Last weekend’s edition of the Twin Cities Pioneer Press featured two stories by reporter Bob Shaw examining employment opportunities for people with disabilities in the state of Minnesota. Together with accompanying galleries from staff photographers John Doman and Jean Pieri, each article provides a level of nuance not often found in daily newspaper coverage of the challenges disabled individuals face in attempts at being included in the current job market.
What exactly constitutes inclusion is at the root of the main article, entitled “Are sheltered workshops for disabled exploitation, or a lifeline?” Shaw gives advocates on both sides ample column-inches to make their case. Opponents charge that the system takes advantage of cheap labor provided by individuals with disabilities at these facilities and, furthermore, prevents them from having the opportunity to acquire more meaningful jobs that would integrate these people into the communities where they live.
But the notion that people with disabilities are cloistered against their will is “absurd,” says CEO of Achieve Services Inc., Tom Weaver, who is one of the workshop service organizers interviewed for the article. Much like the Kansas newspaper op-ed we referenced back in June, these proponents outline the additional value provided through day training and habilitation programs; characterized thusly by Shaw:
And if a client wants to seek employment elsewhere? Most workshops help them. They set up job interviews. They provide training and transportation. They even provide job coaches who work alongside the clients.
Everybody Shaw speaks with seem to have the best interests of the population they serve at heart, no matter where they stand in regards to the service center model. But what approach achieves the best outcome in a state like Minnesota, which ranks smack-dab in the middle of the pack on The Case for Inclusion 2012 state scorecard put out by United Cerebral Palsy (UCP), and has watched its resources for supported/competitive employment plummet by 20 percent over a 5 year period? Factor in the increased competition for jobs of all skill levels from the high unemployment rate in the private sector and it becomes even more difficult to see what alternatives could be offered.
The companion article about Jenna Johnson provides the real-world example of an individual with a disability striving for employment in the mainstream workforce. Johnson has what Shaw refers to as a “five-member board devoted to finding her work;” but perceptions about her physical limitations have countered any amount of job and interview training or other assistance they have provided thus far. One of Johnson’s assistants, Beth Behling, puts it aptly:
Jenna is really smart and intuitive…But when they see that she’s disabled and in a wheelchair, they think that she can’t think.
Jean Pieri’s photo gallery underscores Behling’s sentiment. From depictions of Jenna helping customers navigate the aisles of the Target store where she works part-time and — even more evocative — mentally and emotionally processing news from a text message she receives about her grandfather’s medical procedure, it is clear that Jenna is capable of more complex cognition than one might presume if all they see are impersonal images of an assistant driving Jenna to work, or helping hold returned items while Jenna operates a laser scanner.
Yet despite all her ambition, intelligence and assistance, Jenna has been without full-time employment for five years. Where does that leave other individuals with disabilities that may be even more severe, or who have less personal support? At a time when opportunities are scarce, it’s difficult to see the advantage in taking any option completely off the table.
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Image by Social Traders, used under its Creative Commons license.