Every October, we recognize National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) to celebrate the value and talent disabled workers add to America’s workplaces and economy. This year’s theme, “Access to Good Jobs for All,” highlights the importance of ensuring good, quality jobs for everyone who can or wants to work – including disabled workers. That must include disabled women.
Mask Bans are Dangerous for Disabled Women
Recently, lawmakers in several states and localities have been advocating for mask bans and have seen success in places like North Carolina and Nassau County, New York. But with the COVID-19 pandemic still raging on and conservative efforts to delegitimize the efficacy of masks, the renewed push to ban face masks, catapulted by fear-mongering and a legacy of eugenics, will harm and threaten the health and safety of disabled people, particularly disabled women and disabled women of color.
2024 Supreme Court Term Wrap-Up
The 2023-2024 U.S. Supreme Court term has been one of the most destructive in recent years: the Court put ideology before evidence and expertise, grabbed power from our elected officials in favor of extremist judges serving on lower courts, and showed that they care more about their personal preferences than Americans’ health, safety and more.
What Disability Reproductive Equity Day Means to Me
Today, we observe the first ever Disability Reproductive Equity Day. Disability Economic Justice Counsel Marissa Ditkowsky, who identifies as a multiply-disabled woman, talks about her personal experiences and why this day is so important to her.
How a Young Lawyer’s Mental Health Journey Fuels Her Advocacy Work
To acknowledge Mental Health Awareness Month this May, DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Policy sat down with Marissa Ditkowsky, disability economic justice counsel at the nonprofit National Partnership for Women & Families and adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL).
HHS Must Finalize Updated 504 Regulations
In September 2023, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services proposed a rule updating disability discrimination regulations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 for the first time in almost 40 years.
113 Years Later, We Remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Today, we remember one of the deadliest industrial disasters in U.S. history – the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. Over 100 workers, mostly young, immigrant women and girls, died.
Disabled employment is at a record high, but disparities remain
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual data about disabled people in the U.S. workforce. The data reveal a continued upward trend in disabled employment. However, inequities remain for disabled people, particularly disabled women and disabled people of color.
New Census proposal would reduce the number of disabled women and girls counted by nearly 10 million
A new proposal from Census would change the definition of disability in the American Community Survey, reducing the official count of disabled people by 40 percent. This change could have significant implications for supports for disabled people.
Disabled women face unique barriers at work. Our systems transformation guide seeks to address them.
To the extent a disabled woman can work and chooses to work, barriers to employment and work are some of the many deliberate policy choices that prevent disabled women from achieving economic security.
Disabled People Face Renewed Threats to Autonomy After Dobbs Decision
Discussions about abortion access and the impact of Dobbs on disabled people are often overlooked. Let’s examine the ways that reproductive freedom and access to abortion care are critical to the economic security, health, well-being, dignity, and autonomy of disabled people and their families, particularly disabled women of color.
New Data on Veterans Show High Unemployment for Young Women
New data reveal employment challenges for young women veterans, veterans of color, and disabled veterans.
New Data on Disability Employment: Small Gains But Institutional Barriers Remain
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual data about disabled people in the U.S. workforce. The data reveal noteworthy increases in the size and employment rate of the disabled population, as well as deep and persistent gaps in labor force participation and employment, especially for women, Black, and Latinx people with disabilities.