Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) Commissioner Karen Tamley, and community leaders announced the release of the Mayoral Task Force on Employment and Economic Opportunity for People Disabilities set of recommendations. In addition to the release, Mayor Emanuel and Commissioner Tamley also announced the City’s commitment to creating 30 new internships for City Colleges of Chicago students with disabilities this year, as recommended in the report. The Task Force defined areas of focus and specific recommendations aimed at improving employment outcomes of people with disabilities. Those priorities and recommendations include:

• Facilitating greater participation of students in higher education for careers by providing comprehensive training to City Colleges of Chicago Career Services staff on career preparation and employment counseling for students with disabilities; collaborating with City Colleges of Chicago and employers to identify internships specifically for students with disabilities; identify partners to conduct research on the employment outcomes for secondary and postsecondary graduates with disabilities in Chicago; and create a task force on transition services to improve outcomes for Chicago Public School students

• Examining City of Chicago policies that promote and/or discourage employment by ensuring people with all types of disabilities can equally access the City of Chicago’s employment opportunities; ensuring all City of Chicago departments have a comprehensive understanding of the City’s reasonable accommodation policy and procedures; ensuring that the City of Chicago job descriptions do not unintentionally screen out qualified candidates with disabilities; and adopting best practices utilized by other cities and government agencies for employing people with disabilities.