Developmental disabilities and sheltered workshops: "free" to starve?

This April 2014 announcement portrays the end of supported employment for the cognitively impaired as a victory similar to the ADA’s benefit for the physically disabled … (excerpts and emphases mine):Rhode Island Settles Case on Jobs for the Disabled - NYTimes.comThe Justice Department on Tuesday announced a “landmark” agreement with the State of Rhode Island to free people with developmental disabilities from a decades-old system that kept them unjustly segregated in sheltered workshops and adult day programs, removed from the competitive workplace and the broader community.The settlement, which addresses the civil rights of about 3,250 Rhode Island residents, also provides a road map to compliance for the 49 other states, federal officials said. They estimated that across the country, 450,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities while away their days in essentially cloistered environments…… people with developmental disabilities and aspirations who spent years stuck in sheltered workshops that financially exploited them.There was, for example, Steven Porcelli, 50, of North Providence. In a telephone interview before Tuesday’s announcement, he recalled graduating from high school, working briefly at a hardware store, and then being sent to a sheltered workshop run by a nonprofit company called Training Thru Placement.For about $2 an hour, Mr. Porcelli assembled jewelry, packed medical supplies into boxes, grated cheese and stuffed peppers for...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - Category: Disability Tags: disability law employment Source Type: blogs