New Website Helps People with Disabilities
The U.S. Department of Labor has launched www.disability.gov, the federal government’s Web site for people with disabilities, their family members, veterans, caregivers, employers and others. The new site, previously called DisabilityInfo.gov, features comprehensive information about disability-related programs and services, as well as social media tools to better serve the more than 50 million Americans with disabilities.
Disability.gov’s social media tools encourage interaction and feedback from visitors, and offer new ways to organize, share and receive information. Visitors can sign up for personalized news and updates, participate in online discussions and suggest resources for the site. New features include a Twitter feed, RSS feeds, a blog and social bookmarking. Additional social media tools will be added to the site in the months ahead.
The new site includes user-friendly ways to get answers to important questions on finding employment, job accommodations and other topics. The site is organized into ten subject areas: benefits, civil rights, community life, education, emergency preparedness, employment, health, housing, technology and transportation. By selecting a category, visitors are directed to useful information on federal and state government programs and services, news and events, grants and funding opportunities and more.
Disability.gov, an effort led by the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, contains thousands of links to reliable, trusted information from numerous federal agency partners, as well as educational institutions, non-profit organizations and state and local governments. It is an important resource not only for Americans with disabilities, but also for the parents of children with disabilities, employers, workforce and human resource professionals, veterans, military families, caregivers and many others.
As always, we also suggest empoyers look to JAN http://www.jan.wvu.edu/ for additional disability accomodation assistance, as well as the ADA training program and tools on the site offered by our partner HR That Works.