ETA Letter to project directors

DOL Data Collection Notification Letter

Dear American Job Center Director,

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is sponsoring a special study to help policymakers and program administrators understand the level of accessibility of American Job Centers (AJCs) for persons with disabilities (PWD). The issue of accessibility is of particular interest to Congress, which requested the study, and to DOL to help identify ways to improve accessibility.

The study is being conducted on behalf of DOL by IMPAQ International (IMPAQ), an independent research company, and its partner the Burton Blatt Institute of Syracuse University and Evan Terry Associates. As part of this important study, IMPAQ will be conducting a web-based survey of all 2,542 AJC directors, in addition to conducting on-site visits with a sample of 100 centers.

The survey and in-person data collection will not be used to audit for compliance with laws and regulations regarding accessibility for American Job Centers. Rather, the purpose is to gather data to paint a broad picture about the degree to which AJCs, on average, are accessible to PWD. No information on the accessibility of individual AJCs will be provided to DOL as a result of this study. Information you provide will be reported as grouped data and will only be used for the purposes of this study.

I encourage you to participate in this important study in two ways. First, within the next two weeks, all AJC Directors will receive an email from IMPAQ providing a link to the web-based survey. Please complete this survey as soon as possible. Second, IMPAQ will select 100 AJCs for on-site visits. AJCs will be selected to include sites with a range of characteristics, such as location, size, type of center (i.e., comprehensive vs. affiliate). If your AJC is selected, IMPAQ will contact you to schedule an in-person visit.

I appreciate your participation in this study. For additional information, please feel free to follow up with the federal project officer, Dr. Stefanie Schmidt at [email protected] or 202-693-5901, or with Eileen Poe-Yamagata, the study project director at IMPAQ at epyamagata@ impaqint.com or 443-367-0088 (ext. 2227).

Thank you very much.