Across the nation, federal agencies have and continue to put in place a wide range of strategies for recruiting, hiring, retaining and advancing qualified people with disabilities. The videos below illuminate these practices at a number of agencies—from NASA to Veterans Affairs and New Mexico to Vermont. Watch and listen to learn new and innovative approaches to achieving goals for disability inclusion in the federal workforce and meet many talented people with disabilities—and the agencies who benefit from their skills each day.
For additional examples of promising and emerging practices for enhancing the employment of people with disabilities across the Federal Government, highlighted through plans submitted by the federal agencies under a former Executive Order 13548, visit https://www.dol.gov/odep/pdf/2012EO13548.pdf.
Cultural Transformation
“We know that there is a common core that we think everyone should adhere to…so let’s take the best of whatever anyone is doing and use it so that everyone can benefit.”
– Gregory L. Parham, (Former) Assistant Secretary for Administration, Department of Agriculture
Internal Communication
“There are a lot of different strategies we have to use, not only to get outside of the DC area, but to reach people at different levels of federal service.”
– Alison Levy, Departmental Disability Employment Program Manager, Department of Agriculture
External Communications
“Collaboration and partnership is key to ensuring that as we’re bringing in different individuals and working to diversify our workforce…We utilize the partnerships that we have, either through the Department of Veterans Affairs and Vocational Rehabilitation in providing information for their job boards, for their clients.”
– Montez Ashley, Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist, Forest Service, Eastern Region
Clearly Communicate to Your Audience
“There are certain outreach activities, some of them as simple as finding some nationally known figure that has a disability and bringing them over here to our large auditorium and having him or her give a talk. It helps the whole population recognize that if you’re in a wheelchair or if you are blind it doesn’t mean that your brain doesn’t work and NASA’s always looking for smart people and always interested in listening to smart people.”
-Beth Nguyen, Associate Director, Human Resources Office, Johnson Space Center
Finding Jobs, Finding Employees
“Another great thing for us is that our HR people are actually embedded within a district…Because we have them embedded in place, our supervisors, our mid-level managers can talk with them directly face to face. They’re able to understand exactly the needs of what we need.”
-Major Gary Bonham, Deputy District Engineer/Deputy Commander, Army Corps of Engineers
Collaborating with Agencies
“I think collaboration and partnership are key to ensuring that as we’re bringing in different individuals and working to diversify our workforce those collaborations, those partnerships help support the success of those entities and initiatives.”
-Montez Ashley, Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist, Forest Service, Eastern Region
Effective Practices: The Workforce Recruitment Program
“I was in my final year of law school, I was worried I wouldn’t get a job…You have an interview with someone from the Office of Disability Employment Policy. It’s obviously not an interview for a specific job; it’s sort of feeling you out, seeing the kind of person they are, and these are the kinds of skills they have. So it’s almost like it’s a vetting.”
-Ann Kaufman, (Former) Disability Program Manager, Customers and Border Protection
Training and Tools
“You can’t set a goal and not give people the resources and tools they need right then to meet those goals. We made sure that we included a Schedule A module in our mandatory supervisors and managers training…We let them know about the Workforce Recruitment Program…That gives some information competencies for our hiring officials to make sure that they’re giving full consideration to individuals with disabilities.”
-Tinisha Agramonte, (Former) Director of Outreach and Retention, Department of Veterans Affairs
Educate and Discuss: Disability, Options and Resources
“When managers come to us and say ‘I’ve got an employee who has identified a disability and I would like to educate my entire organization. Could you come and give us some training?’ And, we offer things like Respect in the Workplace things that are sort of general, but then we can tweak them just enough so that it speaks to whatever issues might be misunderstood or not communicated in that work area.”
-Deborah Henshaw Urbanski, Director, Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, Johnson Space Center
Providing Resources
“When you set a hiring goal you let people know that you’re serious about employing this group of people. When you have money to procure reasonable accommodations and a system that tracks all accommodation requests that are submitted throughout the department. I think that is senior leadership’s demonstration of their commitment to hiring people with disabilities, and that’s what sets the culture and climate.”
-Tinisha Agramonte, (Former) Director of Outreach and Retention, Department of Veterans Affairs
Streamlining Accommodations
“I’ve never had a single conversation where someone asked, ‘Is this going to be a problem for us financially?’ The conversations were always about ‘How do we provide this person with the accommodation? Can we provide this? Is this absolutely what this person needs? Let’s make sure to get this person exactly what they need. Let’s talk to this person talk to whoever and make sure that this is the right type of equipment that this individual needs.’ It wasn’t about the money.”
-David Powell, Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist, Johnson Space Center
A Culture of Accommodation
“My eyesight has gone down more and more and my management team is very supportive. They’ve given me all the tools. They’ve actually come to me and say ‘Hey is there anything else you need? Is there anything out there that we can give you?’ The main thing I think anybody with a disability wants is a level playing field. All we want is opportunity. Once you give us opportunity then the rest is up to us.”
-Tracy Minish, Chief Mission Operations Branch, Johnson Space Center
The Meaning of Accommodation
“They welcomed me like any other employee would, we always have welcome lunches, they take you around, usually get assigned to somebody who takes you around to meet everybody…So I didn’t feel out of place at all. I felt right at home when I first got there.”
-Veronica Vigil, Engineer, Kirtland Air Force Base
Accommodations to Keep the Best
Knowing that I’m working with people who know how to get things done, and people with the same passion that I have, you just unify and you find those people and say, ‘okay, we have to move forward.’”
-Clara Johnson, Job Corps Liaison, Forest Service, Eastern Region
Advancing Careers
“The supervisor-employee relationship has to be strong enough where they know that you’ve got their back.”
-Ethan Ready, Public Affairs Officer, Forest Service
Employee Resource Groups
“The managers might not have that much experience working with people with disabilities, so it’s a real learning experience for them to work with people who do and to find out more about their disabilities and what kinds of differences in the work situation they might need.”
-Jesse Kalachman , Intern, Army Corps of Engineers
A Community in Practice: Success Stories in Advancing Disability Employment
Initiatives in New Mexico’s Federal Workforce
“We developed and collaborated on a strategic plan for increasing our hiring of people with disabilities. And not only just to increase our employment of qualified individuals, but also to have it replicated in the community. And there’s even a component of community outreach.”
-James A. Maes, Director, Civil Rights, Forest Service, Southwestern Region
Visibility
“I think progress builds progress. You know, when people can see that they are meeting the goals or even coming close to the goals, they know exactly what to do the next time.”
-Christy Compton, (Former) Disability Program Manager, Division of Outreach and Retention, Department of Veterans Affairs
Accountability and Measuring Success
“It’s not just about hiring. It’s not just about retention. It’s about performance. It’s about maintaining an inclusive work environment, and all of that is contained by reference in their performance plans now. We hold them specifically to making sure they achieve the Secretary’s hiring goals for people with targeted disabilities. That is the one area where we can lawfully, proudly establish a numerical goal.”
-Georgia Coffey, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Diversity, Department of Veterans Affairs