It is my pleasant duty here today to present prizes to the students
the judges have selected as winner of the essay and poster contests.
May I extend my heartiest congratulations and offer my strongest
commendation to each of you for your achievement. It is a pleasure,
too, to welcome the parents and teachers of these young people to these
ceremonies. I am grateful to all of you for the assistance you have given
this Committee in its efforts to remove certain prejudices from the
minds of employers and convince them that men and women with
physical handicaps have both the will and the capacity to be useful
citizens.

Normal employment is the first goal a handicapped person must
reach in the rather difficult journey he or she must make to become
a completely productive, and therefore happy, citizen. Although we
can be pleased with the outstanding progress we have made in this
field, we should not close our eyes to the fact that many jobs which
these people are capable of holding remain closed to them because of
their disability. It is perhaps too much to expect an employer to hire
anyone because of his disability. It is our task to persuade him that in
each rase he should consider the abilities and not the disabilities of a
prospective employee.

Handicapped persons have demonstrated that, when properly placed
and assigned, they can perform just as well, and in many cases better,
than employees without disabilities. Studies have been made which
show that impaired employees many times look better than their un-
impaired co-workers, in such things as absenteeism and in minor and
disabling injuries, for example.

Psychologists use the term "compensation" to describe the search
human beings make for the unattainable. People with physical handi-
caps "compensate" for their deficiencies by working twice as hard to
perform their tasks well. The pages of history are filled with examples
of persons attaining great heights of success while compensating for
their handicaps. We recall a Franklin D. Roosevelt, afflicted with
infantile paralysis, guiding our nation through a great crisis; an
epileptic Julius Caesar carving out a great empire; a deaf Beethoven
composing immortal musical masterpieces; a blind John Milton
dictating poems of lasting beauty.

We Americans have been justly acclaimed for our humanitarian
spirit, and our first interest in the employment of the handicapped is
an interest in the human individual. But beyond this feeling, a very
hard and practical case can be made for the employment of these
persons. Manpower has become a precious commodity in this country,

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