in Westchester, N.Y., the laundry is operated by deaf people; is totally

a chef's helper at the Marriott Marquis, N.Y.C.,

deaf, and the Bell,

manager of the sales office is blind. Taco Hayward, California, has given a 21-year old autistic/schizaphrenic his first job, now assistant cook, after his training at Eden Express, a private retail-training operation, where another deaf and learning disabled person trained and at 37 years of age has his first job. This facility successfully trains and places upward of 40 retarded and mentally restored persons a year.

Totally blind and

stores at various

McDonald's has such success with training and employing persons with severe disabilities that an advanced position of job coach has been created in the system. legally blind people are employed in locations in Denver, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and San Diego. In St. Louis, a severely afflicted cerebral palsied person is employed; in De Kalb, Illinois, a half dozen deaf persons have performed jobs for years; a brain-damaged victim of an accident with use of only one arm and restricted speech is in a unit in Chicago. The key to the successes of the severely disabled is the ongoing services and followup by the job

coach.

Other dramatic and less dramatic instances of employment in the industry are happening across the country despite the pressures, broken hours and other disincentives that this

work entails, especially in entry level positions. But they

do offer

opportunity

first entry into the world of work for many and

for advances by persons with impairments in accord with their abilities and the training preparation they receive.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to offer you three observations at this point: One, constraints on federal funding over the past eight or ten years have limited the number of handicapped workers placed by government subsidized Vocational rehabilitation

services to a level substantially

lower than required to meet the needs of this population; two, the number and characteristics of disabled workers assisted by privately funded agencies is unknown but should be researched so that Congress has a clearer picture of the existing problems and solutions; and, three, the enactment of civil rights-type legislation such as the Americans With Disabilities Act will not be particularly helpful to millions of handicapped people if it is not accompanied by an increase in the resources necessary train and place these individuals in suitable jobs.

to

On this final point, Mr. Chairman, there is justifiable concern on the part of employers that the ADA legislation now pending before this Committee is SO broadly written as to override certain elements of common sense. For example, to what extent is an employer expected to modify or add to his

facilities to accommodate

where food is prepared

disabled workers? Do countertops

have to be lowered to a level

accessible to someone in a wheelchair?

Additionally, there are several areas within the legislation which conflict with requirements of existing legislation, the a "drug free workplace" and

requirements of maintaining

existing requirements under Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

sections 503 and 504 of the

Mr. Chairman,

if

this

I was told that the purpose of today's testimony was to hear from an industry that is very aggressive in promoting the employment of citizens with physical and mental limitations. However, I would be remiss I did not note that there are significant problems with legislation as introduced. Fortunately, the vast majority of these concerns are problems encountered when we take a public policy and attempt to place it into an operational context. Simple drafting alterations will surface for many of these problems. I am not prepared to violate the wishes of the Committee and speak to these today; however, I wish to submit for the record a document prepared by a broad based business

group which addresses several of

the areas of concern businesses have with the legislation

drafted.

My simple point here is that the restaurant industry has been providing jobs to thousands of disabled workers each year and we know the potential for offering even opportunities in the future is

greater employment

enormous.

Adequate

availability of training and placement services is our

biggest obstacle--not the need for special facilities and equipment.

I did not come today prepared to comment in any detail on the ADA legislation, Mr. Chairman, but I want to assure you that the National Restaurant Association stands prepared to offer you the benefit of its experience as an employer of thousands of disabled workers in crafting a bill that is beneficial and workable both for employers and the employees you are seeking to help.

Chairman OWENS. Thank you, Brother Nelan. Questions, Mr. Smith?

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I have a question for Brother Nelan and it really has to do with the resources that the National Restaurant Association or the individual employers had to draw on as they embarked on this journey of including differently able people. Could you talk a little bit about what kind of information do you gave in terms of who, what drove the decision to get involved and then two, how did the industry collectively or the individual components of the industry resource the decision? Brother NELAN. I am not sure I can answer the first part of your question as to how the industry got involved, but the resources that are there are, of course, the Organization of the National Restaurant Association which is national and the state associations which are affiliated with the National Restaurant Association.

It is a great membership which includes the leading chains of leading organizations of food services across the country and also, of course, so many of local owners. The objective of the association in this program is an educational program to involve, and to first of all, to instruct and open the way to understanding the possibilities of finding in the resources of the trained persons with disabilities new and permanent employees.

We go about this by a constant effort to inform by circulation of information to the industry through every means that is available through the public relations, through the various offices throughout the country and through pollings as I mentioned of chains, and franchise as we have the information to gain to them.

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. I guess my concern as I heard actually two different people call for technical assistance and resource assistance and I am sure that that is going to be necessary and I will underscore that. I am just sure that that is going to be a necessary part of this bill.

At the same time, it strikes me that if we can write clean legislation with clear definitions that is responsive to the human situation that we are trying to rectify or improve and the reality of the world that you and others represent, if we can get our definitions right, that, in fact, an enormous amount of the, if you will, the solutions, the adaptations, the right answers are going to come from inside the different sectors of the economy as they learn from differently abled people.

I think we need to be careful about the kind of wisdom that we place with governmental agencies in terms of just what good technical or resources assistance is because I have seen a lot of cases where the difference between the ability to reach and the ability to grasp was made by whether or not the legislation was well written. I want to make sure we get to the grasp in this one.

Brother NELAN. Yes, I am sure that the National Restaurant Association will cooperate to the fullest in developing such materials or insights and backgrounds that will aid in the clarification of the legislation.

Mr. SMITH. Thank you.

Chairman OWENS. Mr. Bartlett.

Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I do have a number of specific questions. I will try to go through them