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October is Disability Employment Awareness Month. Let's look at blogs out there by women about disability and work! Patricia E. Bauer hits right on target as usual: President urges employers to welcome workers with disabilities. I'm all for that. Here's a quote from President Obama's Proclamation:
In the past half-century, we have made great strides toward providing equal employment opportunities in America, but much work remains to be done. As part of that continuing effort, we must seek to provide opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Only then can Americans with disabilities achieve full participation in the workforce and reach the height of their ambition.My Administration is committed to promoting positive change for every American, including those with disabilities. The Federal Government and its contractors can lead the way by implementing effective employment policies and practices that increase opportunities and help workers achieve their full potential. Across this country, millions of people with disabilities are working or want to work. We must ensure they have access to the support and services they need to succeed.
Right on. Well, how do we get to that culture of fostering and encouraging employment opportunities? What's blocking people with disabilities right now from having jobs?
How about all the disabled people I know who are working incredibly hard. Doing fantastic, great work.
Who's paying them? Often, no one. I'm a wheelchair user and have a full time job. Universally, people are surprised to hear that, even people I know as colleagues in social media.
As I wrote and deleted drafts of this post -- mostly angry, despairing, bitter , soul-searching rants -- I asked myself, "Who do I know who's disabled, and has a job?"
Not a lot. I know few people, mostly online. My friend Haddayr, a advertising copywriter and science fiction author. Denise, for example, from Dreamwidth. Rivka from Respectful of Otters. Katja Stokley from Broken Clay. Mel Chua. They're bloggers and writers who represent as well as doing their day jobs. And people I don't know, but hope to meet someday, like Laura Hershey and Kathleen Martinez and Simi Linton.
But who do I know who's doing fantastic work? I can name so many.
We can't work, often, because working risks our benefits that are essential to survival. Working denies us health care. We can't own more than $2000 of assets, or we don't get Medicare or Social Security benefits. We are trapped in a cycle of poverty. Programs that promise to help or employ end up tickets to exploitation. So we end up working for free.
I look at this grant to Cornell University and you know what? Great. But I'm not holding my breath. They just got 1.6 million dollars. How much of that is going to actually go into the pockets of people with disabilities? NOTHING ABOUT US, WITHOUT US. I hope they hire some people with disabilities, with that grant, and that, when they interview disabled people about their actual experiences working, that they pay them for their time.
You want to know what would help people with disabilities get jobs? How about asking them what they think would help?
My message back to President Obama is to look for some of the people doing amazing work. Then, ask why they're not being paid. And pay them. Change the policies of health care and benefits so they can be paid without risking their lives or their already precarious ability to live independently.
Hire them. Don't exploit their labor.
If you can't hire them without screwing up their benefits and health care? Get in there and navigate the maze of policy and bureaucracy that blocks them. How about this radical idea. Hire people part time, and give them insurance. Enable all people at your company to live a life in balance that doesn't drive their health into the ground.
Better yet, you as a company, as an employer, can say, "We want everyone in this country to have the health care they need to survive day to day, without it being tied to their employment."
Here are some of the people who are not just working, but who are great writers and thus, advocates who benefits all of us with disabilities. They mean a lot to me and have made a huge difference in my life. The solidarity I've found in their keeps me going in my own daily work.
Wheelie Catholic, advocate, thinker on human rights and social
