Kessler Foundation’s CEO Rodger DeRose Publishes Op-ed in The Hill to Reflect on the ADA
New strategies need to be developed in order to expand employment opportunities for PWD, says DeRose
July 26, 2014 marks the 24th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). To commemorate this landmark legislation, Rodger DeRose, president and chief executive officer of Kessler Foundation, published an op-ed piece for The Hill—a congressional daily paper. In “People with Disabilities Still Find Job Market a Challenge,” DeRose discusses the current employment environment for Americans with disabilities and recognizes that while positive changes have occurred since the passing of the ADA, employment numbers for people with disabilities (PWD) remain too low.
DeRose cites federal guidelines and grant funding to support disability employment initiatives as strategies to create and expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities; since 2005, Kessler Foundation has awarded more than $30 million in grants to fund opportunities in many fields across the nation. DeRose urges companies to hire people with disabilities because they want to not because they need to.
“Indeed, hiring PWD enhances the diversity of a workforce,” DeRose writes. “PWD can, and want to, contribute to the economy. The traditional one person at a time approach isn’t opening up as many doors as need to be opened. We need to apply strategies that will provide jobs to large numbers of people with disabilities. The employment situation for PWD will only improve when government, nonprofits, and corporations work together to implement strategies that integrate people with disabilities into diverse, accessible workplaces.”
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