From Penny Reeder at GettingHired.com:On the morning of March 31, President Obama's Special Assistant for Disability Policy, Kareem Dale, spoke at the National Council on Disability's (NCD) annual meeting in Washington, DC, about the Administration's progress toward meeting the needs, and measuring up to the expectations of the community of people with disabilities, their advocates and supporters.
Mr. Dale, who pointed out, several times during the course of his remarks that the Obama Administration has been on the job for only 60 days since the president took office on January 20, said that people with disabilities have already been included in government programs and White House meetings in record numbers, and he urged the community of people with disabilities to be patient, and to view the glass as half full, and filling.
Dale described his duties at the White House as public liaison and domestic policy counsel. He said that the President has already begun to implement an aggressive agenda to meet the needs of people with disabilities, that surpasses the plan which he outlined during the campaign. He said that the Obama administration is committed to enforcing and fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), to enforcing and funding "No Child Left Behind," to special education and to education in general.
"We have a commitment," he said, "To making sure that kids stay in school, that they get the services they need, that they graduate, and when they graduate, they will have jobs and decent salaries"
Dale said, "In the first 60 days, we have already begun to accomplish what we said we would. This has been an unbelievable experience."
Dale said that the administration is well aware of the needs of people with disabilities, for employment, integration and inclusion. He said that the White House is providing a model for the federal government and employers in the private sector, as well, by having already hired three people with disabilities to carry out and work on policy issues related to meeting the needs of people with disabilities.
Dale, who worked prior to the campaign as an attorney in Chicago, and who is blind, noted that there has never before been a person who is blind who received a White House appointment at the level of special assistant or director.
In addition, Dale praised the nomination of Kathy Martinez, who is blind, for Director at the Office of Disability Employment Policy in the Department of Labor, and Seth Harris, a Senior Fellow of the Life Without Limits Project of the United Cerebral Palsy Association and a member of the National Advisory Commission on Workplace Flexibility for Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor.
Dale said, "Our team is starting to come into place. Be patient. We can't do everything in the first 60 days, but we are working on it, we know about it, and we are moving forward."He said that the Obama Administration has three major goals for people with disabilities: Integration, inclusion, and not to be siloed out.
Dale said that in the first two months, the Obama Administration has included people with disabilities at every public event held at the White House, including the fiscal summit and the health care summit, where there were representatives from the Consortium of People with Disabilities (CCD) and ADAPT, and the Small Business Administration roundtable, to which four people with disabilities were invited to participate.
He said, "The regional health care forums across the country are getting their fair share of people with disabilities. People with disabilities have a seat at the table,"
Stressing the administration's commitment to hiring people with disabilities at every level, Dale said, "We will make sure that people with disabilities are included across all the federal agencies."
