[nfb-talk] FW: [Blindtlk] Disability Rights Network Report: Beyond Segregated andExploited

[Chris Nusbaum]

From: "Steven Johnson" <blinddog3 at charter.net
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org
 sent: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 22:48:20 -0500
Subject: [Blindtlk] Disability Rights Network Report: Beyond 
Segregated andExploited

Press Release:

Report Finds Federal Dollars Used to Segregate and Exploit 
Workers with
Disabilities

For Immediate Release
04/03/2012

Contact: David Card
202.408.9514 x122
press at ndrn.org

WASHINGTON - In a report released today, the National Disability 
Rights
Network (NDRN) outlined how federal funding is being used to 
shuttle people
with disabilities into sheltered workshops and deprive them of 
meaningful
employment opportunities.

"There is a total disconnect between what governments say they 
want to
accomplish in terms of employment for people with disabilities 
and how they
are actually spending taxpayer dollars," said Curt Decker, NDRN 
executive
director.

The report, Beyond Segregated and Exploited is a follow up to a 
report
released last year that examined the issue of segregating working 
people
with disabilities in sheltered workshops and the use of the 
subminimum wage
to exploit their disability for the financial gain of employers.  
The new
report is an update on progress to end those practices and move 
toward a
system that encourages integrated employment options that pay 
competitive
wages.

This report also provides additional insight into the complex and 
confusing
system that pumps millions of dollars into sheltered work despite 
good
national public policy meant to encourage integration and 
competitive
employment.  The report follows money designated to be spent on 
integrated
employment as it winds its way from the Centers for Medicare and 
Medicaid
Services (CMS) and the Rehabilitation Services Administration 
(RSA) to the
states, state agencies, and finally into sheltered workshops.

"Admirably the message we hear from federal agencies is about the 
importance
of integrated employment," continued Decker.  "Yet the majority 
of the money
allocated for this purpose actually ends up being spent in 
facilities that
segregate people with disabilities and isolates them from their 
communities.

"Worse, our investigations over the past year concluded most of 
these
facilities do not teach marketable skills or prepare workers for 
any type of
meaningful work outside of the sheltered workshop.  Instead, they 
trap
workers in endless 'training' programs that pay little if 
anything, leaving
the 'trainee' impoverished."

The report calls for:

*	Ending segregated employment and the subminimum wage by 
restricting
all federal and state money that is spent on employers who 
segregate
employees with disabilities from the general workforce.
*	Strengthening current and create new tax incentives for 
employers to
hire people with disabilities in integrated workplaces at 
comparable wages.
*	Increasing labor protections and enforcement of existing 
law.

The report, found at www.ndrn.org, is called Beyond Segregated 
and
Exploited: Update on the Employment of People with Disabilities 
and can be
found on-line at:
http://www.napas.org/images/Documents/Resources/Publications/Repo
rts/Beyond_
Segregated_and_Exploited.pdf

# # #

The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) is the nonprofit 
membership
organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy 
(P&A)
Systems and the Client Assistance Programs (CAP) for individuals 
with
disabilities.  Collectively, the Network is the largest provider 
of legally
based advocacy services to people with disabilities in the United 
States.

Source:
http://www.napas.org/en/component/content/article/24-hompagestori
es/261-repo
rt-finds-government-dollars-used-to-segregate-and-exploit-workers
-with-disab
ilities.html  (Long URL and may appear on more than one line in 
this
message.  Copy and paste the entire URL into your browser)

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