Unemployment and Disabled Workers

Posted on September 9, 2009 by townsend

• Unemployed pushing out disabled residents for jobs, By Jessica Heffner, August 30, 2009, Oxford Press: “When Cheryl Callsen watches her 21-year-old son sit idle, she can see his frustration. ‘Andrew’s got a lot to offer and, like anyone else does, he gets bored sitting around all the time,’ she said of her son who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, which is on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. ‘He wants a job.’ But with so many people out of work, even entry-level jobs such as bagging groceries are hard to find. While nationally the unemployment rate is 9.4 percent, U.S. Census data puts that figure at more than 62 percent for those with disabilities…”
• Too many students ‘graduate to the living room’, By Barbara Shelly, September 5, 2009, Kansas City Star: “Emily Thomas was born profoundly disabled. Doctors told her parents that if she lived, she might never so much as smile. ‘I wasted a lot of tears over that,’ says her mother, Cynthia Thomas. Emily, now 25, grins when presented with a hefty sandwich at an Overland Park café. She beams while riding the lift on her family’s new van. She exults when I hand her a business card. With a single encounter, I see what she means. Emily’s delight in life’s small moments is contagious. Cynthia and Ted Thomas always envisioned a full life for their daughter. They sought out schools with good special education programs. Despite hearing and vision impairments and cognitive and physical disabilities that require her to use a wheelchair, Emily gained skills and thrived in the daily routine of classes…”