July 2015
ISSUE BRIEF: EMPLOYMENT
ACCSES Supports a Full Array of Approaches for Enhancing Employment Opportunities
for Persons with Significant Disabilities
ACCSES believes in the dignity of work. Work is a valued activity for both the individual and society. Work
provides both tangible benefits (greater independence and economic self-sufficiency) and intangible benefits
(purpose, dignity, self-esteem, and sense of accomplishment). Public policy should promote the expansion and
improvement of meaningful employment opportunities for people with disabilities who desire to work. Public
policy must aggressively encourage employers to hire and accommodate people with disabilities in a variety of
work settings. Government programs must fund services and supports which ensure that a full array of
employment opportunities is available for persons with disabilities. Public policy must facilitate appropriate
training and accommodations for community-based, integrated employment--the presumed option should be
competitive integrated employment. The full array of options should also include employment in skill
development centers. Individuals must be permitted to exercise their informed choice of the employment option
that is consistent with their strengths, needs, interests, abilities, and capabilities.
ACCSES Supports Labor and Employment Improvements:
We support the full array of employment opportunities, options, and choices for individuals with the most
significant disabilities, including enhanced opportunities to work in competitive integrated employment (at or
above the minimum or prevailing wage), self-employment, and employment in skill development centers and
disability-focused non-profit businesses operated by accredited community rehabilitation programs (CRPs) at a
wage commensurate with their productivity.
To that end, ACCSES requests that Congress:
1) Monitor the proposed regulations from the Departments of Education and Labor to ensure they do not go
beyond Congressional intent. We remain deeply concerned by the Department of Education’s addition of
conditional language that goes beyond statute to restrict the definition of competitive integrated employment.
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Specifically, ACCSES believes that the specification of ‘work unit’ as a modifier to ‘work site’ is not
only overly burdensome, but has the unintended consequence of eliminating work opportunities
paying more than the minimum wage, with benefits, and effectively eliminates the desired economic
self-sufficiency that the regulation purports to strive to achieve.

Congress, in crafting the “Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act,” underwent significant,
bipartisan debate to develop and determine its intention of “competitive integrated employment” for
individuals with disabilities. Specifically, Congress determined that for a position to meet the
definition of “competitive integrated employment” it must be in a location where the employee
interacts with other persons who are not individuals with disabilities (not including supervisory
personnel or individuals who are providing services to such employee) to the same extent that
individuals who are not individuals with disabilities and who are in comparable positions interact
with other persons; and that, as appropriate, presents opportunities for advancement that are similar to
those for other employees who are not individuals with disabilities and who have similar positions.
2) Oppose the “Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment” Act (H.R. 188) that would phase out
and eventually repeal Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act for persons with the most significant
disabilities.

Individuals with the most significant disabilities must not be denied the opportunity to work at a wage
that reflects their skills and productivity.

Eliminating, repealing, or restricting Section 14(c) will simply have the effect of denying the
opportunity to work for those individuals with the most significant disabilities who cannot meet
productivity standards (with or without reasonable accommodations).
3) Monitor the Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated Employment for Individuals with
Disabilities (ACICIEID) to ensure that the Committee remains vigilant to their mandate as outlined in the
“Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act” (WIOA). Work presented by the Committee thus far has
centered around the elimination of Section 14(c) programs and use of subminimum wage and not on
“studying, preparing findings, conclusions and recommendations for the Secretary of Labor on: (1) ways to
increase the employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities or other
individuals with significant disabilities in competitive integrated employment; (2) the use of the certificate
program carried out under section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 214(c)) for the
employment of individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities, or other individuals with significant
disabilities; and (3) ways to improve oversight of the use of such certificates.”
4) Work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to ensure that interpretations by federal and/or
state government agencies do not restrict or eliminate the provision of statutorily-prescribed services and
supports, including prevocational services under the Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services
program, and that result in the denial of critical appropriate services and supports for individuals with the
most significant disabilities, consistent with their person-centered plans.
For more information, contact Leann Fox, ACCSES Director of Government Affairs at (202) 349-4279 or
lfox@accses.org. To learn more about ACCSES visit www.accses.org.