Proclamation 4593

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Our country's greatest resource is its people-including those with physical and mental disabilities.

But handicapped individuals too often have had to exist on the sidelines of life because of poor education, improper vocational preparation, unavailable transportation, inaccessible buildings and other difficulties.

Now, however, local, state and Federal laws and regulations are beginning to ensure equal rights to the disabled, so that they will no longer be second-class citizens. All offices of the Federal government have been directed to improve hiring and promotion practices as they relate to handicapped individuals. The private sector, too, is being made more aware of its duties and responsibilities.

To affirm our commitment to handicapped individuals, the Congress, by joint resolution of August 11, 1945, as amended (36 U.S.C. 155) has called for the designation of the first week in October of each year as National Employ the Handicapped Week.

Now, THEREFORE, I, JIMMY CARTER, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning October 1, 1978, as National Employ the Handicapped Week. I urge all Governors, Mayors, other public officials, leaders in business and labor, and private citizens at all levels of responsibility to help secure full employment rights for handicapped individuals and to remove all barriers that prevent their full participation in every aspect of our national life.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and third.

JIMMY CARTER

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:12 a.m., September 8, 1978]