Is the Disability Field Spinning a False Narrative of Increased Inclusion?

–Dale DiLeo, 2020 “My daughter graduated high school last year and wants a job, but her staff say she has one already – it’s in the workshop.” I heard the above message from parents far too many times over the years. As an advocate in the field of disability services, I have tried to inform [...]

By |2020-02-05T13:58:21-04:00February 5th, 2020|segregation, sheltered workshops|0 Comments

Another Wall Being Built: The Wall of Segregation

Many of us who have been in the field of the employment of people with disabilities have been working to tear down a wall of segregation. But there are those who are now trying to rebuild it brick by brick. When I spoke at the APSE Employment First Conference a few weeks back, I spelled [...]

Benevolent Ableism: When Help Isn’t Helping

If you are unfamiliar with the term “ableism”, it is a word, much like racism, that describes a societal condition that leads to the widespread discrimination and segregation, but in this case focused on those with a disability label. If ableism describes the culture that subjects people with disabilities to rejection, how do we analyze [...]

By |2017-05-18T15:42:50-04:00July 8th, 2015|segregation|3 Comments

Perpetual Planning Syndrome: Don’t Confuse the Plan with the Action

How often do we see it when we look back at our work year? Task forces created, planning groups assigned, attending meeting after meeting, writing goals and objectives, action plans, giving assignments, and then… and then… We look back, and then look around, and we notice that things are not really that different. It’s the [...]

By |2017-05-18T15:42:50-04:00April 9th, 2015|conversion|0 Comments

Agency-Owned Social Enterprises: Is It Draining Resources for Employment of People with Disabilities?

Come down to our ice cream shop! Your patronage supports jobs for the people with disabilities who work here!Hmmm. The idea of social enterprise is a wonderful concept. Having a business that incorporates diversity and funnels its profits into social causes, including supporting people with disabilities, has much potential. But here’s the problem. Agencies that [...]

By |2017-05-18T15:42:51-04:00October 10th, 2014|social enterprise, supported employment|0 Comments

Sub-Minimum Wage Battle Heating Up

The continuing controversy regarding using sub-minimum wage for workers with disabilities (using special worker certificates under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act) rages on. Use of this provision since 1938 has led to far too many examples of exploitation, artificially lowered wages, and poor employment outcomes. It needs to be phased out; review [...]

By |2017-05-18T15:42:52-04:00September 5th, 2014|minimum wage, sheltered workshops, supported employment|0 Comments

How to Evaluate Employment First Policies

Over the last few years, the Employment First (EF) movement has taken off in nearly every state and several Canadian provinces. The clear intent of an EF movement is to make an individual, integrated, paid job the first option for individuals with disabilities receiving day services.This is no easy task for a service system that [...]

Finally! A Civil Rights Breakthrough

 The following is a guest post by my colleague Bob Lawhead.– DaleOn April 8, 2014 the U.S. Department of Justice announced “a landmark settlement agreement between the United States and the state of Rhode Island, vindicating the civil rights of approximately 3,250 individuals across the state with intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD).” This case constitutes [...]

By |2017-05-18T15:42:54-04:00April 29th, 2014|sheltered workshops, supported employment|0 Comments

Overcoming the Multi-Tasking Bias of Employers in Hiring

In my previous post, commenters noted the benefits of my proposed supported employment process of Plan-Match-Support, but worried about a commonly reported hiring issue - the preference of employers to hire a person who can do multiple tasks. This perception can throw a roadblock into hiring a worker with a disability who might be considered [...]

By |2020-06-13T11:01:29-04:00February 27th, 2014|marketing and job development, supported employment|0 Comments

Moving Beyond “Place, then Train”

When supported employment first challenged the status quo of sheltered work over 25 years ago, the mantra was that it represented a shift in thinking. It was a movement away from Train and Place to its opposite, Place, then Train. That pithy quote helped to convey and crystallize the philosophical evolution taking place. Waiting to [...]

By |2017-05-18T15:42:56-04:00January 29th, 2014|supported employment|3 Comments

The Two Sides of the Employment First Coin

Like a two-sided coin, the advocacy movement of Employment First has two core linked components. The first side is about ending obsolete practices – to phase out the needless segregation, less-than-minimum wages, and limited work tasks given to people with disabilities that make up much of sheltered work. The second side is to provide a [...]

By |2020-06-13T11:13:29-04:00December 2nd, 2013|conversion, sheltered workshops, supported employment|13 Comments

Transition from School to Work: Time to Move Out from your Classroom Walls

Having just returned from speaking at a Transition Conference in Illinois, I was encouraged by how much enthusiasm the transition teachers there brought to learning about community employment. They took furious notes during my opening. And my breakout session, which focused on job development tools, had to be moved to accommodate everyone. The comment I [...]

By |2015-04-02T15:25:39-04:00October 30th, 2013|transition|0 Comments

Workshops: The Burden of Proof is On You

Over the last year, I've been in front of numerous audiences to discuss the concept of Employment First and the need to phase out facility-based sheltered workshops. I don't make the argument lightly. It is a wholesale change of focus for many. It uproots individuals from their comfort zone. It is threatening to agencies and [...]

Mixed Marketing: How Job Development Can Be Hindered by Typical Agency Communications

  Recruiting for an Intensive Behavioral Group Home Having visited and consulted with many disability employment organizations over the years, I believe the single skill most in need of training is in the area of marketing and job development. A major component of job development is the communication that agencies do within their communities. Marketing [...]

By |2018-08-02T15:00:17-04:00September 3rd, 2013|marketing and job development|2 Comments

The Bad Wages Stew: The Sub-minimum Pay Exposé Includes at Least 8 Critical Issues We Need to Face

Earlier this summer, the NBC's news show, Rock Center, aired a critical examination of some Goodwill agencies paying workers with disabilities wages as low as 22 cents per hour. Some viewers responded with outrage; others defended the practice as necessary. Readers of this blog will know that I have presented several arguments as to why [...]

By |2017-05-18T15:42:58-04:00July 30th, 2013|exploitation, minimum wage|7 Comments

Sheltered Work Phasing Out in Rhode Island; Will Your State Host the Next Olmstead Investigation?

This week, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a landmark settlement based on the conclusion that the state of RI and the city of Providence failed to provide services to individuals with developmental disabilities in the most integrated setting, and were putting students in a school transition program at risk of unnecessary segregation in [...]

The Good, Bad and Ugly: Trying to End Obsolete Sheltered Work in Oregon

  The state of Oregon, like it or not, will have a spotlight shining on it as it plans the future of employment services for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities (ID/DD). Like most states, Oregon spends the large majority of its employment service dollars ($30 million a year) for individuals with disabilities to be in sheltered [...]

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