Mental Illness and Intellectual Disability

[Excerpt] Both, people with intellectual disability and people with mental illness, suffer from prejudices, negative attitudes, degrading treatment, abuse and discrimination in society. They are often discriminated against by employers, social and health services, or housing societies and in the access to goods or to financial services. They experience painful emotions, being out of control, or loosing all they have

Disability and Occupation

[Excerpt] It is well-documented that people with disabilities have a significantly lower rate of employment than people without disabilities (36% versus 74% according to the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS)). Less is known about the types of work they do. Using the occupational classification system within the ACS, researchers explored the prevalence of people with disabilities within occupational groupings and discuss its relationship to occupational growth1. Future analysis will address variation across disability groups

Achieving Quality: Consumer Involvement in Quality Evaluation of Services

[Excerpt] The aim of this paper is to raise awareness of the fact that changes in the approach towards the “clients” or “consumers” of services for people with intellectual disability do have an important impact on the way the quality evaluation systems of these services should be designed and organised

The European Union Against Social Exclusion

[Excerpt] Social inclusion means that people who are poor or have other problems take part in the life of society. Social inclusion is the opposite of social exclusion

Minimum Wage Increase: A Guide For Disability Service Providers

[Excerpt] The federal government has passed legislation that increases the minimum wage, the first increase in the national minimum wage in a decade. In addition, a number of states have recently increased the minimum wage beyond federal requirements. Given that many individuals with significant disabilities earn wages at or near the minimum wage, they are likely to be impacted by these changes. The increased minimum wage is a welcome opportunity for many individuals to increase their income from working. However, questions may arise regarding the increase in minimum wage, and service providers are encouraged to assist and guide the individuals they support to deal with any concerns they may have. There are additional issues that service providers also must consider, particularly if they pay consumers for work. The purpose of this fact sheet is to help guide service providers in this process

Diversity & Inclusion Update - Fall 2018

This Fall 2018 newsletter discusses ongoing campus initiatives to facilitate diversity and inclusion efforts on campus. Topics discussed include continued campus changes inspired by the January 2016 Town Hall meeting, such as the expansion of the Office of Multicultural Engagement/Mosaic House, and programming held over the previous semester to raise multicultural awareness by organizing events like LincCon Comic and Gaming Convention, workshops during the Disability Awareness Month, visit of Anthony Ray Hinton, etc

Minimum Wage Increase: What It Means for People with Disabilities

[Excerpt] The federal government has passed legislation that increases the minimum wage, the first increase in the national minimum wage in a decade. In addition, a number of states have recently increased the minimum wage to a rate higher than the federal level. For people with significant disabilities who either earn the minimum wage or close to it, these changes present a wonderful opportunity to increase their income. At the same, there are some issues that people with disabilities may need to consider regarding the changes in minimum wage. The purpose of this fact sheet is to review how minimum wage increases are relevant for people with disabilities and provide guidance on how to deal with the impact of the minimum wage on benefits and other issues

Developing Community Partnerships to Reach Underserved Diverse Populations

[Excerpt] Like much of the U.S., Massachusetts is becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse. Studies show that the state’s future population growth will come through immigration. Meeting the needs of individuals with disabilities from diverse backgrounds has historically been a challenge for our service systems. With changing demographics, it is more important than ever. Workforce and disability staff may feel uncertain about how to reach these potential consumers. One effort agencies have made is to increase the diversity of their own staff. While this is important, there is an additional strategy you can try: building connections to local community-based or faith-based organizations

Achieving Quality Services: A Checklist for Evaluating Your Agency

[Excerpt] In recent years, several trends have led state service systems to focus more directly on employment as an expected outcome of service delivery for many individuals who have traditionally experienced difficulty in successfully maintaining employment. These trends include welfare reform and the replacement of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program; the replacement of the Job Training Partnership Act by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the incorporation of the Rehabilitation Act as part of WIA; and the stated goal of the Presidential Task Force on Employment of People with Disabilities to extensively expand the employment participation rate of people with disabilities. These significant legislative mandates are sending a clear message to various public systems and service providers: the need to improve services to enhance employment outcomes for job seekers with disabilities. This assessment checklist was developed for agencies to evaluate the quality and responsiveness of their services and how well they accommodate for the needs of individuals with disabilities. While this checklist emphasizes the provision of supports to job seekers with disabilities, systems are also evaluated so that both lasting and beneficial changes can be made that improve employment supports for all job seekers

When Existing Jobs Don\u27t Fit: A Guide to Job Creation

[Excerpt] Successful job development for people with disabilities is about meeting the specific and often unique needs of each job seeker. Job creation is a way to modify or restructure existing jobs or bring together a combination of job tasks that fill the work needs of an employer while capitalizing on the skills and strengths of workers with significant disabilities. Although there are various approaches to creating jobs, the implementation steps and overall goals and outcomes are the same. One approach is to develop a new position (one that did not previously exist), such as a mail delivery clerk at a business where personnel used to pick up their own mail at a central location. Another strategy involves selecting certain duties from one or more existing jobs and combining them into a separate position (for instance, a worker is hired in an office to support only copying and filing needs)