National Disability Employment Awareness Month "New Freedom for the 21 st Century"

National Disability Employment Awareness Month began with the Presidential Proclamation of Public Law (Title III, Sec 301a) in This law replaced National Employ the Handicapped Week which had occurred annually since 1945 during the first week of October. The new law also recognized a change in terminology and replaced "handicap" with "disability". The Office of Diversity Management and Equal Employment Opportunity – Department of Veterans Affairs “works proactively to enhance the employment of women, minorities, veterans, and people with disabilities. More than 3,789 VA employees (1.93%) have targeted disabilities, many of them veterans.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt In 1921, FDR was stricken with poliomyelitis (polio). Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. Polio invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours.

Helen Keller Miss Keller was born in 1880 with full sight and hearing. In 1882, at the age of 19 months, Miss Keller fell ill. Modern day doctors believed she had scarlet fever or meningitis. The illness left her blind and deaf.

Christopher Reeve In May of 1995, Reeve's hands were tangled in his horse's bridle and he landed head first, fracturing the uppermost vertebrae in his spine. Reeve was instantly paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe. Prompt medical attention saved his life and delicate surgery stabilized the shattered C1-C2 vertebrae and literally reattached Reeve's head to his spine.

Stephen Hawking He has devoted much of his life to probing the space. And he’s done most of this work while confined to a wheelchair, brought on by the progressive neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, a post once held by Isaac Newton.

Ray Charles At the age of seven, Ray Charles became blind. He went on to become a great musician, posting musical milestones along the way. Diversity includes disability. People with disabilities cross all racial,ethnic, educational, and economic lines. "Attitudes are the Real Disability" button.

Roughly 70 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed "Of those working-aged people with disabilities who aren't working, 72% want to work" "The employment numbers of people with disabilities have not increased in the years since the passage of the ADA" FCC Chairman Kennard

Judy Heumann Judy Heumann fought all her life to be included in the educational system. In 1970 Judy and several disabled friends founded Disabled in Action, an organization that set out to secure the protection of people with disabilities under civil rights laws. In 1983, with Ed Roberts, Judy Heumann co- founded the World Institute on Disability, and now serves as Assistant Secretary of Education in charge of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation.

Sharon Schmidt She is a vocational rehabilitation counselor with the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission in Columbus, received her doctorate in rehabilitation services and vocational counseling from The Ohio State University in March. Schmidt, who is blind, started work on the degree in 1995 but took time off from her studies in April 2000 to have a second kidney transplant (her first, in 1989, was failing) and in June lost her guide dog to cancer. She received Truth, her new dog, in October 2000.