Proclamation 3802—National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, 1967

Millions of American families know, firsthand, the painful and frustrating limitations of physical disability.

Those handicaps, cruel as they are, need not be totally disabling. Our society should not be deprived of the skills and talents of disabled men and women. Many of those men and women have a remarkable capacity for achievement despite their disability.

It is part of America's promise that every citizen should have the opportunity to escape from perpetual dependence, make the most of his capacities, and take a full part in community life.

Government and private organizations have long worked to reduce the consequences of disability. Research, health conservation programs, and medical and rehabilitation facilities have all combined to lessen the residual damage of disease and injury.

The Federal Government is assisting States and communities in training the handicapped for jobs in a continually changing job market. It offers leadership to business and industry to increase the range of job opportunities for the handicapped. It encourages voluntary organizations to create the necessary climate of acceptance for the full admission of the handicapped into the mainstream of everyday life.

Yet pockets of prejudice still exist, particularly against certain categories of the more severely disabled.

We must continue to educate our citizens—employers and workers, healthy and handicapped—about the benefits of developing and using every person's skills.

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, in consonance with the joint resolution of Congress approved August 11, 1945 (59 Stat. 530), designating the first full week of October of each year as National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, do hereby call upon the people of our Nation to observe the week beginning October 1, 1967, for such purpose.

During this 20th anniversary year of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, I urge all public and private organizations and all citizens to renew their dedication to this volunteer effort to further job opportunities for the handicapped. Let us work together for their meaningful participation in the world of work, and in a life of dignity.

I urge all the Governors of States, mayors of cities, and other public officials, as well as leaders of industry, educational and religious groups, labor, civic, veterans', agricultural, women's, scientific, professional, and fraternal organizations, and all other interested organizations and individuals, including the handicapped themselves, to participate in this observance.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-second.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON