The public laws that designated a week and then a month for National Disability Employment Awareness can be found in the United States Statutes at Large, which is widely available online through the Law Library and Government Publishing Office, as well as in print at federal depository libraries. A brief timeline and citations to relevant laws related to this commemorative observance follow:
- To establish the first week in October of each year as National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, ch. 363, 59 Stat. 530 (1945);
- First authorization of appropriations for the work of the President’s Committee on National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, ch. 302, 63 Stat. 409 (1949);
- Amendments to the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, ch. 655, 68 Stat. 652 (1954);
- Pub. L. No. 91-442, 84 Stat. 914 (1970) broadens the applicability of the week to all handicapped workers; and
- The Handicapped Programs Technical Amendments Act of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-630, Title III, sec. 301(a), 102 Stat. 3289, 3315 (1988) changed the observance from “National Employ the Handicapped Week” to “National Disability Employment Awareness Month."
This observance is also codified in the United States Code at 36 U.S.C. § 121.
