Kamala Harris for the People
August 29, 2019

Harris Releases Plan to Expand Economic Opportunity for People with Disabilities

Harris Is Only Candidate With Specific Plan Focused On People With Disabilities 


Plan Features More Executive Actions Harris Would Take To Urgently Act Within Her Power To Aid People With Disabilities


As the Trump Administration continues to abandon essential programs and laws that serve more than 60 million Americans living with disabilities, Senator Kamala Harris is proposing new measures she will take as President to strengthen and protect the economic security of people with disabilities.


As President, Harris will expand access to health care, fight for integrated employment opportunities and fair wages, ensure our emergency preparedness and disaster programs are fully inclusive, fight to adequately fund classrooms to ensure equal access, build a diverse federal workforce that includes people with disabilities, and fight for the civil rights of people with disabilities across the country.


Through executive action, Harris will direct the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to require funding recipients to detail and prove how projects will be fully accessible prior to receiving federal funding. She will also take executive action to ensure that the technology the federal government buys, develops, or uses is fully accessible.


Inclusive employment for Americans with disabilities remains one of the unfulfilled promises of the ADA and the fight to ensure civil rights for people with disabilities. In 2018, the unemployment rate for workers with disabilities was more than twice that for workers without disabilities. Only 32 percent of working-age people with disabilities are employed, compared with 73 percent of people without disabilities. Inaccessibility and discrimination in health care, housing, education, technology, and transportation are all barriers to employment of people with disabilities.


Harris’ proposal will:


  • Strengthen the Department of Education’s vocational rehabilitation system in order to expand its grant program to cover more workplace accommodations and support more people;

  • Direct the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to require funding recipients to submit plans detailing how their projects will be fully accessible prior to receiving funding because expanding housing and transportation access is key to opening up employment opportunities;


  • Pass legislation to establish a grant program for states to create inclusive employment opportunities and eliminate  the “subminimum” wage;

  • Pass the IDEA Full Funding Act to increase resources for teachers to meet the needs of students with disabilities;

  • Push to finally ratify U.S. participation in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to recommit American leadership in pushing for civil rights for people with disabilities around the world;


  • Direct federal agencies to create updated plans for recruitment, hiring, and retention of people with disabilities and enforce Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act;

  • Recommit the federal government to ensure that people with disabilities impacted by disasters have the services and protections they need to return to their homes, jobs and schools at the same time as the rest of the disaster impacted community;


  • Take executive action to ensure technology the federal government buys, develops, or uses is accessible so that government resources that open up education, employment, and other economic opportunities are fully accessible;


  • And, create new senior-level positions in the White House that prioritize accessibility and people with disabilities across all policymaking.


“When we ensure that every American with disabilities is able to fully participate in our schools, our workplaces, and all aspects of our communities, our country is stronger,” said Harris. “By addressing these challenges, we can make full inclusion and accessibility a reality.”


Harris will also fight to pass her Medicare for All plan which fully covers comprehensive long-term services and supports, as well as necessary equipment and assistive technologies and allows individuals to access them in home-and community-based settings. It also covers Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) services that are critical to children with disabilities. It also ensures that when families move, or people with disabilities change jobs, their coverage can move with them so that they have uninterrupted access to the care and services they need. 


As California’s Attorney General, Harris’ Bureau of Children’s Justice launched investigations into Tobinworld for abuse of special needs students and she sued credit card companies for “robo-signing” practices that took advantage of consumers, most specifically seniors and the disabled. Harris’ 21st Century STEM for Girls and Underrepresented Minorities Act would provide funding for school districts across the country to support STEM education for girls, students of color, LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities to diversify representation in STEM fields.


As president she will appoint an attorney general who prioritizes enforcement of the ADA, IDEA, Rehabilitation Act, and other disability civil rights laws, and will double the size of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to guarantee resources to back up that commitment. 


On July 26, the 29th anniversary of the ADA, the Harris campaign launched its Americans with Disabilities Leadership Council to increase participation from the diverse disability community in every state across the nation and to ensure full inclusion in every aspect of this campaign. 


Read her full plan here.

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Kamala’s Commitment to Full Inclusion and Civil Rights for People with Disabilities

Recommitting to building inclusive economic opportunity in America

According to CDC data, about a quarter of people in the United States have a disability. Kamala believes in an America that is fully accessible and inclusive for everyone and her administration will fight to make this a reality across all parts of our society. As president, Kamala will have diverse leaders with disabilities developing all the policies her administration champions, including priorities that will lift up people with disabilities.

