Proclamation 5876 --
National Employ the Handicapped Week, 1988
By
the President of the
A
Proclamation
The
American creed of opportunity for all has proven rich soil for the growing
realization that everyone gains when people with disabilities are employed.
Disabled people with jobs contribute to prosperity, take a more active part in
their communities, and lead more satisfying lives; and their employers gain
productive employees. Since the end of World War II,
Each
year we remove more barriers that have prevented people with disabilities from
taking jobs. New technology, job training and placement programs, an
increasingly accessible working environment, and greater public understanding
all contribute to disabled people's competitiveness in the job market.
More
remains to be done, though, as we seek to ensure enhanced employment
opportunities for the disabled. Only one-third of working-age Americans with
disabilities are employed, so we must keep on opening up more ways for them to
gain job skills and overcome job discrimination and transportation,
communication, and physical barriers to employment. We are all enriched
immeasurably when everyone who wants to work can and does find employment and
every citizen is free to follow the path to full and equal participation in the
life of our communities and country.
The
Congress, by Joint Resolution approved August 11, 1945, as amended (36 U.S.C.
155), has called for the designation of the first full week in October of each
year as ``National Employ the Handicapped Week.'' This special week is a time
for all Americans to join together to renew their dedication to meeting the
goal of increased opportunities for people with disabilities.
Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the
In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this third day of October, in the
year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-eight, and of the
Ronald
Reagan
[Filed with the Office
of the Federal Register,