 

Board, EEOC itself. So among the large agencies, the Department 

of Treasury actually had some of the best numbers. 

And I think, in general, we find that it really does have to do 

with engagement by the supervisors, the line management folks, as 

well as really leadership from the top level. So I think we are at 

a point where we can actually see some significant change through 

a combination of having an Executive Order with these actual goals 

if the agencies feel like there will be some repercussions if they do 

not meet those goals. So that is the part about the agency commitment. 

And then, two, if the agencies feel like reaching that goal fits 

into their strategic mission. I mean, in the directive that we sent 

out to them where we asked for information, we say that part of 

their obligation is to tell us how diversity fits into their strategic 

goals. So if you are the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Homeland Security, Transportation, I mean, you are 

worried about housing and transportation and homeland security. 

And part of what we are trying to say to them, based on what Congress has said, is diversity will help you achieve those strategic 

goals. We want you to think about how that will work. 

So I think, it is not rocket science, but it does require a stick. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. 

This question is for all of the agency witnesses. Your agencies 

provide oversight, guidance and assistance to other Federal agencies on hiring, retaining, and accommodating people with disabilities. How are you coordinating your efforts to improve employment 

outcomes for people with disabilities? Ms. Griffin. 

Ms. GRIFFIN. I can begin by saying that one of the first things 

that we did, and certainly we began long before this, but in response to the Executive Order, we actually all collaborated on developing the model strategies on recruitment and hiring for the 

Federal agencies. So we all got together and talked about it and 

really actually began that process even before there was an Executive Order signed because we were hoping to issue guidance to 

agencies, whether we had an Executive Order or not. 

So we really began talking about this quite some time ago and 

trying to strategize about how we actually got agencies to do what 

they were supposed to do and how we actually could help them the 

best. So if they were saying, ‘‘We cannot find people with disabilities,’’ we said, ‘‘Well, we will find them for you.’’ We will hand 

them to you. If they said, ‘‘Well, we want people with disabilities 

to fill these types of jobs,’’ then we said we will find those types 

of people for you. If they said, ‘‘We have trouble retaining people 

once we hire them,’’ we said, well, let us talk about that. What is 

going on at your agency? Are you accommodating them? Are you 

asking them when they are leaving why they are leaving? That is 

probably where you should begin. 

So we have really developed a lot of strategies, and frankly, 

every one of our agencies, especially EEOC and Office of Disability 

Employment Policy, long before this point in time, have been trying 

to help agencies do this. I think that the differences right now, we 

actually have them paying attention. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Martinez. 

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14 

Ms. MARTINEZ. One of the things I wanted to comment on is in 

addition to helping people with disabilities who come into the Federal Government as a person with a disability, we also included in 

the Executive Order a focus on retaining Federal workers who become injured on the job, and I think that is a very critical part of 

the Executive Order, because for so long, Federal workers have just 

been disappearing onto the disability rolls. So one of the focuses 

that we have is to encourage the use of accommodations to better 

educate Federal employees themselves about when they become injured that they can work. And really, again, back to the mantra, 

the way they know that is by seeing somebody else who has a disability who may be working alongside them. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Feldblum. 

Ms. FELDBLUM. The EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations (OFO) 

is the division within the EEOC that is in contact with agencies 

all the time about their equal employment opportunity obligations, 

which include filling out this form once a year, but obviously includes doing work all through the year. So the EEOC holds meetings four times a year of all the EEO directors, and I happen to 

have attended the one 2 days ago at the Commission. I am going 

to do a shout-out for a woman who works at the Office of Federal 

Operations, and if I get her name wrong, I am reserving my right 

to correct the name for the record, but this woman, whose name, 

I believe, is Lori Grant, over 6 months ago said, ‘‘Well, why can we 

not figure out a way to have agencies talk to each other in an easier fashion by being able to upload their documents, their best practices, for us to be able to give them feedback? ’’ She did this amazing presentation of a web system she has now set up which harnesses technology to ensure better communication. 

So there are ways to, in fact, ensure that the information gets 

to folks. Again, there has to be some incentive, not just for that 

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Director to go on the 

webpage and learn something, but for the Deputy Secretary of 

some agency, or for the Secretary to feel that they want to listen 

to that EEO person. So getting the communication out there is only 

half of it. The other half is whether that is going to reach a receptive audience by someone who can make a difference. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. 

Ms. Jones, GAO observed that improved coordination could help 

agencies reduce duplication and take advantage of the economies 

of scale. This could better serve people with disabilities and make 

better use of taxpayers’ money. Would you please elaborate on how 

this could be done? 

