The panel will be known as the Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated Employment for Individuals with Disabilities as a part of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. U.S. Secretary of Labor.
Thomas Perez appointed Mank to serve because of his background in disability education, according to an IU press release.
The committee’s job will be to find ways to increase employment opportunities for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, review certificate programs listed under section 14c of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
It also will try to improve the oversight of said certificate programs, ?according to the press release.
“It has been demonstrated, time and time again, that when people with disabilities have access to meaningful employment opportunities, they become some of the most productive workers and contribute in a substantial way to their workplaces and the economy,” Perez said in the press release.
“Employing people with disabilities is a win-win for workers, employers and the entire community. This is sound public policy, and the advisory committee will help us expand opportunities for more people with disabilities.”
Mank, an IU School of Education professor, is also the director of IU’s Indiana Institute on Disability and Community and has written on the subject extensively in books and articles.
Mank sits on editorial boards such as the Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Journal of Disability Policy Studies.
He is also an associate editor at the Journal of Intellectual and Developmental ?Disabilities.
The committee includes representatives from advocate for those with disabilities, those who provide employment services, people from national disability advocacy organizations, academic experts in employment and wage policy and others with knowledge on increasing disability employment, ?according to the press release.
The panel will include the commissioner of the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the commissioner of Social Security and the commissioner of Rehabilitation Services Administration.
Suzanne Grossman
