Low Productivity: More of An Excuse than Obstacle to Real Work
Several issues reside in the heated discussions over the need to change the traditional day service model for people with disabilities. But the defining one relates to competing beliefs about productivity: Can individuals with the most significant [...]
Learning to Respect People’s Dreams
"Really, an astronaut?" Sometimes dream jobs expressed by job seekers with disabilities, especially those entering the employment arena for the first time, can be challenging for professionals to hear. But an element of [...]
The Problem with Pro-Inclusion but Not Anti-Segregation
I recently gave a speech at a conference, and afterwards was approached by an individual who had a pointed criticism of my talk. "I support your message of inclusion, but why do you have to [...]
The Support Gap: Research to Practice and Back
Over the years, I have visited many agencies doing their work in the service of people with disabilities. In the process I've met many caring staff. But caring, while important, is really far from enough [...]
Token Inclusion: A Dangerous Perversion
The concept of diversity as it is applied to including people with disabilities in common community settings is well-understood and embraced by most people in principle. After all, no one wants to be seen as [...]
Lessons from Down Under
I am writing this post after providing a week's worth of training to the staff of NOVA Employment, just outside of Sydney, Australia. This is my second visit to support the work of this agency [...]
Salary Disparity in Disability Services: The Other 1%
The Occupy Wall Street movement that began last year was in part to protest economic inequality. A main claim is that large corporations, the "1%," control the financial system in a way that benefits themselves [...]
Supported Employment and the Higgs Boson
I have always been a bit of a science geek. I find a sense of understanding about life, and even spirituality, from the deep discoveries we are making in the cosmos, particle physics, and quantum [...]
Attention Workshops: The ADA Integration Mandate Applies to You
Employment services are included in the integration mandate of the ADA! This recent ruling in Oregon by United States Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart is a huge landmark decision. It should cheer advocates who are working [...]
A Message from the Future
Hello friends, my name is Tramus. I have hijacked Dale's blog to give you a message. I am from the future, the year 2050. If you read Dale's blog, you must be what you used [...]
A Response to ACCSES: We Believe NDRN is On the Mark Regarding the Need to End Segregation and Exploitation
Open Response Letter Regarding ACCSES Response to the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) ReportMembers of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions:In an April 16, 2012 letter to the Senate Committee on Health, [...]
The Top 5 Reasons Why We Haven’t Yet Ended Disability Segregation
1. Fear of Change There is a big, obsolete, but functioning service structure out there, with people in jobs, agencies owning buildings, policies about how to get in and out of them, and billions [...]
Let Me Get This Straight. You Don’t Want the Institution to Close Because You’ll Lose YOUR JOB?
Controversy continues regarding efforts around the country to close large state-run institutions for people with developmental disabilities. Many of these recent closure announcements have more to do with excessive costs (which are absurdly high) [...]
A Bellwether? Oregon Sued for Reliance on Sheltered Workshops
Last month, UCP Oregon/SW Washington, with the help of Disability Rights Oregon, filed a class action lawsuit challenging Oregon’s failure to provide supported employment services to more than 2,300 of its residents who are segregated [...]
Job Customization and the Babbage Principle: It’s Nothing New
Charles Babbage was an inventor who in the mid-1800s first came up with the idea of a programmable computer. His design actually worked when a museum finally assembled it in 1991. He also was accomplished [...]
A Candid Conversation on Disability Issues
Recently, for a podcast sponsored by Griffin-Hammis Associates, Cary Griffin and I had a discussion about many facets of our service system. We talked about the resistance to change of sheltered work agencies, the needless [...]
The 80-20 Rule and A Call to Freeze Referrals to Sheltered Work
The Pareto Principle is a well known economic theory that can be applied to a lot of situations. It goes something like this: about 80% of effectiveness is driven by just 20% of our activity. [...]
Discarding An Old Narrative: Shine a Light on Indignity
Some 30 years ago, some new and innovative approaches were developed to help people with disabilities lead better lives. They involved ideas such as normalization, social inclusion, individualized planning, and supported employment and supported living. [...]
Engineered Employment: An Inadequate Solution for Adult Joblessness and Student Transition
Dale, come see our great recycling program! Check out our cleaning crew! We run a bakery that our special ed students all work at!Over the past 30 plus years of providing consultation and training to [...]
What do People with Disabilities Want for Employment Services?
The statements below are from a white paper produced from a March, 2011 Summit by leaders from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the National Youth Leadership Network, Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered, and allies. Including not only [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
Thoughts on Group Service Models for People with Disabilities
In my speaking and writing, I often tout the need for services to be individualized, and take issue with the congregate models we generally see from agencies and schools in the forms of group homes, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
Thoughts on Group Service Models for People with Disabilities
In my speaking and writing, I often tout the need for services to be individualized, and take issue with the congregate models we generally see from agencies and schools in the forms of group homes, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
Thoughts on Group Service Models for People with Disabilities
In my speaking and writing, I often tout the need for services to be individualized, and take issue with the congregate models we generally see from agencies and schools in the forms of group homes, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
Thoughts on Group Service Models for People with Disabilities
In my speaking and writing, I often tout the need for services to be individualized, and take issue with the congregate models we generally see from agencies and schools in the forms of group homes, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]