I’m going to stand on a strong limb here and say that a better opening for this story exists somewhere in the reporter’s mind:
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission plans to sponsor educational events and seminars aimed at reversing the steady decline in the number of federal employees with severe disabilities.
Will Tony Soprano being leading the educational events and seminars? A few clubs to the kneecap should take care of the problem. At least that’s the way I read the sentence. I actually laughed out loud. Why start from the beginning – why is federal employment of the disabled declining – when you can decide that the government simply doesn’t have enough disabled employees? It’s silly.
The story continues, talking about “targeted disabilities,” which I think is a strange way of promoting non-discriminatory hiring. Is the government actively excluding those with non-targeted disabilities? It’s worth asking. But more to my point:
Experts do not know what accounts for the decline, in part because of a lack of research and data. Some suggest that more disabled workers are retiring, as the baby-boom generation leaves the workforce. Some think that federal hiring practices work against the disabled, and some think the private sector has opened more doors to the disabled over the past decade.
The data show a problem decline, though, so like the Justice League on Saturday mornings, the government must act to bring about, um, justice. I’d like to think it’s because we have few Americans with disabilities, thanks to medical innovation that treats disease or trauma before it can become a disability. But I’d be merely wishing without evidence, sorta like the government. I’d start with research, though, sorta unlike the government.