Air Force employment focuses on individuals with disabilities Published Oct. 28, 2011 By Senior Master Sgt. David Byron Air Force Public Affairs Agency WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Air Force hiring officials have placed increased emphasis on employing individuals with disabilities within its civilian workforce. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and Air Force officials here are reaching out to Air Force leaders to educate them on the Air Force's five-year Plan for Increasing Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities. "We need to inform leaders that employees with disabilities make good, reliable workers," said Barbara Barger, the deputy director for Force Development, and senior lead on the working group to implement the Air Force plan. "Historically, these employees have also been shown to stay in their jobs longer than their non-disabled counterparts, reducing recruitment and training costs." The plan, implemented this year, is the Air Force response to a presidential executive order, which seeks to establish the federal government as a model employer of IwD and commits to hiring an additional 100,000 IwD at all levels and occupations in the federal government over the next five years. People with disabilities fall into one of two primary categories: Individuals with Disabilities and Individuals with Targeted Disabilities. The targeted (or severe) category includes those diagnosed with: deafness; blindness; missing extremities; partial or complete paralysis; convulsive disorders; mental illness or retardation; or a genetic or physical condition affecting limbs or the spine. An additional category, the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program, exists to ensure combat-related ill or injured, and medically separated or retired service members receive information on entitlements, benefits and follow-on assistance as they transition to civilian life and the civilian workforce. Individuals with disabilities currently represent just fewer than six percent of the more than 176,000 Air Force civilian employees, and those with targeted disabilities represent less than one percent. The Air Force plan describes efforts in recruiting for positions at all levels, providing opportunities for students with disabilities, educating supervisors, improving retention rates, and identifying and eliminating barriers to employment. For wounded warriors, the plan calls for prioritizing career training, and matching their new skills and capabilities with job openings. It will also expand a current program which creates temporary civil service positions for wounded Airmen with a 30 percent or higher disability rating. By 2016, the Air Force goal is to increase the number of individuals with disabilities among its civilian workforce from the current 5.6 percent to eight percent. For targeted disabilities, the plan calls for more than doubling the current level of 0.6 percent to two percent. "The Air Force has the ability to become a model employer in this area," said Dwayne Walker, Air Force Equal Opportunity director. "It simply makes good sense and lives up to our commitment to equal opportunity."