The Women's and Fair Practices Departments' Disability Rights Campaign
The Women's and Fair Practices Departments are about advocating for the fair and equal treatment of all. On February 10, 2008 we launched a disability rights campaign to provide awareness to our members and the world about how the federal and D.C. government treats disabled American workers.
Federal and District of Columbia employees with disabilities challenge the commitment of agencies to treat them fairly, adhere to laws and regulations, and remove barriers to equal employment opportunities. The number of federal employees with targeted disabilities* remains less than two percent of the total federal workforce. During 1997-2006 the number of employees with targeted disabilities decreased by about 14.75 percent, while the federal government grew by 5.48 percent in employment. In FY 2006, the participation rate of people with targeted disabilities fell to 0.94% of the federal government’s total work force, the lowest participation rate in over 20 years. This decline is occurring when the number of workers with disabilities and chronic conditions is expected to grow as the workforce ages and our veterans return home.
AFGE members told the Women’s and Fair Practices (WFP) Departments that there is something extremely wrong with the treatment of individuals with disabilities in government workplaces. The WFP Departments embrace their concerns and intend to campaign around the hiring, advancement, and treatment of individuals with disabilities, including our U.S. veterans.
Three Primary Goals:
- Education of the AFGE members and potential members, congressional and political leaders, agencies, and the American people on the rights, treatment, and employment of individual with disabilities, including our disabled veterans;
- Enforcement of the laws, rules, regulations, executive orders, and collective bargaining agreements relating to individuals with disabilities and the government’s role as a model employer; and
- Equality in the hiring, advancement, access to facilities, and treatment of disabled veterans and individuals with disabilities, including removal of barriers to equal employment opportunities, and the enactment of laws to eliminate loopholes in existing laws and rules to ensure fair treatment with regard to conditions of employment for employees with disabilities.
Next Steps:
- Raise awareness about the limited rights and unfair treatment of workers with disabilities
- Distribute the WFP Departments’ survey to AFGE members. Encourage members and potential members to help by completing the survey
- Volunteer or recruit a Coordinator to help with the Disability Campaign**
**Contact Caniesha Washington – email address: eeo@afge.org
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* Targeted disabilities are identified as blindness, deafness, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, mental illness, mental retardation, convulsive disorders, distortion of limbs and/or spine, and missing extremities.
If you would like to help please complete our disability survey and contact your District Women’s and Fair Practices’ Coordinators or the Women’s and Fair Practices Departments’ staff.
Please send the completed survey by April 30, 2008 to eeo@afge.org , fax to 202-639-4112, or mail it to WFP, 80 F Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20001.
WFP Disability Campaign Fact Sheet
WFP Disability Survey (Microsoft document)
WFP Disability Survey (Adobe pdf)