Disability Rights On the Move!

After being boycotted for years by the Bush administration, I was pleased to learn that the U.S. recently “did the right thing” (my words) by signing a United Nations treaty urging equal protection and equal benefits under the law for the 650 million people with disabilities worldwide (10% of the global population). The treaty will be submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification.

I consider this an event worthy of front-page news although alas, it was not!

This “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” is the first new human rights treaty of the 21st century adopted by the United Nations. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, signed the treaty on behalf of the United States, joining 141 other countries that also supported the measure.

The Convention calls on all nations to guarantee rights consistent with those afforded under the Americans with Disabilities Act, urges equal protection and equal benefit before the law for all citizens, and affirms the inherent dignity, worth, and independence of all persons with disabilities worldwide.

Surely it was no accident that this Convention was signed just a few days after the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In a proclamation adopted this summer, the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) celebrated local progress resulting from the landmark ADA legislation while acknowledging that there is still much left to do.

On the morning of October 1st, the BOCC will again publically push for expanded disability rights by designating October 2009 as “”Disability Employment Awareness Month” in Johnson County. This year’s theme, “Expectation + Opportunity = Full Participation” underscores the vital role that expectations play in our successes as individuals and as a society. Congress designated each October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month in 1988.

Here at JCDS, we are grateful for the support of the BOCC, and of the Johnson County community, in anticipating the full participation of people with disabilities in the workforce. Most of all, we look to their partnership in providing access to a full range of employment choices for the people we serve.

And there is so much left to do! In statistics released by the U.S. Department of Labor just last month, the percent of people with disabilities in the labor forces was 22.2 compared with 71.2 for persons without disabilities. The unemployment rate for those with disabilities was nearly double the 9.3 percent for persons with no disability.

So we must continue raising the bar; we must create the inexorable expectation that people with disabilities can and will contribute in every way to our economic successes and the diversity of our neighborhoods. Only by nurturing this expectation and providing people with disabilities with employment opportunities can we raise the quality of life for all.