Ms. JONES. Well, in terms of coordination, within agencies, the 

responsibility for assisting people with disabilities is often dispersed throughout the agency. So, for example, there may be some 

responsibilities for people with disabilities in the hiring office or 

the EEO-civil rights office or in the information technology office. 

So the idea was that there could be better communication and coordination between these offices so that they would both know 

what is going on but also so that they could develop a kind of, if 

you will, overarching program to help individuals with disabilities. 

The participants mentioned that sometimes when the responsibilities are dispersed across an agency, one group of people will 

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15 

think that an issue that affects persons with disabilities is being 

taken care of by another group. With better communication and coordination, then the different responsible parties would know what 

each other is doing. 

Senator AKAKA. This question is for all of our agency witnesses. 

We have a responsibility to provide our disabled veterans with opportunities to continue their service as civilian employees. In her 

testimony, Ms. Martinez mentioned the Executive Order on veterans’ hiring and the opportunity to coordinate these efforts to promote employment for disabled veterans. My question is, how are 

the disability and veterans’ hiring initiatives working together to 

serve our disabled veterans? Ms. Griffin. 

Ms. GRIFFIN. Mr. Chairman, this is something that we actually 

talk about at OPM all the time. We are responsible for implementing the veterans’ Executive Order as well as, with my colleagues, the disability Executive Order, and we—at every training 

we go to, every time we speak about this, we talk about the fact 

that a veteran with a disability is a person with a disability and 

they, too, can actually have multiple vehicles into the Federal Government and, in fact, can use Schedule A as an opportunity to get 

in through the same type of expedient process that other people 

with disabilities use. 

And we are encouraging agencies to actually honor and meet the 

goals of both Executive Orders by, in fact, hiring more veterans 

with disabilities. As a matter of fact, what I tell them is that in 

hiring reform, they have a hiring reform agenda they must meet. 

They have to decrease the amount of time it takes to actually hire 

anybody into the Federal Government. Then if they actually hire 

a veteran with a disability through Schedule A, they can meet the 

goals of the Administration’s personnel reform agenda. 

For us, it does not really matter how you acquire your disability. 

If you are a veteran with a disability, you have right and have 

other avenues available to you to get into the Federal Government 

and we owe you, I think, as a veteran with a disability, a debt and 

should honor that by offering you Federal employment. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Martinez. 

Ms. MARTINEZ. At the Office of Disability Employment Policy, we 

are working hand-in-hand with our Veterans Employment Training 

Office in the Department of Labor. One of the programs that we 

are actually handing over to them is called America’s Heroes at 

Work, where we kind of cross-pollinate with that office to make 

sure that veterans with disabilities are getting information about 

what is out there, that employers, including Federal employers, are 

getting information about hiring veterans with disabilities, including information about traumatic brain injury and different disabilities that veterans acquire in the various theaters, and we have 

found that the collaboration has been extremely productive. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Feldblum. 

Ms. FELDBLUM. So there are two sets of laws here that I think 

we should be focused on in terms of veterans. The first is the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act 

(USERRA). This is a very strong law that requires private sector 

employers to keep open jobs for people who have been deployed, 

and there is an entire section of that law that deals with veterans 

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16 

with disabilities. That is a law that is actually quite strong on 

paper, but for it to have teeth, you need good enforcement, and I 

know that is in the enforcement side of the Department of Labor, 

USERRA is one of the things that they are very focused on. 

Because again, if you think about a person, a veteran who is disabled, if that person can go back to his or her original job where 

the employees actually knows the person, that is the best. So we 

have a law that is quite strong, as I said, and on paper, it requires 

sometimes keeping a job open for 5 years. But employers are often 

not doing that. So that is one piece of the puzzle. 

Second, if USERRA is not going to be applied, then I agree with 

Christine Griffin that certainly the Federal Government should be 

a place where veterans should be more than welcome. I would say, 

there, the fact that Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 2 years ago, and the EEOC will 

shortly be issuing regulations on that, I think has helped create a 

renewed focus on disability rights generally. 

So, for example, I have given probably four talks to Federal personnel folks, including one at Fort Meade, where I started with the 

ADA generally but also moved to some of the issues in terms of the 

Rehabilitation Act, Section 501. So I am hoping that this will all 

help in terms of the focus. But again, focus is just the first step 

and then it is about making sure we get results. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Feldblum, I understand that the EEOC’s authority to enforce compliance with disability employment laws differs within the public and private sector. What can the EEOC do 

to make sure Federal agencies comply, and do you believe you need 

additional authority to do that? 

