Federal Jobs for Disabled Drop

20 Percent Decrease Since '94 Surprises Analysts, Advocates

The number of federal employees with severe disabilities has declined by nearly 20 percent over the last decade, challenging the long-held notion that the federal government is a haven of opportunity for such workers.

In fiscal 2003, federal agencies employed 25,551 workers who were deaf, blind, mentally ill or mentally retarded, or had other serious disabilities, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. That was a 19.8 percent decrease from 31,860 such federal workers in fiscal 1994, the EEOC found. The steady decline far surpassed the 7.6 percent reduction in overall civilian federal employment during the period, to 2.42 million workers (including the U.S. Postal Service).

The trend was among many employment issues highlighted in a new annual EEOC report on the federal workforce. The decline is important because the federal government always has striven to be a model employer that is open to everyone, said Catherine McNamara, a lawyer and adviser in the EEOC's Office of Federal Operations.

"The community of people with disabilities is a huge, untapped resource of many, many talented, qualified people who are not being drawn into the workplace," McNamara said. "And as the federal government faces more and more of a challenging world and it is dependent on its employees to meet those challenges, we're going to need to tap as many areas of talent as we can."

The contraction of the disabled federal workforce by nearly one-fifth surprised analysts and advocates for the 54 million Americans with disabilities. Nationwide, 35 percent of individuals with disabilities report being employed full or part time, compared with 78 percent of those without disabilities, according to a recent Harris poll.

Experts both inside and outside the government say they are not sure what accounts for the falling federal numbers. They theorize that more employees retired or left for jobs in a private sector that has grown more welcoming of disabled individuals, that federal recruiting efforts tapered off due to downsizing or that fewer employees are disclosing their disabilities.

"It's certainly a rather shocking decline," said Brewster Thackeray, a spokesman for the National Organization on Disability, an advocacy group. "I'm surprised because our impression has been that the government is making a sincere effort." Doug Gallegos, acting director of the Office of Affirmative Employment at the EEOC, said officials are studying the issue.

"There has been a lot of downsizing of the federal government. That may play some role in this," he said. "There has been a lot less hiring by the federal government, too, in the last 10 years. The fact that people are doing less hiring may mean that they are not recruiting as much and not recruiting . . . persons with targeted disabilities. But it's kind of preliminary at this point and we don't have anything solid."

Historically, the federal government has been considered a model in attracting and accommodating disabled workers.

The government extended civil rights protections and employment opportunities to disabled individuals long before the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act guaranteed equal opportunity for them in public accommodations, private employment, transportation, and state and local government services.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 banned discrimination against disabled people in federal hiring and required agencies to develop affirmative action plans to hire and promote more people with disabilities. It mandated that agencies provide "reasonable accommodations," such as interpreters or modified work schedules, to help disabled workers do their jobs. And it required agencies to buy, develop and maintain "accessible electronic and information technology," such as voice recognition software and computer screen readers.

Such laws, as well as federal hiring policies, have helped Mary Jean Secoolish and thousands of others with disabilities carve out successful careers in public service. Secoolish, who is deaf, is a supervisory attorney in the EEOC's Office of Federal Operations and has worked full time for the agency since 1985.

EEOC managers have always been supportive, Secoolish said. But her introduction to federal service, as an intern at the Justice Department in 1980, was not a positive one. Secoolish's boss learned she was deaf when she introduced herself on her first day, her government-provided interpreter in tow.

"He doesn't realize that the interpreter interprets everything he says," Secoolish recalled in an interview. "[H]e turns around and he says, 'What am I going to do with her?' "