Report Finds Exploitation at Work

In a report released earlier this year, the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) found a total failure of the disability service system to provide quality work for people with disabilities. 

For Immediate Release                         Contact:    David Card
01/18/2011                             202.408.9514 x122  press@ndrn.org 

Report Finds People with Disabilities Exploited at Work
Segregation, Isolation and Abuse

WASHINGTON – In a report released today, the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) found a total failure of the disability service system to provide quality work for people with disabilities.  The report focuses on the problems with segregated work, sheltered environments and low wages and highlights a massive breakdown between good federal and state policies and their implementation and oversight.

It identifies the barriers to employment that people with disabilities face and dispels myths about their capability to be fully employed, equally compensated, and an integral member of American workplaces and communities. It shows a systemic failure to provide hope and opportunity to young people with disabilities who want to transition into traditional work but instead wind up trapped in a sheltered workshop.

“For decades we have worked to ensure federal laws guarantee the right of people with disabilities to live and work in their chosen communities,” said NDRN executive director Curt Decker.  “Yet, our investigation found that many people with disabilities are still being segregated and financially exploited.”

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 here , is called Segregated and Exploited: The Failure of the Disability Service System to Provide Quality Work .

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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.