U.S. labor official visits LI group

Kathleen Martinez has been blind since birth, but as a youngster growing up in California, she became a full-time factory worker at a plant that made doorknobs.

In 2009, she became assistant secretary of labor for disability employment policy at the U.S. Labor Department.

On Monday, Martinez appeared before about 100 people at Abilities, a nonprofit in Albertson that seeks to provide education and full employment for the disabled.

Hiring the disabled, Martinez said, "is not a charity issue. It's a bottom-line business issue."

And that was just her point: Companies must see that the disabled can perform tasks with great ability, and employers must look beyond what someone cannot do and at what he or she can do.

The current weak economy, Martinez said, has put a strain on the disabled more than other groups. "We're always the last hired and the first fired," she said. But, she added, many companies have been changing their attitudes in recent years. Globalization has made them change.

India and China, Martinez said, are racing ahead of many Western countries in economic growth, forcing companies to look more broadly for different types of skills.

John Kemp, Abilities' chief executive and an attorney who has known Martinez for years, said her visit was important for the organization, which operates the Henry Viscardi School, with more than 180 disabled students, also in Albertson.

"The importance of our work here is validated," said Kemp. He said Abilities works with about 200 companies that hire Viscardi graduates.

For Martinez the battle for equality began at birth. Her parents, she said, first thought she was simply developing slowly. Only a few years after her birth did they learn about her disability. It did not stop her from going on to graduate from San Francisco State, in 1992, and become an internationally recognized disability rights leader.

She said she learned a lesson over the years: "The only way disabled people will have true equality is through employment."