National Disability Employment Awareness Month

1. National Disability Employment Awareness Month "America Works Best When All Americans Work"

2. National Disability Employment Awareness Month began with the Presidential Proclamation of Public Law 100-630 (Title III, Sec 301a) in 1988. This law replaced National Employ the Handicapped Week which had occurred annually since 1945 during the first week of October. The new law also recognized a change in terminology and replaced "handicap" with "disability". The Office of Diversity Management and Equal Employment Opportunity – Department of Veterans Affairs “works proactively to enhance the employment of women, minorities, veterans, and people with disabilities. More than 3,789 VA employees (1.93%) have targeted disabilities, many of them veterans.”

3. Franklin D. RooseveltIn 1921, FDR was stricken with poliomyelitis (polio). Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. Polio invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours.

4. Helen KellerMiss Keller was born in 1880 with full sight and hearing. In 1882, at the age of 19 months, Miss Keller fell ill. Modern day doctors believed she had scarlet fever or meningitis. The illness left her blind and deaf.

5. Christopher ReeveIn May of 1995, Reeve's hands were tangled in his horse's bridle and he landed head first, fracturing the uppermost vertebrae in his spine. Reeve was instantly paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe. Prompt medical attention saved his life and delicate surgery stabilized the shattered C1-C2 vertebrae and literally reattached Reeve's head to his spine.

6. Stephen Hawking He has devoted much of his life to probing the space. And he’s done most of this work while confined to a wheelchair, brought on by the progressive neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, a post once held by Isaac Newton.

7. Ray CharlesAt the age of seven, Ray Charles became blind. He went on to become a great musician, posting musical milestones along the way. Diversity includes disability. People with disabilities cross all racial,ethnic, educational, and economic lines. "Attitudes are the Real Disability" button.

8. Judy Heumann Judy Heumann fought all her life to be included in the educational system. In 1970 Judy and several disabled friends founded Disabled in Action, an organization that set out to secure the protection of people with disabilities under civil rights laws. In 1983, with Ed Roberts, Judy Heumann co-founded the World Institute on Disability, and now serves as Assistant Secretary of Education in charge of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation.

9. Sharon Schmidt She is a vocational rehabilitation counselor with the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission in Columbus, received her doctorate in rehabilitation services and vocational counseling from The Ohio State University in March. Schmidt, who is blind, started work on the degree in 1995 but took time off from her studies in April 2000 to have a second kidney transplant (her first, in 1989, was failing) and in June lost her guide dog to cancer. She received Truth, her new dog, in October 2000.

10. Rex Lewis-ClarkRex is a musical savant whose incredible piano talent coexists with blindness and severe mental impairment. Rex was born with a huge cyst in his brain, and at four months, doctors discovered he was blind. Rex didn't learn to walk, or talk, or eat solid food, and he developed autistic-like symptoms – including hypersensitivity in his hands.   Source: CBS Worldwide Inc.

11. "The employment numbers of people with disabilities have not increased in the years since the passage of the ADA" FCC Chairman Kennard "Of those working-aged people with disabilities who aren't working, 72% want to work" Roughly 70 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed

12. Myths about People with Disabilities Myths and misconceptions about people with disabilities impact all of us. Learning to replace these myths and stereotypes with realities is an important step toward ending discrimination and eliminating barriers that can limit people with disabilities. The message is that it is ability, not disability that counts! MYTH: The lives of people with disabilities are totally different from those of most other people. REALITY: People with disabilities go to school, are involved in intimate relationships, work, have families, do laundry, shop, pay taxes, have prejudices, vote, and dream like anyone else. MYTH: All persons who use wheelchairs are chronically ill or sick. REALITY: A person may use a wheelchair for a variety of reasons, none of which may have anything to do with lingering illness. For instance: MS is not a disease. MYTH: There aren't very many people with disabilities on campus. REALITY: There are many kinds of disabilities and some are not visible. Source: Myths and Facts About People With Disabilities, University of Minnesota, Office for Students with Disabilities)

13. Myths about People with Disabilities MYTH: Only people in wheel chairs or who use crutches are disabled. REALITY: People with disabilities are among our friends, family members, co-workers and respected leaders. Just because a disability can't be seen it doesn't mean that a person does not have one or more. One out of every five Americans has a disability. Statistics also show that only 32 percent of working-age people with disabilities are employed, compared with 81 percent of the non-disabled population (a gap of 49 points). And similar gaps also exist in other major life activities, such as: community, political and religious participation. MYTH: People with disabilities always need help. REALITY: Many people with disabilities are quite independent and capable of giving help. Source: Myths and Facts About People With Disabilities, University of Minnesota, Office for Students with Disabilities)