To do this we must expand economic opportunity and security for people with disabilities. In 2018, the unemployment rate for workers with disabilities was more than twice that for workers without disabilities. Only 32 percent of people with disabilities who are working-age are employed. On the other hand, 73 percent of people without disabilities in the same age group are employed. Just as we fight to finally eliminate practices that lead to people with disabilities being paid subminimum wages, we also have to speak the truth about how we need to eliminate barriers that make it harder for people with disabilities to fully participate in our workforce.

Under Kamala’s leadership, in partnership with the disability community, we can build an America that lives up to the promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our country is stronger when everyone is valued, everyone has dignity, and everyone can be part of the competitive labor force.

WHAT SHE’LL DO:

She’ll fight to create inclusive employment opportunities that pay people with disabilities their full value.

She’ll pass the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act, which will establish a grant program for states to help redesign business models and strategies to increase employment of people with disabilities in competitive integrated employment.

People with disabilities are both more likely to work in low wage fields as well as be paid less than the minimum wage. That’s why she’ll pass the Raise the Wage Act, which will not only raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour but will also phase out the “subminimum” wage.

She’ll remove barriers that make it harder for people with disabilities to take advantage of job opportunities.

Kamala will make changes to the vocational rehabilitation system at the Department of Education, which gives grants to states to help people with disabilities prepare for, secure, and retain employment. Kamala will make sure that the grant program covers a wider range of services and supports for a greater number of people to help more people with disabilities get the workplace accommodations, adaptive technology and devices, and other things that can be barriers to finding and maintaining a job.

And she’ll fight to increase funding for the program so that it can serve everyone who would benefit from assistance under it.

She’ll expand accessible, affordable transportation and housing options, which are key supports for anyone participating in the workforce.

Federal civil rights laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act already require that our transportation systems and housing projects be fully accessible. However, these accommodations still have accessibility issues because efforts to make the projects fully accessible are frequently not done at the front-end of the project.

For example, more than a quarter of rail stations across the country are not fully accessible to people with disabilities. The same is true of 12% of the U.S. rail fleet.

Kamala will address this by taking executive action to direct the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to require that funding recipients submit plans detailing how their projects will be fully accessible prior to receiving funding.

She’ll fight to pass the IDEA Full Funding Act to make sure that students with disabilities are learning in classrooms that have funding to ensure they can get the education they deserve, which is key to ensuring long-term economic opportunity.

And she’ll direct her education secretary to increase enforcement of civil rights laws designed to protect that right to an education.

And she’ll work to increase resources to better prepare teachers to meet the needs of students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms and expand access to post-secondary education for people with disabilities.

She’ll fight to finally ratify U.S. participation in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to affirm American leadership in fighting for the civil rights of people with disabilities around the world.

She’ll fight to pass the Working Families Tax Credit to allow people without dependent children to take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit. And she’ll make the Child Tax Credit fully refundable which would be particularly beneficial to families who have children with disabilities.

Because quality, affordable health care is core to economic security, she’ll fight to pass her Medicare for All plan which addresses the significant barriers to quality health care that children and adults with disabilities face.

Kamala’s plan fully covers comprehensive long-term services and supports, as well as assistive technologies and Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) services that are critical to children with disabilities. It also ensures that those long-term services and supports are consumer-directed and are provided in home- and community-based settings.

And it ensures that when families move, or people with disabilities change jobs, their coverage moves with them so that they have uninterrupted access to the care and services they need.

She’ll ensure that people with disabilities impacted by disasters have the services and other civil rights protections they are entitled to under the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, so they can return home, to work and school at the same time as the rest of the disaster impacted community.

And, she’ll make sure the federal government leads by example.

Kamala will recommit us to the goal President Obama established in 2010 to make the federal government a model inclusive employer and strongly enforce Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act. She will direct agencies to create updated plans for how to make the recruitment, hiring, and retention of people with disabilities a priority in her administration. And she’ll make sure this diverse leadership is represented in senior positions and that there are opportunities for promotion.

Kamala will also take executive action to ensure that the technology the federal government buys, develops, or uses is fully accessible, as is currently required by federal law. This will include requiring each agency to implement a plan to ensure that any new technology developed or acquired is fully accessible before it is deployed, as well as doing an analysis of existing technology that is not compliant and develop a timeline for updating it.

And Kamala will create new senior-level positions in the White House to make sure that the priorities for people with disabilities are incorporated across all of her policymaking, particularly on the Domestic Policy Council and the economic work of her administration.