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ODEP News Brief. Driving Change - Creating Opportunity

December 19, 2024

Showing a portrait of a professionally dressed person with eyes closed overlaid with an assortment of iconography representing artificial intelligence. Text reads, “Results Now Available! Making AI Hiring Tools More Inclusive. A U.S. Department of Labor ePolicyWorks National Online Dialogue.” The ePolicyWorks and PEAT logos appear at top left.Making AI Hiring Tools More Inclusive: National Online Dialogue Summary

You know about our award-winning AI & Inclusive Hiring Framework. Now you can learn more about the thinking behind its development. Earlier this year, ODEP and our initiative Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology (PEAT) hosted a national online dialogue to gather insights, ideas and experiences from the public about how best to help employers use artificial intelligence (AI) in hiring inclusively and equitably. Results from the online dialogue, “Making AI Hiring Tools More Inclusive,” contributed to PEAT’s AI framework, and you can now access a summary—key themes, takeaways and metrics—of the findings below.

A colorful map of the United States.A State-by-State Disability Employment Resource Map

Every state sets its own course to ensure equal opportunity for people with disabilities in the workplace. To find resources on disability employment and workforce support for your state, explore the new policy and data resource map from the ODEP-funded National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD Center). The map includes links to state departments of labor and health, vocational rehabilitation agencies and other organizations. You can also see recently passed executive orders, legislation, policies, programs and initiatives, by state. Get started by selecting your state on the map now.

Airplanes lined up on the tarmac.New Protections for Airline Passengers with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a final rule raising the standards for airlines in accommodating passengers with disabilities, especially passengers who use wheelchairs. The new rule sets more rigorous standards for assistance, mandates hands-on training for certain airline employees and specifies actions airlines must take to protect passengers when a wheelchair is damaged in transport. These new protections are intended to ensure that people with disabilities, like all other passengers traveling for work or for leisure, can fly safely and with dignity. Learn more in the DOT’s press release.

One section of a large curved dais desk ringed with beige leather office chairs in a wood-paneled conference room.Seeking Nominations for Bureau of Labor Statistics Committee

Do you know a highly detail-oriented expert in economics, statistics, data science or survey design who loves the technical aspects of data collection and has a special interest in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)? Nominate them for a seat on the BLS’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)! The BLS collects and maintains national data on employment and unemployment, prices, productivity, compensation and working conditions, including measures related to people with disabilities. Some of the TAC’s responsibilities include commenting on BLS papers and presentations, recommending internal research projects to address technical problems with BLS statistics, and helping to identify areas of economic data that could be expanded, improved or pruned. Find further details on the request for nominations in the Federal Register.