Individuals with Disabilities Add Value, Talent to Workplaces

“Good jobs change lives, and all workers, including workers with disabilities, deserve the opportunity to prepare for, obtain, and succeed in meaningful employment,” said Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy, in a memorandum about NDEAM released at the start of this month.

Del Toro added that the observance “affirms an employer's commitment to ensuring Individuals with Disabilities (IWD) have access to rewarding employment every day.”

More than 14 percent of the Department of the Navy’s workforce are IWD, according to Del Toro. “Hard-working candidates with disabilities can be assets to our team and viable sources to fill our ranks, especially in critical occupations. This surpasses the 12 percent goal set by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for federal agencies, and I am proud of the DON for its achievements and commitment to excellence and progress.”

At Commander, Navy Region Hawaii (CNRH), individuals with disabilities make up about 26% of the work force.

Guss Lee Alexander Jr., deputy director of the CNRH’s Equal Employment Opportunity office, explained that sometimes individuals with disabilities experience barriers to employment in the form of unfounded negative stereotypes about them.

To help increase understanding of how individuals with disabilities can add value to the workplace and to celebrate their accomplishments, CNRH’s Joint Diversity and Inclusion Committee will host a cake cutting ceremony on Oct. 17 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Hale Aina Dining Facility on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

The event will include a presentation by Evan Nakatsuka, director of workforce programs at Lanakila Pacific, a Hawaii-based non-profit organization that helps people with cognitive, physical, social or age-related challenges build their independence through employment readiness training, job placement opportunities and other assistance programs.

Nakatsuka will talk about Lanakila’s mission, the AbilityOne program that finds job opportunities for those with disabilities with federal agencies, the impact of Hale Aina’s food service operations, and the ongoing process of creating inclusive workspaces.

“The importance of this event is to provide information that hopefully will break down some of those barriers to employment with people with disabilities,” explained Alexander.

In his memo, Del Toro also highlighted another major DON accomplishment: a mandate that the DON include the Schedule A(u) hiring avenue on all merit promotion job opportunity announcements open to candidates outside of the Department of Defense.”

Schedule A(u) is an excepted hiring authority that provides employment pathways for people with disabilities, allowing qualified individuals to be considered for employment and expands the applicant pool for DON employers.

Alexander shared another win for individuals with disabilities that comes from section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

“Because you have individuals with disabilities who may not necessarily be able to acquire information the way that other people do not, section 508 is a law that says we should make sure that our work environments are accessible in terms of communication,” He explained.

President Joe Biden co-sponsored the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 when he was a U.S. Senator and described it in this year’s NDEAM proclamation as “one of the most consequential civil rights laws in our Nation’s history, banning discrimination on the basis of disability by any entity the federal government funds.”

Biden also pledged his ongoing commitment to fight for equal opportunities and access for individuals with disabilities in the written NDEAM proclamation.

“America’s economy is strong when every American has an opportunity to thrive,” he said. “And we recommit to opening the doors of opportunity wider for people with disabilities, making our nation more equal.”

Alexander put NDEAM and the Oct. 17 event in a personal context, explaining that as people age they may develop a disability, and he described the amazing benefits of being or knowing individuals with disabilities:

“People with disabilities can still contribute. There’s nothing that prevents them from doing anything that anyone who doesn’t have a disability can do.”