National Disability Employment Awareness Month, 1996

Proclamation 6929 of October 4, 1996

National Disability Employment Awareness Month,
1996

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

As we rapidly approach the 21st century, we are
entering an age dominated by information and
technology, the microchip and the global marketplace.
We can't afford to waste the talents of a single person
if we are to succeed in this exciting and challenging
new world, and people with disabilities have a major
role to play in helping us to achieve a dynamic,
productive work force in a united community.

In the darkest days of World War II, the American
people looked to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a
person with a disability, for leadership and strength.
Today, as college presidents and scientists, world-
class athletes and physicians, our citizens with
disabilities make their own invaluable contributions to
our Nation's strength. From Main Street to Wall Street,
they have performed successfully at every level of
business and government, demonstrating in large ways
and small that they can meet the same challenges as
everyone else.

We can be proud of the great progress we have made in
eliminating overt discrimination. Leaders of business
and industry, veterans service organizations, and
labor, as well as community leaders from all walks of
life, have worked together to implement the Americans
with Disabilities Act, which bans discrimination in
recruitment, interviewing, hiring, and advancement.

Yet, 50 years after President Roosevelt's death, too
many doors to employment remain closed to individuals
with disabilities. We must work to eradicate more
subtle forms of discrimination. We must make sure that
our words of support for empowerment and inclusion
continue to be reflected in our policies. It is up to
all of us--employers, labor, educators, veterans,
people with disabilities, and government--to stay the
course until every barrier against individuals with
disabilities comes down.

In recognition of the great potential of people with
disabilities, and to encourage all Americans to work
toward their full participation in our work force, the
Congress, by Joint Resolution, approved August 11,
1945, as amended (36 U.S.C. 155), has designated
October of each year as ``National Disability
Employment Awareness Month.''

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim October
1996 as National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
I call upon government officials, educators, labor
leaders, employers, and the people of the United States
to observe this month with appropriate programs and
activities that reaffirm our determination to fulfill
both the letter and the spirit of the Americans with
Disabilities Act.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred and ninety-six, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
first.