Disability Employment Summit Being Held to Highlight Opportunities

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and City of Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto today announced that a Disability Employment Summitwill be hosted in mid-October by the American Association for People with Disabilities (AAPD), the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, and Allegheny County. The three-day event will leverage the designation of Pittsburgh as the national host city for the Disability Mentoring Day on October 15, 2014. Disability Mentoring Day is an annual initiative of AAPD.

“Pittsburgh was chosen as the host city, in part because of the commitment to economic equality demonstrated by Allegheny County and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development,” said County Executive Fitzgerald.

At the national level, people with disabilities face an unemployment rate of 13.3%, while unemployment in the general population is 6.8%. In this region, there are more than 20,000 open jobs, and tens of thousands of individuals with disabilities are not in the labor force, but potentially could be. Studies have shown that employees with disabilities tend to stay longer on the job than others, have fewer days of scheduled and unscheduled absences, and have good job performance ratings. The Summit is intended to find effective ways to engage this population.

A new affirmative action rule is moving this opportunity to the top of the priority list for many employers. The rule applies to federal contractors, requiring them to work towards realizing a 7% goal of people with disabilities across all job groups, and requires contractors to invite applicants and employees to self-identify as people with disabilities.

“As business leaders, we understand the workforce challenge ahead of us, and we need to begin working now to identify untapped talent in every corner of our region,” said Bill Demchak, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of The PNC Financial Services Group.

The morning symposium will include keynote speaker, Rep. Tony Coelho, a former Congressman from California and primary sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This regional event will also include leaders of the most prominent disability organizations that support employers who are all attending and facilitating discussions including Mark Perriello, American Association of People with Disabilities; Jill Houghton, US Business Leadership Network; and, Carol Glazer, National Organization on Disability.

For more information on the Disability Employment Summit, Disability Mentoring Day and to register, visithttp://www.alleghenyconference.org/DisabilityEmploymentSummit.php.