A sub-cabinet level agency in the Department of Labor, ODEP oversees the government’s development of disability employment policies and practices, aiming to assure that effective strategies concerning opportunities in the workplace for the disabled are being constantly modernized, newly-generated, and carried out. In 2006, a controversy arose about ODEP’s current Acting Assistant Secretary, Karen Czernacki, regarding her appearances on the PBS public affairs program, “To The Contrary,” during which she, in a personal capacity, speaks out on many topics, including labor issues, and is referred to as a conservative analyst or strategist, but not as a member of the Bush administration.
Since the early 1900s, there have been a variety of resolutions, charters, acts, laws and amendments implemented, and committees, conferences, organizations, and task forces set up, regarding the disabled. In 2001 Congress authorized the creation of ODEP, as an agency within the Department of Labor, to give permanent attention, as a national policy, to the need for increasing employment opportunities for the disabled, with an immediate ODEP mandate being to integrate people with disabilities into the workforce of the 21st century.
ODEP is responsible for influencing policies and practices that can lead to an expansion of employment of the disabled. It furnishes employers with tools and technical assistance, along with ideas and relevant updated labor market data, to revamp their beliefs regarding who they may choose to employ. The goal: to help business people understand and appreciate the upside of adding disabled workers to their team, as well as help educate them as to the way employment support regarding the disabled works, including providing explanations of how they can potentially receive financial compensation for hiring disabled employees. Additionally, ODEP, as it provides realistic, practical, and beneficial ways and reasons to hire the disabled, coordinates and strategizes with staff from other federal agencies, state and local governments, and non-governmental organizations that also are involved with matters related to employment. In addition, ODEP helps prepare the disabled, both young and older, with skills that will be specifically valuable in the present job market, and also provides them with information on a variety of topics that can offer assistance on many of their concerns regarding being disabled in the workforce as well as guideposts on how to succeed.
Youth and Family
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Founded: 2001
Annual Budget: $18,602,000
Employees: 40
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Office of Disability Employment Policy
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Martinez, Kathleen
Assistant Secretary
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Kathleen Martinez’s nomination as the Department of Labor’s Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy came the day after President Barack Obama joked with Jay Leno on the Tonight Show about how his poor bowling score compared with those in the Special Olympics. Advocates of disabled Americans who were incensed by the callous remark were nevertheless pleased with the selection of Martinez to head the Office of Disability Employment Policy because of her long career as a disability rights leader specializing in employment, independent living, diversity and gender issues. She was confirmed by the Senate on June 25, 2009.
Blind since birth, Martinez, 50, hails from the San Francisco Bay Area. Both Martinez and her sister, who is also blind, were pushed by their parents to succeed and not allow their disability to limit their accomplishments. The Oakland native earned her Bachelor of Arts in speech and communications studies from San Francisco State University.
In the 1970s Martinez worked as an organizer in the women’s movement and labor campaigns to help farm workers.
Martinez joined the World Institute on Disability (WID) about 20 years ago and gradually worked her way up to become executive director in 2005. During this time she led the International Leadership Forum for Women with Disabilities in Washington, DC, in 1997, and co-organized in 2000 a training program for young disabled women from developing countries supported by the United Nations. Martinez also has participated in international training and development projects in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Americas.
While running WID she directed Proyecto Visión, part of the organization’s National Technical Assistance Center to increase employment opportunities for Latinos with disabilities in the United States, and Access to Assets, a project to help reduce poverty among people with disabilities. She also led the effort to launch the webzine Disability World in English and Spanish.
In addition to her work at WID, Martinez has been a member of the National Council on Disability (appointed by President George W. Bush), the State Department’s advisory committee on disability and foreign policy (appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice), and the U.S. Institute of Peace. She also sat on the board of directors of Connected Nation.
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