Statement by the President in Response to Reports on the Federal-State Program of Vocational Rehabilitation.
I AM making public the attached reports from Secretary Celebrezze and Commissioner Switzer so that the public may be fully familiar with the valuable work being done in this country to help our disabled citizens become active and useful citizens.
I can think of no better example of what this administration is trying to accomplish for the American people than the Federal-State program of vocational rehabilitation.
However difficult the circumstances, whatever the burdens of poverty, whatever the deficiencies in educational opportunity that exist today, we must and we will find ways to offer full opportunity for a useful and satisfying life for all Americans.
If we can do this for 135,000 of our people who, along with other problems, face the obstacle of a serious physical or mental handicap, then we can do it for other people as well. That is our goal.
Note: The reports of Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Anthony J. Celebrezze, dated August 5, and of Commissioner of Vocational Rehabilitation Mary Switzer, dated August 4, were made public by the White House on August 10. They stated that in fiscal year 1965 almost 135,000 men and women had been rehabilitated, an increase of nearly 13 percent over the previous year. The reports noted that the total represented 4,000 more disabled people than the States had previously estimated.
The reports are printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 1, pp. 73, 74).
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President in Response to Reports on the Federal-State Program of Vocational Rehabilitation. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241128