Ms. FELDBLUM. Yes. That is a great question. I have to say, I 

have been a civil rights employment lawyer for almost 25 years 

and I did not realize the extensive authority that EEOC had with 

regard to the Federal sector until I became a Commissioner. So 

right there, I think we need to increase the visibility of that authority. 

But the key difference is that in the private sector, what Congress has told us is to essentially facilitate the processing of discrimination charges. So people file charges with the EEOC. We investigate. If there is reasonable cause, we try to conciliate. If that 

does not work, we litigate. But we are in a facilitative role. 

In the Federal sector, what you, Congress, did was give us a 

much more direct enforcement role. That is, you said Federal agencies should not be discriminating, should be engaged in affirmative 

action with regard to people with disabilities, and you, the EEOC, 

should actually be enforcing that. Now, you did say that, but there 

were not a lot of, as I say, sticks and hammers that came along. 

You know, we can sort of slap the hands of Federal agencies. We 

can say, oh, bad boy. We can put them up on the website that they 

are not doing well. But that is where I say it has to be an ongoing 

communication between us and Congress, because I do not see, personally, the Congress handing us authority to fine the Department 

of Housing and Urban Development $100 billion. But I think the 

more that you are asking us, how are agencies doing, and the more 

that you are thinking, how do I reward or, I do not know, penalize, 

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but have some repercussions, I think the more that there is good 

communication between us and Congress, the better off we will be. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. 

Ms. Martinez, your testimony on the Workforce Recruitment Program was especially interesting to me because I believe the Federal 

Government needs to do more to reach into colleges and universities to train students for Federal jobs. Would you please tell us 

more about how this program works and if you think it might be 

a useful model for other student intern programs? 

Ms. MARTINEZ. Well, we are very proud of the Workforce Recruitment Program. Like I mentioned in my testimony, it has been in 

existence since 1995 and we partner very closely with the Department of Defense and they deserve their kudos because they hire 

many, many people from that program. 

Let me start with something that I would like to change about 

it. One of the things about it that is difficult is that it is a separate 

program, so I would like to see people with disabilities ultimately 

be a part of all internship programs that are available to young 

people in the Federal Government. But given that has not happened, the WRP has been, I would say, very successful in that we 

do recruit all over the country. I think our numbers—we reach out 

to approximately 250 colleges and universities. We are making specific efforts to reach out to the Hispanic Colleges and Universities 

(HCU), and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities 

(HBCU). And really, the goal is to get qualified folks with disabilities in front of hiring managers and supervisors so they have their 

first opportunity as an intern or as a permanent job in the Federal 

Government. 

Now, you should know also that this database has become so 

popular that private employers are also availing themselves of it, 

and we are very proud of that. But we feel like folks—there are a 

lot of qualified—we know that there are a lot of qualified students 

with disabilities who want to work and this is one way that they 

can have an opportunity to become a part of the Federal workforce. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. 

Now, this question is for all of the witnesses. People with disabilities tend to leave Federal service at a higher rate than other employees. In fact, they are leaving Federal service at nearly twice 

the rate that they are being hired. My question is, why is this and 

what can we do to reverse this trend? Ms. Martinez. 

Ms. MARTINEZ. Well, I want to say that I think part of the problem is our lack of access to technology. Again, as a person with a 

visual impairment, technology, for the most part, is not accessible, 

and we have our 508 standards, but I think that people leave because if they do not have access to information which comes over 

email, Blackberries, other types of communication devices, then we 

cannot do our jobs, basically. 

So what happens is if I do not have the appropriate technology 

to kind of keep me up to date with the changing technology in the 

government, I fall further and further behind. So if I am unable to 

get my emails at home over the weekend, I may have missed something very critical which might be due on Monday morning. That 

impacts my job performance, which impacts my desire if I have a 

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comes very discouraging, especially when it is because of the circumstance that I have no control over. So I think what happens for 

many people is that the government is not purchasing accessible 

technology and we fall further and further behind and come discouraged. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. Ms. Griffin. 

Ms. GRIFFIN. I agree with Kathy and I think that is one of the 

factors in this equation when we are looking at why people leave 

in the Federal Government. But I think more troubling to me has 

always been the fact that we do not ask people why they are leaving. We do not have data. We only know anecdotally what Kathy 

is saying. We know we have the greatest centralized accommodation program in the world, probably, with the CAP program over 

at the Department of Defense, which provides technology-based accommodations for all Federal employees, but what Kathy is talking 

about really is not covered sometimes by what they do. And so we 

do have to do a better job as a government adhering to Section 508 

of the Rehabilitation Act, which says, we should not contract with 

anyone who does not provide whatever it is in an accessible format 

that is updated and accessible for everyone. 

