Report Outline
Rehabilitation and the Nation's Interests
Development of Rehabilitation Programs
Concepts and Methods of Rehabilitation
Remedies for Rehabilitation Shortcomings
Rehabilitation and the Nation's Interests
Disabled Persons as Source of Industrial Manpower
Need to increase the nation's production to meet defense requirements at a time when unemployment is at the lowest point in two years is leading to renewed consideration of the handicapped as a manpower resource. R. C. Goodwin, director of the newly created Office of Defense Manpower, warned in September that manpower “may again become a major problem.” Suggesting that employers would be wise to fill job vacancies with draft-exempt handicapped persons, he stated that about half a million disabled men and women are now looking for work.
It has been estimated that between one and two million other persons, at present kept out of the labor force by disabilities, could be rehabilitated for successful employment. Bernard Baruch has observed that “perhaps three per cent are so badly disabled that little can be done for them” but “the rest, it is believed, can be rehabilitated to where they are able to perform useful work if they receive proper treatment.” Reporting a bill to enlarge treatment and training facilities under the present federal-state rehabilitation program, the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee recommended expansion of the program as “a substantial contribution to our mobilization effort.”
Work Capacities of the Handicapped
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company urged industry in August to undertake manpower surveys to avoid severe strains in expansion. It reminded employers that the disabled formed an important manpower resource in World War II. No information is available on the total number of disabled persons employed during the war, but it is known that public employment service placements of the handicapped rose from 28,000 in 1940 to 300,000 in 1945. Between 1940 and 1950 local employment offices made almost two million placements of handicapped persons. |
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