• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Trainers operating with a federal grant came to Brookings and Pierre this week to educate public and private employers on compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• One of the sessions led by the Rocky Mountain ADA Center addressed employer requirements with the state's Bureau of Human Resources, a move in line with Gov. Dennis Daugaard's push to employ more people with disabilities throughout the state.
• "He wants to ensure that state government, as an employer, is a model employer," said Kim Malsam-Rysdon, the governor's senior adviser.
• Daugaard's administration has touted that employing people with disabilities can help businesses in the state fill workforce shortages. And for Daugaard, it's personal as well. His parents were both deaf.
• "They both worked hard on our family farm, and when the farm went upside-down financially, they both took jobs as janitors at Augustana College to make ends meet," Daugaard wrote last July in his weekly column.
• Trainers in Pierre worked with state staff on ADA requirements and implementation tips for people working in hospitality and restaurant industries and conducted a right-of-way training for public workers involved with pedestrian infrastructure.
• Earlier in the week, Rachael Stafford, Rocky Mountain ADA Center project director, and her team held trainings for state and local governments in Brookings on accommodating people with disabilities in emergency management and in parks and recreation.
• The ADA was signed into law in 1990, so it marks 25 years in existence next

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