But there are a lot of other factors impacting why people leave 

and we do not know exactly what they are. So one of the things, 

the strategies we are using in the model strategies and we are 

going to require agencies to do in compliance with the Executive 

Order is to start asking people who have disabilities, when they are 

leaving the Federal Government, why they are leaving and start 

providing data so that they can change what is going on. 

Just to give you an example, the Chief Human Capital Officer at 

the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just told us 

in the last couple of weeks that although they are actually doing 

a lot more with regard to hiring people with disabilities, she is 

watching the retention rate and she is seeing people still leave. So 

she has immediately implemented something with her hiring managers that says you must start collecting data on why people are 

leaving. But we have to do that government-wide because—there 

are certainly barriers to employment or to keeping people employed 

that we are not addressing because we are just not asking the right 

questions. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Feldblum. 

Ms. FELDBLUM. One of the great things I think sometimes about 

hearings is it does force some of us as we are preparing to look at 

some of these questions and figure out where we need more information. So a chart that you have, I am sure was submitted for the 

record, and if not, we can, is this trend analysis that the Office of 

Federal Operations at EEOC did of individuals with targeted disabilities and it is very interesting when you parse down to see 

where the decreases happen and then to ask ourselves, do we know 

why. 

So, for example, in terms of people who are deaf, in 2000, there 

were about 5,200 deaf people in the Federal Government and in 

2009, 4,200. So that is a decrease of 1,000 people. Now, what is 

that about? Some of it is probably about not getting the accommodations. Is some of it that we have restructured jobs that a large 

number of people who are deaf had? I do not know. I mean, I plan 

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to go back and ask my Office of Federal Operations, and if we do 

know, I will submit it for the record, and if we do not, I will let 

you know how we are trying to figure out why. 

In comparison to that, people who are blind, there were around, 

2,600 people in 2000 and about 2,600 in 2009. So not a decrease 

there. But there, what we should focus on is that we have 2,600 

blind people, that is all, out of a workforce of 2.8 million? 

The other, I thought, interesting change was people with intellectual disabilities at 2,500 in 2009. It is about 1,600 decrease—2,500 

in 2000 and 1,600 in 2009. Again, a thousand person decrease, as 

opposed to people with mental illness, 5,600 in 2000, 6,800 in 2009, 

a thousand person increase. 

So to me, for us to be doing our job, we really do need to be 

digging down into these questions. And again, this is why I said 

that this Executive Order in 2010 is very different from the Executive Order of 2000. They are similar in that they each called for 

hiring 100,000 people with disabilities. The difference is that the 

2010 Executive Order really went through and said, and there are 

various things we want you to do, including getting training, having goals, and finding out why people are leaving. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. Ms. Jones. 

Ms. JONES. Mr. Chairman, this is not really a question that the 

forum looked at directly, but supporting what Ms. Martinez said, 

participants at the forum did say that sometimes hiring managers 

are reluctant to look at hiring people with disabilities because they 

have a perception or a belief that it would be very expensive to provide accommodations for them, whereas in reality, there are many 

times when it is not as expensive as they might have imagined, 

and that is one of the reasons why one of the practices that was 

listed at the forum was providing a centralized budget for accommodations for people with disabilities. Excuse me. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. 

Ms. Martinez, the cost of providing accommodations, especially 

personal assistant services, is one issue some managers raised as 

a barrier to hiring people with disabilities. In your testimony, you 

talk about how some agencies, including the Department of Labor, 

include an accommodations fund in the general agency budget so 

that small offices do not feel burdened by the cost. This is also one 

of the retention strategies described in the President’s Executive 

Order. My question is, how widely is this practice used and why 

is it so important? 

Ms. MARTINEZ. Mr. Chairman, that is an excellent question and 

I will—let me start with the second part, why is it so important, 

and I will have to defer to my colleague, Christine, with regard to 

how widely it is used in the different agencies. 

I can speak specifically for the Department of Labor. We started 

ours in 2010. It is important exactly for the reason that you said, 

which is that it frees up small budgets, or different departmental 

budgets, so that if there is an expensive accommodation, it can be 

absorbed by the pool. 

