ILR News Center

ILR plays a key role in Washington, D.C policy forum

Employment and disability policy research from the United Kingdom (U.K.) was the focus of a recent Cornell University/American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) policy forum November 9 in Washington, D.C.

The forum was sponsored by the Cornell University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Employment Policy for People with Disabilities and AAPD, and funded by a grant to the ILR School’s Employment and Disability Institute (EDI) from the U.S. Department of Education National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The forum is part of ILR’s continuing effort to increase its presence in the federal public policy arena.

Distinguished panelists from the U.K talked about disability policy and issues in that country and innovative projects that have been undertaken to assist individuals with disabilities.

Mike Daly, U.K. Department of Work and Pensions, said there are currently 2.7 million people on incapacity benefits annually in the U.K., necessitating resulting benefit costs of over 12 billion British pounds per year. This fact, reinforced by the U.K. Disability Discrimination Act of 1995, has led to a national goal of increasing the employment rate of people with disabilities. 

Bruce Stafford from the International Centre for Public and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham described efforts to evaluate the “New Deal for Disabled People.” This is the first attempt in the U.K. at a large scale intervention designed specifically to help disabled people.

"A review of employment policies for people with disabilities in other countries, and the resulting evaluation strategies of these policies to date, provides a useful legislative and policy comparison that can significantly inform efforts within the United States to increase employment opportunities for Americans with disabilities,” said Susanne Bruyere, associate dean of outreach for the ILR School and director of ILR’s Employment and Disability Institute (EDI).

Other speakers included Richard Dorsett from the Policy Studies Institute and Susan Purdon from the National Centre for Social Research. The policy forum was facilitated by Stephen Bell, a Research Fellow at Abt Associates.

For more information about this policy forum, including bio-sketches of the presenters, copies of the Powerpoint presentations, and transcripts, visit the Cornell University RRTC website at www.EmploymentPolicyRRTC.org.

D.C. Reception for Disability Researchers

Prominent disability researchers and government officials gathered Nov. 9 for a special reception. The reception was co-sponsored by the Association for Public Policy and Analysis Management (APPAM) and the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (under a grant to EDI/Cornell).

Those attending, including ILR School/EDI researchers, had the opportunity to meet with others pursuing disability policy research and hear federal agency leaders describing their current disability research initiatives.

The speakers included:
• Richard Balkus, Acting Associate Commissioner for the Office of Program Development and Research in the Office of Disability and Income Security Programs
• Richard Horne, Ed.D., Supervisory Research Analyst for Research and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy
• Melissa M. Hulbert, Director of the Division of Advocacy and Special Initiatives at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• Edna Johnson, Ph.D., CRC, Program Officer, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Rehabilitation Services Administration, Independent Living Branch, U.S. Department of Education.
• Tracy R. Justesen, Deputy Director of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education.