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No, the Federal Aviation Administration did not recruit people with intellectual disabilities to work as air traffic controllers.
Despite what Pres. Donald Trump said at a press conference Thursday – "They can be air traffic controllers" – that's not how disability hiring works, says Chai Feldblum, a disability lawyer and former commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Disability employment law, she says, requires "that the person with a disability must be able to perform the essential functions of the job."
And that's how it worked in the Biden Administration, says Kelly Buckland, who was the disability policy advisor to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Any hiring of people with disabilities at the FAA, Buckland told NPR, "would only be qualified people with disabilities, with the emphasis on qualified."
Trump suggested diversity efforts at the FAA, including the hiring of people with disabilities, had compromised air safety. He said the crash of a commercial jet and a military helicopter Wednesday night "could have been" caused by diversity in hiring, but noted that the investigation into the cause is still going on.
When asked by a reporter how he could link the crash to a diverse workforce, the President replied: "Because I have common sense."
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