So, for example, in the Department of Labor, there is a certain 

percentage that is put into our centralized accommodations fund so 

that if there are higher-cost accommodations, such as sign lanH605-41331-79W7 with DISTILLER

20 

guage interpreters and personal assistant services, those can be absorbed by the entire Department. 

And I would say that the savings that the government enjoys by 

hiring folks with disabilities with regard to the fact, A, they are not 

depending on benefits, B, they are paying taxes, would completely 

overshadow the cost of workplace accommodations or sign language 

interpreters. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Griffin. 

Ms. GRIFFIN. Mr. Chairman, we have not done what I would say, 

a widespread study on this, but just anecdotally talking to the different agencies and asking this question, the answer is it is not 

widely used. 

One of the things I learned when I was a Commissioner at 

EEOC, and I am sure they could provide you with statistics on 

this, is that there are lots of cases and complaints filed when somebody with a disability who is a Federal employee asks for an accommodation and it is not provided, a lot of times because the person in charge of their small division, their department, thinks that 

their budget is going to have to cover the cost of that and that they 

cannot afford to do it. The wasted time and money on those cases 

that are clear cut types of cases under the Rehabilitation Act really 

could be used by the agency more appropriately in providing the 

accommodation. 

And so one of the things the EEOC did when I was there and 

continues to do today is not only centralize the budget, but centralize even the decision making. So you actually take the decision 

making, a legally-based decision that has to be made on whether 

the person has a disability or not and whether they should provide 

the accommodation or not, take that away from the local manager 

so they are not thinking about it with regard to whether the employee deserves it or not or whether they can afford it or not. 

And the other important factor that a lot of people do not know 

is that those types of accommodations for personal assistance, readers, sign language interpreters, we can actually hire them as employees using Schedule A, as well. That is a little-known piece of 

information that we try and remember to tell people. You can actually hire all of these folks the same way you can hire people with 

disabilities, expediently, so you get them the accommodations they 

need, and folks can hire, let us say, a sign language interpreter to 

do interpreter services for all the deaf employees as well as for 

meetings and meetings with the outside, stakeholders and other 

folks who may include people who are deaf. When they are not 

doing those duties, they actually can be assigned to do other duties 

within the agency. So that is a key piece of information that I 

think agencies do not know enough about or pay enough attention 

to. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Griffin, I have been working with OPM to 

increase the use of telework in the Federal Government and my 

Telework Enhancement Act was signed into law last year. A number of the witnesses today have mentioned that telework and other 

workplace flexibilities can play a role in attracting and retaining 

people with disabilities. My question to you is how is OPM encouraging agencies to use telework and other flexibilities as a tool for 

people with disabilities? 

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Ms. GRIFFIN. Mr. Chairman, I think you know how strongly Director Berry at OPM feels about telework as an important tool for 

all Federal employees, especially in times of, let us say, snow closures and other events that happen within the Federal Government. So it is key that we have telework as a significant tool for 

all of our Federal workforce. 

But more importantly for people with disabilities, this will give 

lots of people with disabilities who, for whatever reason, cannot utilize transportation, do not have access to transportation, to be very 

productive citizens and do the work right from their home. We 

demonstrate that with lots of people now every single day, and as 

you know because of your Telework Act, there is training about 

that and the culture change that is taking place in the Federal 

Government and increasing telework every day. 

I think we are celebrating Telework Week this week and we have 

lots of people at OPM who have been encouraged, as I think other 

Federal agency heads have done, to telework, and we have not only 

employees with disabilities who are teleworking as employees for 

OPM this week but lots of others, as well. 

This is a critical tool. We have, again—I cannot say enough 

about the Department of Defense CAP program, the computer and 

electronic accommodations program that provides us with the electronically-based accommodations for all of the Federal Government. 

They will, in a case where it is a reasonable accommodation for 

someone with a disability to telework, they will actually provide 

the equipment that is needed for the person to do that. 

So we have—we have no excuses and no reasons not to do this. 

This is a wonderful tool that allows people to be productive. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you very much. 

I want to thank you for your responses. You have been generous 

in your time. So this is my final question for all of the witnesses. 

The President’s Executive Order is moving us forward and bringing 

renewed attention to these issues across government. In your opinion, what is the most important thing the Federal Government 

could do to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities, and what can Congress do to assist in these efforts? 

Ms. GRIFFIN. I will begin. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Griffin. 

