President's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

President's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities;

Proposed Collection; Comment Request

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to

reduce paperwork and respondent burden conducts a preclearance

consultation program to provide the general public and Federal agencies

with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing

collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction

Act of 1995 (PRA95) [44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)]. This program helps to

ensure that requested data can be provided in the desired format,

reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized,

collection instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of

collection requirements on respondents can be properly assessed.

Currently, the President's Committee on Employment of People with

Disabilities is soliciting

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comments concerning the proposed extension of the Job Accommodations

Network Employer Accommodation Input Questionnaire.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the

addressee section below on or before August 13, 1996. The Department of

Labor is particularly interested in comments which:

* Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is

necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency,

including whether the information will have practical utility;

* evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of

the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the

methodology and assumptions used;

* enhance the quality, utility, and clarify the information to be

collected; and

* minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who

are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated,

electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or

other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic

submissions of responses.

ADDRESSES: President's Committee on Employment of People with

Disabilities, Attn: Catherine Brietenbach, 1331 F Street NW, Third

Floor, Washington, DC 20004, Telephone 202-376-6200 (this is not a

toll-free number) Fax 202-376-6200, TDD 202-376-6205, Internet

[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), established in October of 1983

as a service of the President's Committee on Employment of People with

Disabilities, was designed to provide information on possible

accommodations to employers and others desiring to hire, retain or

promote people with disabilities within the workforce.

II. Current Actions

A. Necessity of Information Collection

The original premise when JAN was established was that employers

would like to provide vocational opportunities to persons without

regard to their functional limitations, but they frequently lack the

resources necessary to determine what accommodations might best be

suited to their particular needs. The Americans with Disabilities Act

added further impetus to JAN's mission in that most employers are now

required to make reasonable accommodations for persons with

disabilities. The need for such accommodation information has been

clearly corroborated by the fact that during the five year period

preceding ADA implementation the JAN staff handled 21,522 cases; in the

five years following ADA implementation 83,076 cases were handled.

Much of the information provided to employers in both the public

and private sectors was obtained through the use of this data

collection questionnaire. This instrument was used to obtain

information about actual examples of accommodations made by employers

for workers with disabilities or qualified applicants. The increasing

quality and complexity of the calls processed by the Network's staff

indicates an escalating need for a greater number and variety of such

accommodation examples.

B. There are no revisions to the existing collection.

Type of Review: Extension.

Agency: President's Committee on Employment of People with

Disabilities.

Title: Job Accommodation Network Employer's Accommodation Input

Questionnaire.

OMB Number: 1225-0022 10/93.

Affected Public: Individuals or households, business or other for-

profit, not-for-profit institutions, farms, federal agencies, state,

local or tribal government, small businesses and organizations.

Form: Attached.

Total Respondents: 500.

Frequency: On occasion.

Total Responses: 500.

Average Time per Response: 30 minutes per questionnaire.

Estimated Total Burden Hours: 250.

Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): N/A.

Total Burden Cost (operating/maintaining): Total cost to the

government for questionnaire utilization, including mailing, processing

and analyzing data and having it available to JAN users is estimated to

be $580.00 per year.

Comments submitted in response to this comment request will be

summarized and/or included in the request for Office of Management and

Budget approval of the information collection request; they will also

become a matter of public record.

Dated: June 10, 1996.

John Lancaster,

Executive Director.

[FR Doc. 96-15178 Filed 6-13-96; 8:45 am]

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