One important outcome of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the resulting initiatives and programs has been the concerted effort by various governmental offices to make information available to the public and, especially, to utilize the Internet to make information rapidly, inexpensively, and easily accessible. To support the goals of the New Freedom Initiative, President George W. Bush directed federal agencies to create DisabilityInfo.gov in order to connect people with disabilities to the information and resources they need to pursue their personal and professional ambitions—delivering on America's promise of equal access to opportunity for all. This award-winning site offers visitors options in employment, education, housing, transportation, health, benefits, technology, community life, and civil rights. Each menu choice leads to numerous sites and links in that interest area. Do you want to learn about adapting a car for use by someone with a disability? This site can lead you to the information. Do you run a business and want to know how the ADA guidelines apply to you? This site can take you to the answers. Do you want to know about the fair housing regulations and how they apply to house hunters or to landlords? This site will help you.

President Bush declared, October 2006 National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Noting the economic and other contributions made by the nation's employees with disabilities, the president called upon government officials, labor leaders, employers, and the people to observe the month—and the contributions of disabled Americans—with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. While celebrating those with disabilities who have jobs, it is also valuable to look at the barriers to employment and the resources that help address them.

According to the Employment portal page of the DisabilityInfo.gov Web site, the resource site for the New Freedom Initiative, "Employment is the economic engine of our nation, our communities, and our families. For people with disabilities, employment promotes greater independence and productive, fulfilling lives." This group has traditionally had a lower employment rate than the general public, so in order to address this gap, a number of resources have been created to help in the search for employment. Some are private, others offered by the various levels of government. The following are two examples of the types of support available.

The DisabilityInfo.govemployment site, http://www.disabilityinfo.gov/digov-public/public/DisplayPage.do?parentFolderId=9, covers a variety of topics related to the employment of people with disabilities, including advice and resources for individuals with disabilities seeking work; help for potential employers; information about employee rights, laws, and regulations; resources for employment programs; and information about job accommodations for people with disabilities. Rubrics include Employer Resources, Federal Contracting, Federal Employment, Job Seeker and Employee Resources, Job Training, Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship, Vocational Rehabilitation, Working Abroad, and Youth. Each of these sites includes specific listings of resources.

Designed specifically to help young people with disabilities find work, the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth, funded by a grant administered by the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) at the U.S. Department of Labor, offers a collection of resources and publications, an up-to-date listing of events of interest, searchable links to Internet resources, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), Ask the Experts, and Pro-Bank, an online database of promising programs and practices in the workforce development system that effectively address the needs of youth with disabilities. The URL is http://www.ncwd-youth.info/.

In 2005, on the 15^th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona announced a Call to Action to Improve the Health and Wellness of Persons with Disabilities. The surgeon general said, "The call to action is a call to caring ... The reality is that for too long we provided lesser care to people with disabilities ... We must redouble our efforts so that people with disabilities achieve full access to disease prevention and health promotion services."

Disability has been defined as characteristics of the body, mind, or senses that, to a greater or lesser extent, affect a person's ability to engage independently in some or all aspects of day-to-day life. Understanding that disability is neither inability nor sickness becomes even more important when it is pointed out that almost everyone will have at some point in life at least one disability. The incidence of disability increases with age. By age 80, almost 75 percent of people have a disability.

Developed in collaboration with the Office on Disability of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Call to Action identifies four goals to help people with disabilities experience full, rewarding, and healthy lives as contributing members of their communities:

• increase understanding nationwide that people with disabilities can lead long, healthy, and productive lives.

• increase knowledge among health care professionals and provide them with tools to screen, diagnose, and treat with dignity the whole person with a disability.

• increase awareness among people with disabilities of the steps they can take to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

• increase accessible health care and support services to promote independence for people with disabilities.

According to Margaret J. Giannini, director of the HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) Office on Disability and a physician with more than 50 years of experience working in the field of disability, it is important to begin to focus on the abilities of people with disabilities. They "can learn, get married, have a family, worship, vote, work, and live long, productive lives. We need to make sure we treat them as active members of our society."

Since the Call to Action was issued in 2005, a number of steps designed to achieve these goals have been identified through an inclusive planning process involving diverse working groups, and these steps are being implemented. For instance, for the first goal, to increase nationwide understanding, one action was the creation of the People's Piece, a publication written at a sixth-grade reading level that explains and illustrates the key messages of the Call to Action, such as the idea that eliminating barriers to accessible treatment can prevent secondary or complicating problems from arising. A second set of actions involves working with health care professionals, including training facilities and medical schools, to help new professionals become aware at the earliest point in their careers of the issues and treatments related to disability. The People's Piece and other information can be found at http://www.hhs.gov/od and www.hhs.gov/od/programs. The Web site http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/disabilities/ contains links to speeches, press releases, and fact sheets, including some with statistics related to this program.

As U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said upon announcing the program, "This Call to Action is a reminder that people with disabilities are important members of our society, and that including them in all aspects of American life is not only required by our nation's laws, but also by our nation's conscience."

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