Ms. GRIFFIN. The most important thing they can do—we cannot 

say this enough—is hire them, hire them, hire them. We have done 

a really good job, I think, not perfect, but a good job in this country 

of educating people with disabilities. We have people that have all 

the degrees, advanced degrees, the education, the training, the 

skills, the abilities to do all of the jobs that we have in the Federal 

Government. It is not a matter of we cannot find them. It is a matter of we currently are not hiring them. We have to hire more people with disabilities. That is the most important thing that we can 

do. 

What you can do in Congress is to help us hold the agencies accountable. The President talked a lot about this when he signed 

the Executive Order, when he said the difference between this one 

and the one that President Clinton signed was the accountability 

piece. He told us at OPM to make sure that we put up on a website 

the progress that agencies were making so that all could see and 

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it would be transparent to everyone whether we were meeting our 

goals or not. 

But I think, more importantly, Congress can play a role in helping us hold agencies accountable and asking agencies that do not 

meet their goals what is going on. Why not? Ask OPM why agencies are not doing a good job of meeting their goals. I think that 

would be very helpful. 

Senator AKAKA. Ms. Martinez. 

Ms. MARTINEZ. Well, Mr. Chairman, I know many talented people from the State of Hawaii who would love to work for you, and 

I think that one thing in addition to holding folks accountable that 

you as leaders can do is to hire folks with disabilities. As you are 

role models, so follow your troops. And I think that is one very tangible thing you can do. 

I also think we have to recognize that the Federal workforce, like 

our population as a whole, is changing, and Federal workers are 

aging on the job. One thing that we will have to remember while 

implementing this Executive Order is that many of the people who 

will be availing themselves of the accommodations provided for 

those of us with disabilities are aging Federal workers, and I think 

it is important to just acknowledge that our population is aging 

and the Federal workforce is aging. So I think there will even need 

to be more of an understanding about technology, about buying accessible technology and usable technology, and also about the 

whole accommodations process. Thank you for the opportunity. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. Ms. Feldblum. 

Ms. FELDBLUM. OK. So there really is not a telepathic bond between Deputy Director Griffin and me, but I did write down in response to your question, the most important thing, in a sense, has 

been done, which is require the agencies to set targeted goals, and 

therefore, the most important thing Congress could do is to figure 

out ways to convey to the agencies that it is watching this Executive Order, as well, and that it will use whatever capacities it has 

through various authorizing and appropriating Committees to ask 

for accountability. 

So given that is exactly the same answer that you just heard, I 

want to add one other thing which goes to your question before 

about workplace flexibility, including telework. For 7 years before 

I was named to the Commission, I started and then co-directed an 

enterprise called Workplace Flexibility 2010, and I, in fact, worked 

with various folks on your staff. I think Thomas Richards was stolen by OPM, maybe, away from you, but he was someone we 

worked with. 

I think the main thing we found there is that you need the right 

actors involved, which includes Congress, executive agencies, and 

the workforce, but as well, the private sector, and that means the 

private for-profit and nonprofit sector, in order to start changing 

the norm of how the workplace is set up, to start changing the expectations of how you are going to judge whether someone is a good 

employee. And it is not going to be because they showed up Xamount of time, but instead it is about what did they produce. If 

we can move our entire workforce model more to an outcome evaluative manner—that we are evaluating you and your outcomes and 

that we actually teach our managers how to do that, both inside 

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23 

the public sector as well as private—that will have significant ripple effects for lots of people. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you. Ms. Jones. 

Ms. JONES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me start with your 

second question first. The participants at the forum recognize that 

there are laws like the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with 

Disabilities Act and regulations like the Management Directive 715 

and also the Executive Order of July 2010, so the participants did 

not state that there were actions that Congress needed to undertake. Rather, they recognized the value of the existing laws and 

regulations. 

With respect to your first question, in terms of improving the employment of individuals with disabilities in the Federal workforce, 

what the participants agreed on is that the eight practices, which 

were identified in the forum are key and that they need to be implemented together in order to reinforce each other. They were very 

clear that the practices would not work in isolation, so that agencies need to be encouraged to undertake all of them. 

Senator AKAKA. Thank you very much, all of you, for your 

thoughts and your recommendations. Your work reminds us all of 

the importance of getting past stereotypes so we focus on workers’ 

abilities and qualifications rather than their disabilities. I believe 

that with your leadership, we will see an improvement in employment outcomes for people with disabilities in the Federal Government. I encourage all of you to continue working together and with 

this Subcommittee, also, on this issue. We certainly want to make 

some improvements here. 

The hearing record will remain open for 1 week for Members to 

submit additional statements or questions. And again, thank you 

all for your time and your responses. 

This hearing is now adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:01 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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