PRINTER'S NO. 438
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE RESOLUTION
No. 53
Session of
2025
INTRODUCED BY TARTAGLIONE, SAVAL, BROWN, HUGHES, CULVER,
FONTANA, STREET, SCHWANK, KANE, CAPPELLETTI, BOSCOLA,
SANTARSIERO, COSTA, HAYWOOD, PENNYCUICK, COMITTA, VOGEL,
J. WARD, HUTCHINSON AND STEFANO, MARCH 20, 2025
REFERRED TO RULES AND EXECUTIVE NOMINATIONS, MARCH 20, 2025
A RESOLUTION
1 Designating the month of March 2025 as "Disabilities Awareness
2 Month" in Pennsylvania.
3 WHEREAS, On October 27, 1955, the Pennsylvania General
4 Assembly passed the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, which
5 prohibited discrimination in the areas of employment, housing
6 and public accommodations on the basis of race, color, familial
7 status, religious creed, ancestry, handicap or disability, age,
8 sex and national origin; and
9 WHEREAS, On September 26, 1973, the Congress of the United
10 States passed the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was the
11 precursor to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act
12 of 1990, and prohibited the Federal Government, as an employer,
13 from discriminating against qualified individuals with
14 disabilities; and
15 WHEREAS, On July 26, 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed
16 into law the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which
17 served as the world's first comprehensive civil rights law for
 1 individuals with disabilities; and
2 WHEREAS, According to the Centers for Disease Control and
3 Prevention, nearly 1 in 4 adults, or approximately 61 million
4 adults, in the United States have a disability and, in this
5 Commonwealth, approximately 26%, or an estimated 2.7 million
6 adults, have a disability; and
7 WHEREAS, According to the World Bank, people with
8 disabilities are more likely to experience adverse socioeconomic
9 outcomes, such as less education, poorer health outcomes, lower
10 levels of employment and higher poverty rates; and
11 WHEREAS, According to the United States Bureau of Labor
12 Statistics, only 21.3% of working-age Americans with a
13 disability are employed, as compared to 65.4% of working-age
14 Americans without a disability; and
15 WHEREAS, This disparity presents a quality-of-life issue
16 since the estimated poverty rate of working-age individuals with
17 disabilities in this Commonwealth was 28%, as compared to 9.4%
18 for working-age individuals without a disability; and
19 WHEREAS, Although the act of fostering awareness about the
20 issue of this Commonwealth's disabled population is important,
21 the real objective is to ensure that Pennsylvanians with
22 disabilities receive the dignity, respect and accommodations
23 that they deserve; and
24 WHEREAS, The purpose of this resolution is to recognize the
25 prevalence of the systemic inequities that exist within our
26 society pertaining to the treatment of our residents with
27 disabilities, as well as to acknowledge the many invaluable
28 efforts that have been made throughout the history of our nation
29 to institute civil protections for all Americans; therefore be
30 it
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1 RESOLVED, That the Senate designate the month of March 2025
2 as "Disabilities Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania; and be it
3 further
4 RESOLVED, That the Senate encourage all Pennsylvanians to
5 learn about the many unique challenges confronting this
6 Commonwealth's residents who are disabled and assume the task of
7 fostering a greater degree of awareness and education regarding
8 this critically important subject.
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