October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. This annual observance, designed to recognize the contributions of workers with disabilities, began in 1988 with the Presidential Proclamation of Public Law 100-630.
There are several regulations that exist to protect the rights of Americans with disabilities; the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 is perhaps the most well known. When this Act was passed, it represented a promise that the Nation would no longer underestimate the abilities of disabled Americans. The ADA contains employment provisions to protect workers with disabilities from discrimination and mandates that all businesses employing more than 15 employees make reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities. This law has played a critical role in helping secure a future of enhanced opportunity and new freedoms for workers with disabilities.
In order to make the point that attitudes begin forming at a very young age,
the Secretariat of the African Decade of Disabled Persons sponsored an art contest for second graders in Capetown, culminating in a broadcast ceremony to select the winners on December 3, 2005.
