Advocates for people with disabilities in New York are cheering the approval of a pair of legal guidelines by Gov. Kathy Hochul meant to expand employment alternatives.
Hochul this week permitted a invoice that can create a voluntary coaching and certification program for employers who rent people with disabilities. She additionally permitted a measure that’s meant to create a brand new threshold to expand what sort of work is carried out by people with disabilities underneath most well-liked supply contracting.
Hochul’s approval of the measures got here because the state can be recognizing October as Disability Rights and Employment Awareness Month.
“For the New York Dream to be a reality, we must continue making our state inclusive, integrated and accessible for all,” Hochul mentioned. “Disability Rights and Employment Awareness Month recognizes how far we’ve come toward this end and a realization that there is more work to be done to expand the rights of people with disabilities and ensure they have the same opportunities in the workforce as all New Yorkers.”
People with mental or developmental disabilities have far greater unemployment than the remainder of the state’s inhabitants.
Maureen O’Brien, the president and CEO of New York State Industries for the Disabled praised the approval of the measures, calling it a vastly wanted replace to the regulation.
“The Preferred Source Program works but has needed updating after 50 years,” she mentioned. “With the assist of our legislative champions and the management of Governor Hochul – together with appointing the state’s first chief incapacity officer, the excellent Kim Hill – we can put extra New Yorkers with disabilities to work in aggressive built-in employment. A win for everybody.”
The most well-liked supply contracting program is supposed to make sure a sure share of presidency contracting reaches weak populations. A report issued last year by the Rockefeller Institute suppose tank discovered non-profit incapacity service suppliers reported greater than $14 billion in financial output and assist practically 200,000 full-time jobs within the state.