Pursuant to Executive Order No. 13217, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has engaged in a review of human resources practices, policies, procedures, and laws to identify barriers and potential solutions to help promote full participation of individuals with disabilities in community life. The Executive Order does not expressly identify OPM as one of the Federal agencies charged with conducting a review; however, recognizing that opportunities for productive employment are an essential part of carrying out the President's Executive Order and the New Freedom Initiative, OPM volunteered to conduct a review. Focusing on the Federal government's role as an employer, OPM has used this opportunity to pro-actively review human resources practices, policies, procedures, and laws and to identify strategies that will open further opportunities for Federal service to the disability community.

When President George W. Bush launched the New Freedom Initiative on February 1, 2001, he said, "Americans with disabilities should have every freedom to pursue careers, integrate into the workforce, and participate as full members in the economic marketplace. The New Freedom Initiative will help tear down barriers to the workplace, and help promote full access and integration." The President has made it clear that the Federal government itself must be a model employer -- exemplary in its practices, demonstrating through its actions what it expects and trusts state and local governments to do, and illustrating to the private sector what is possible.

With a permanent workforce of 1.8 million, the Federal government is the nation's largest employer and purchaser of goods, services, technology, and health care. As the Federal government's human resources agency, the OPM works with agencies to create tailored systems within current law to recruit, develop, manage, retain, and advance a high-quality and diverse workforce, and to do it in a fair and equitable way. Congress has entrusted OPM with managing these systems, and the President relies on us to continuously improve them. Our vision is a Federal workforce that consistently produces results that meet and often exceed citizens' expectations.

According to a Census Bureau report, there are 54 million Americans with disabilities, almost 20% of the U.S. population. Among the almost 1.8 million permanent Federal workers, however, 120,525 are individuals with disabilities. This represents approximately 7.1% of all civilian employees in the Federal Executive Branch workforce.¹ In contrast to the increasing representation of women and minorities, the representation of employees with disabilities has remained stable in the last two decades. OPM found that among non-postal Executive Branch departments, the representation of people with disabilities ranges from 3.2% to 11.0%. The representation of employees with disabilities in Federal independent agencies ranges from 2.3% to 32.6%.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) defines "Targeted Disabilities," as deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, convulsive disorders, mental retardation, mental illness, and genetic and physical conditions affecting limbs and/or spine, i.e., those most likely to be included in the Olmstead class. The employment representation of persons with targeted disabilities is very low relative to their proportion in the overall working-age population. In large Federal agencies, the representation ranges from 0.4% to 1.8%, and in independent agencies the range is 0.2% to 27.9%.

Another measure of this low representation is through the use of five special appointing authorities for hiring people with disabilities (Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations) available in the Federal government. Over the past five years, only 5,470 employees with disabilities have been hired in the Federal government through these authorities. Agency representation varies considerably from 2 to over 1,000 new hires.

A critical variable in recruitment, retention, and advancement of employees with disabilities in the Federal government is the availability of reasonable accommodations, including assistive technology and other supports that enable employees with disabilities to perform competitively and excel in their jobs. The most frequent discrimination complaint filed by people with disabilities to the EEOC among private sector employees is discharge. Interestingly, the most frequent complaint filed by Federal employees with disabilities is failure to provide reasonable accommodation.

OPM's guidance, policies and practices must serve as a catalyst for making the federal government -- the nation's largest employer -- an example of leadership and commitment when it comes to ensuring that all Americans enjoy the full opportunity to participate in the workplace. The remainder of this report presents OPM’s leadership strategies for implementing the Executive Order and ensuring the success of the President's New Freedom Initiative.

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1. Demographic Profile of the Federal Workforce, September 30, 2000, Office of Personnel Management, Office of Workforce Information.

Last revised: April 11, 2002