§ 55-b. Employment of persons with disabilities by the state. 1. The commission may determine up to twelve hundred positions with duties such as can be performed by persons with a physical or mental disability who are found otherwise qualified to perform satisfactorily the duties of any such position. Upon such determination the said positions shall be classified in the noncompetitive class, and may be filled only by persons who shall have been certified by the employee health service of the department as being a person with either a physical or mental disability. The number of persons appointed pursuant to this section shall not exceed twelve hundred.

2. Those employees hired under subdivision one of this section, shall be afforded the same opportunity to take promotional examinations as provided to employees in the competitive class.