“After 21 Years They’ve Decided We’re Only Worth Subminimum Wages After All!”
Yup! It’s true! Twenty-one years after the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed the good people that run this great country of ours want to Legalize pushing people with disabilities into Work Shelters who pay Subminimum Wages! Yes folks, “That includes Blind and Legally Blind People As well!” “Ain’t That Special?”
Yup! The geniuses on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, sometimes known as the HELP Committee (and maybe soon known as something else if they vote on this come August 3, 2011 favorably), now have a bill before them, which if approved, would authorize agencies that are supposed to help disabled people find competitive employment to place them into Sheltered Workshops instead, under certain circumstance’s.
This new bill that they wish to slip this authorization in under is called the, “Workforce Investment Act,” and you can read more about it [By Clicking Right Here] and to find out more about how the National Federation For The Blind is organizing an informational protest on July 26, 2011 to let the good people on the Health Committee know that the section of this bill authorizing such behavior is unacceptable in this day and age and will only lead to gross exploitation of the disabled community if this is permitted to become legal.
It’s interesting to note how just last year there was a big deal made about the Twentieth Anniversary of the American Disabilities Act (signed into law on July 26, 1990) and this year agencies that are supposed to help disabled people find competitive work may be given authorization to do otherwise should they see fit.
Personally, it just gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling inside every time I think of this and how it’s so nice of our own government to be so quick to sell us down river simply because we’re differently abled! “NOT!”
Hello i think thats verry rong.
I think the goverment should invest more money in helping visually impaired people open small businesses and be self employed.
But i also think that should come with a lot of training
No matter what kind of disability one has, they should be able to work freely within this nation of ours. We as a nation have taken to greed and discrimination, rather than helping one another to fulfill their American dreams of happines and equal employment.
As most of us already know, about 70% of all blind and visually impaired persons are unemployed and are living off of government assistance of one kind or another. The incomes of most of these individuals is far less than what the average minimum wage earner gets per month.
Due to this type of living, blind and visually impaired people are forced to live in sub-standard conditions, and in government housing. So the question is, what is the American dream for the blind and visually impaired? Well that’s a very good question. Most would probably say to have a job and to live as equal citizens, rather than second class citizens.
It is hard to believe that the United States of America even harbors the view of second class citizenship, and harbors this whole idea of just throwing people with disabilities down the drain by quickly cutting benefits and services that they so vitally need today just to survive.
This is one of the reasons why the Blind Online Success System was developed. It was developed to help to give those who are blind and visually impaired a fare shot at employment, even if it is not from somebody else.
The whole idea of running and managing your own business seams appealing to many people without disabilities, so why not offer this same opportunity to those with disabilities?
The whole idea of even thinking about sending the blind and visually impaired to sheltered workshops is in no way the american dream, and it is something that could have very serious ramifications, if it had been passed.
The agencies that we have come to trust in and to help us to gain meaningful employment would be throwing us into sheltered workshops, shutting down our cases and moving onto the next innocent soul who would suffer the very same fate and so on. These agences were designed to help us to gain meaningful employment and other services. They weren’t designed to throw us all away.
If this bill were passed, it would decimate the visions of both the American Council Of The Blind as well as the American Federation Of The blind’s visions of equal employment and job access. It would then open the door to hundrreds if not thousands of good American citizens being tucked away in these sheltered workshops, or what some have called them, sweat shops.
Of course, this bill wasn’t passed, and thank God for that because if it had been passed, there would have been enough noise made that it would have been quickly overturned in a heartbeat! There are too many good, qualified blind and visually impaired individuals who have college educations and who are not only ready to work, but are also very willing to work who would be tossed aside like dirty filthy wrags only because the agencies that were designed to supposably help us would instead, be throwing us all away.
Equal employment is for everyone. Everybody should be given the chance to prove themselves not based on their disabilities, but on their skills and training. Many blind and visually impaired individuals are already being thrown away due to their disabilities themselves, not based upon their education, or training.
Just because you have all the right skills, say all the right things during an interview, have had all the right education will not necessarily land you the job especially if you do have a disability because if the employer focuses upon the disability instead of your skills and education, then you’re history and you’re not going to get hired no matter how well you sell yourself.
The disability is one thing that we can’t overcome. It is a barrior that is constantly standing before us and keeping us from trying to have the American dream. Our disability is the one thing that keeps employers from hiring us and giving us a fare chance. There have been people who have had all the right educations, know all the right people, said all the right things during the interview, and who have done their best to sell themselves, but yet aren’t hired soly due to their blindness and that alone.
If this bill were passed and put into law, who knows what affects that it would have on people with disabilities all across this nation. However, giving the very agencies that we so depend upon for assistance and help to gain meaningful employment would be given the right to turn their backs on us, and that’s not right. It would definitely counteract the American’s With Disabilities Act, and set us back hundreds of years instead of moving us forward towards equal employment.
Of course, more sheltered workshops would be opened, and more jobs would be created for those who run these paid slave mills, but as for those who actuall do the work in these places, it would mean sub-standard pay, and stereotyping like you have never seen it before. We don’t need any more sheltered workshops in this nation. We need to abolish them, or at least only use them for those individuals who really can’t meat the demands for competetive work.
Can you imagine this? Imagine a blind individual who has just completed his, or her degree in college to only end up working in a sheltered workshop for far less than minimum wage. Talk about a huge disappointment, and loss of time and effort on the college education. So what would be the point of attending college then if you’re just going to end up in some sweat shop somewhere working for peanuts? That would be a total waste.
Remember the television commercial that said, ” A mind is a terrible thing to waste”? Well a whole lot of minds would be wasted if that bill were actually passed into law.
Every single citizen of this nation deserves an equal opportunity to work and make the same amount of money as everyone else. There shouldn’t be any sub-standards, and people with disabilities shouldn’t be paid less than everyone else. If you do the same job as a sighted individual does, then the pay should be equal, not less.
Just because one has a disability shouldn’t give an employer any room to discriminate based on the fact that one has the disability. The disability should never come into play when it comes to hiring someone for the job. If the indiviual has the skills, education and the training necessary to perform all of the tasks required of them, then they should be given the opportunity to take the position. Employers need to realize that people with disabilities are very hard workers and are not always accident proan, or a possible liability to the company.
People with disabilities are able to perform just as well if not better than people without disabilities in many ways.
The BOSS program was developed to give people with blindness and visual impairment the equal opportunity to run and manage their own business without the discrimination of a potential employer. We’re trying to offset this imbalance by providing a solid opportunity to become educated, trained and skilled to be able to run and manage an online business.
As people with disabilities, we should stand up and make a statement that we’re not going to be treated like second class citizens, and that we deserve the same opportunities as our peers do who don’t have disabilities. We should not let agencies that are designed to help us just send us to these sweat shops just to waste away. We need to make a stand, and we need to put a stop to discrimination once and for all in this great nation of ours.
The American dream is for everyone, including people with disabilities.