I'm looking out for signs that President-elect Obama is taking disabilities seriously in his very first steps. In addition to appointing David Axelrod and Michael Strautmanis to senior positions, he's put Seth Harris, his campaign's co-chair for disability policy, on the working group that will help set budget and personnel decisions for labor, education, and transportation agencies.
The Washington Post reports: "Seth Harris...is a professor and the Director of Labor & Employment Law Programs at New York Law School. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Life Without Limits Project of the United Cerebral Palsy Association and a member of the National Advisory Commission on Workplace Flexibility. He served as the Chair of Obama for America's Labor, Employment, and Workplace Policy Committee and a Co-Chair of its Disability Policy Committee. During the Clinton Administration, he served as counselor to the Secretary of Labor and Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy, among other policy-advising positions."
Harris's writing includes "The Misdirected Debate Over the Economics of Disabilities Accommodations," an essay that cites the inadequacy of employer-provided health insurance and discrimination in the workplace.
