[nfbmi-talk] lt gov calley on disabilities employment

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Lt Gov Calley says he’ll push for better employment for disabled people | Michigan Radio

By

Jake Neher

 

Lt. Gov. Brian Calley says the state needs to do more to help people with disabilities get good jobs.

 

Lt. Gov. Brian Calley joined advocates at the state Capitol on Monday to unveil a report that shows many Michiganders with disabilities lack decent job

opportunities.

Credit Jake Neher / MPRN

 

A

new report released on Monday

shows many Michiganders with disabilities are all but forced into menial jobs, some of which pay less than the minimum wage. That is legal if an employer

gets a waiver from the federal government, and advocates say only Washington can change that practice.

 

But Calley says the state can do more to prepare people with disabilities for better jobs. He says it has already made a lot of progress improving other

services for the disabled.

 

“But when it comes to employment, this is where we need the most dramatic shift in attitude of all of these different areas,” said Calley.

 

“We are not talking about charity here. We are talking about people that have something important and valuable and productive to add to our community and

to our economy, to Michigan.”

 

Calley is the father of a child with a disability. He says he knows from personal experience how perceptions can limit their opportunities.

 

“The message that you hear loud and clear from a whole, very wide group of professionals is to temper your expectations of the future, to hold back or to

change or to modify or to just essentially give up on some of those hopes and dreams that you’d have for your child because now you understand that you

have a child with a disability,” said Calley.

 

He says he is looking at a number of ways to improve those job opportunities, but he says he is not yet ready to make any specific proposals.

 

Source:

http://michiganradio.org/post/lt-gov-calley-says-he-ll-push-better-employment-disabled-people