NDRN on employment

Dear Friends,
Today, across the United States of America, hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities are being isolated and financially exploited by their employers. Many are segregated away from traditional work and kept out of sight. Most are paid only a fraction of the minimum wage while many company owners make six -figure salaries. Many people profit off of their labor. All, except the worker. For many people with disabilities, their dream of leaving their ―job training program‖ will never come true. They labor away making only a tiny portion of what they should because there is a system in place that provides no true alternatives.
For the past several decades, activists and advocates for disability rights were complacent in our silence. The National Disability Rights Network, included. We fought for and continue to fight for community integration and an end to the abuse and neglect of people with disabilities while neglecting the evidence that egregated settings, sheltered work and sub-minimum wage contradicts this effort. Sheltered workshops are not what they promise to be, and sometimes serve as an
unsettling example of how good intentions can lead to terrible outcomes.
The truth is that people with disabilities can—and do—work in all areas of the American workforce. They thrive when they fully participate in their communities, and in turn, the nation thrives. Unfortunately, sheltered workshops and the sub-minimum wage still exist today because of self-interested employers and systematic neglect by federal agencies, buttressed by outdated stereotypes
of people with disabilities and the low expectations held by the general public, lawmakers, and, sadly, even some families and the disability rights community. Simply put, sheltered workshops are just another institution segregating people with disabilities away because of our unwillingness to accept that our perceived notions about their ability to work may be wrong.
This call to action is long over-due. It is time to end segregated work, sheltered employment and
sub-minimum wage. Now.
Sincerely,
Curtis L. Decker, Esq.