part of design solutions and elevate their status as design elements, thus enhancing their chances for more widespread use.

Curriculums that encourage the use of barrier free design elements are also a major goal of this Task Force. The Task Force has developed a time table for pursuing these activities. Now they are in the process of seeking funding to support some of the major activities. Based on my experience with this subject, I believe

such support is much needed.

National Symposium on Access to Cultural Programs

Coming up later this year will be the National Symposium on Access to Cultural Programs. It is being sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. It will be held on the campus of the University of Indiana at Bloomington, July 13 through 16, 1983. Its goal is to make cultural facilities and programs accessible to the handicapped and elderly population through the sharing of information, technology and design experience. This symposium is being organized by the Landscape Architecture Foundation.

ANSI Accessibility Standards

This year the American National Standards Institute will begin its revision of its Accessibility Standards, frequently referred to as ANSI 117. The 1973 study which I mentioned earlier had an impact in accelerating the revision of these standards in the late 1970s. This constituted their first significant change in many years. As an advocate of barrier free design, I look forward to the updated

standard, which I hope will incorporate the most up-to-date research and information on designing barrier free environments. May I note in addition that it took Congressional concern to spur these positive developments.

Summary

In conclusion,

must say that the design profession has much to learn about designing barrier free environments for disabled persons. In part, it is a process of educating both practicing designers and design students about barrier free design concepts and the needs of the handicapped. It is also a process for changing attitudes towards disabled people. All segments of the design community, as well as society in general, must be convinced of the benefits to all people that can be found in barrier free design. This also means that the disabled community, the design professions, and government at all levels must see themselves, not as adversaries, but as partners in creating accessible

environments.

Mr. YATRON. Thank you very much, Mr. Broshar, for your statement.

Our next statement was to have been by Mr. Harold Russell, Chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. Mr. Russell is well known around the world as a leading advocate of employment for the handicapped and for his Oscar-winning performances for "The Best Years of Our Lives" and "Inside Moves."

Unfortunately, Mr. Russell is ill and in his place we will have Mr. Posner, who is here to give us Mr. Russell's statement.

STATEMENT OF BERNARD POSNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT OF THE HANDICAPPED

Mr. POSNER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Harold Russell is genuinely sorry he cannot be here. He is home in bed with a 103-degree fever. I shall summarize Harold's statement and ask that the complete statement be inserted in the record.

Mr. YATRON. Without objection.

Mr. POSNER. Thank you. I would like to talk about the changes in the world of employment for disabled people which have occurred over the past decade from 1973 to 1983, changes which have been heightened by the International Year of Disabled Persons, by the national year of disabled persons, and by other trends.

Hopefully, these changes will continue during the coming 10 years as we get into the Decade of the Disabled.

These changes can be categorized in six different areas.

One area has to do with the matter of laws. In 1973 was passed the Rehabilitation Act, a bill of rights for the disabled. The law contains two provisions which legislated an end to discrimination against disabled people in employment. We all thought discrimination was a matter of feelings; here came laws that actually legislated against discriminating against people you may not like.

Could this approach work? Could you legislate an end to hate, an end to nonacceptance?

Surprisingly enough this law has worked. The law covers most of the employers in the United States, all those who hold Government contracts, all institutions with government grants of any kind, a majority of U.S. employers. When you go around the country and ask about the results of this law, you find something interesting. Employers have not really worried about complying because they were forced to comply. They did not worry about the Government coming in and looking over their records.

Rather, this law served as a positive reminder that disabled people are around. For the first time employers began to reach out and seek out qualified disabled people. No longer were disabled people out of sight, out of mind; because of these laws they were very much in sight, in mind. That is one dramatic change brought about in the last 10 years.

The second change, equally dramatic, follows on these laws. Many employers who began to recruit disabled people found they could not find them. Particularly in the electronics industries,

many vacancies exist, no takers. This brought up a matter that needs addressing in the next 10 years.

Very often in this country disabled people have been prepared for stereotyped kinds of employment. You are deaf, obviously you should learn linotype operating in a print shop because it is a noisy place; or you should work in a boiler factory because it is noisy. There has to be an end to stereotyped placements. The end is coming as more and more people are addressing themselves to the issue of preparing disabled people for jobs that exist in the future, rather than for jobs representing stereotype placements of the past. A third major change that came about this last 10 years as a result of the Rehabilitation Act has been this new concept: It no longer is enough to hold your doors open and say, come on in, people, come to work. Something new has been added, a responsibility to make reasonable accommodations for disabled people.

It is not enough to let disabled people come in. Society has come to accept the fact that it has to bend and perhaps spend money to accommodate these people, whether it is a matter of ramps or changing a workplace or installing braille equipment or buying reading machines for blind people or TTY machines for deaf people. A new concept has entered the American scene, the concept of adapting to disability rather than forcing disabled people to adapt to life as it is. This is an amazing new concept.

There has been some worry that these kinds of accommodations would be very expensive. The Labor Department recently concluded a study of about 3,000 employers and found that in 80 percent, accommodations could be made at absolutely no cost, but rather a little ingenuity.

Another major change coming about in the last 10 years has been the emergence of the entire handicapped consumers movement; disabled people began to speak for themselves and began to seek out their own rights, not favors but rights; they began to petition Congress; they began to appear at State legislatures and city councils and everywhere else; they began to form coalitions; they began to speak with eloquent voices.

This has really dramatized a new way in which disabled people consider themselves. No longer, are they ashamed of their disability; rather now they accept it as a fact of life; they stand up with it. This has brought about a great change. Once disabled people start thinking positively about themselves, society begins to think positively about disabled people.

This handicapped consumers movement is just beginning. It is not as firm as it should be. I would hope that during the coming 10 years it would continue to grow strong and continue to function as a vital element in our society.

You may ask, as a result of all these changes over the past decade: What about the results? What has happened? Who have gotten jobs? How are they doing?

The answers to those questions have been quite astounding. The answers indicate we may have asked an inanswerable question. The way disability is measured in this country is by self-definition. You are asked by the census taker: "Do you have any condition that interferes with a major aspect of your daily life, such as earning a living, keeping house, or going to school?" You answer.

Nobody but you. This is the way disability is measured in America, by self-definition.

Now, obviously many people cannot hide the fact of their disability. You are totally deaf, you are totally blind, you are in a wheelchair, you are what you are. But most disabled people in this country have less severe disabilities. They almost have a choice of selfidentifying or not self-identifying. You have epilepsy and it is under control; are you disabled? You have had a mental breakdown; are you now disabled? You are partially sighted; are you disabled? You have some hearing loss; are you disabled?

Surveys have found that these disabled people, borderline disabled people, when they work generally do not count themselves as disabled; when they do not work they count themselves as disabled. The more they go to work, the less they show up in society. So we never know how to measure precise results. This would be quite an interesting thing to study.

The past 10 years have been amazing in terms of laws, in terms of attitudes toward disabled people, in terms of attitudes about disabled people themselves. This national decade of the disabled can certainly have a major part in keeping these changes alive.

Thank you very much.

[Mr. Russell's prepared statement follows:]