A model employer
U.S. federal employment numbers have shrunk just over 7 percent in the period 1993 to 2002, but during the same time period, the number of federal employees with disabilities declined approximately 12 percent.1 As disability rights leaders examine why the overall unemployment rate of adults with disabilities still hovers around 70 percent fully 14 years after the passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act2, significant pressure will be exerted on the federal government to assume a role as a model employer — recruiting, employing and retaining people with various disabilities.
Catch the wave of older users
A major factor in many organizations' business strategy could become the number of seniors using the Internet and staying in the work force longer. A recent survey by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) shows that a majority of older workers — nearly 7 in 10 — plan on working in their retirement years.6 In addition to the fact that the number of seniors online has risen almost 50 percent in four years, the baby boom generation is expected to drastically increase the number of older people using the Internet. This "silver tsunami" — people now in their 50s — identified in the Pew Internet Project's 2001 report Wired Seniors use the Internet in far greater numbers than those over the age of 69. As the silver tsunami retire and get older, they will be accustomed to being online and unlikely to stop using the Internet.7 At the same time that these seniors expect online access, they may also start to encounter barriers because of age-related disabilities, including vision problems. Serving your older work force and constituents with tools to let them overcome these barriers may allow them to remain productive members of the work force longer and access government services independently.
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1 http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/fsp2002/part1.html#Section_.1.3. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Annual Report on the Federal Work Force, Fiscal Year 2002.
2 Vanderheiden, 1990.
3 Fox, Susannah. Pew Internet and American Life Project. "Older Americans and the Internet," March 25, 2004.
4 Forester Research, Inc. 2003.
5 Forester Research, Inc. 2003.
6 http://www.aarp.org/research/press/presscurrentnews/cn-2002/Articles/a2003-06-03-nr092302.html
7 Fox, Susannah. Pew Internet and American Life Project. "Older Americans and the Internet," March 25, 2004.
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