Tag Archive for disabled

Work for a Quarter an Hour?

January 5, 2015 Comments Off on Work for a Quarter an Hour?

Would you work for 25 cents an hour?  You might if you’re encouraged to believe that’s all you’re worth.  But, wait–there are labor laws to prevent that.  Not true, if you’re a person with a disability.  There’s a loophole in the labor law that allows companies to enrich themselves and pay huge salaries to their CEOs by “helping” those “poor, unfortunate souls,” giving them jobs so they “can feel good about themselves, like real people“–and paying them next to nothing.

These companies know how hard it is for a disabled person to find employment, and they’re aware that fewer than 20% of people with disabilities can actually end up with jobs.

Read about this unfair situation: “Subminimum Wage” for Disabled Workers Called Exploitative.  

Then do something about it by signing the petition to the Labor Department.  Also, check into charities that hire the handicapped (e.g., Goodwill Industries) before donating to them.  Find out how much their disabled employees are paid, and how much their CEO and other officers make.

 

 

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Enabling Summer (in a Few Years)

March 21, 2014 Comments Off on Enabling Summer (in a Few Years)

If you enjoy visiting landmarks but, like me, have a disability or family member with one, here’s good news: our national landmarks are upgrading their access.  A good example is the Golden Gate National Recreational Center in San Francisco, which thousands of people with disabilities visit (or try to) each year.  Soon there will be signs in Braille, audio directions, trails and beaches with wheelchair access, and guided tours specifically geared toward disabled visitors.  We’ll be able to enjoy touring Alcatraz Island, Muir Woods, Lands End, Marin Headlands, Ocean Beach—most of the 75,000 acres of shore and woods that are part of Golden Gate.  We’ll be able to bask in a sunny, salty breeze on the beach, glory in a gorgeous sunset, cringe at where prisoners lived, maybe even hug a tree, if we’re so inclined (I admit that I am so inclined and have frequently engaged in that activity).

If it can happen at America’s largest national urban park, it can happen to all of them, including one near you or on your vacation itinerary.  At least, thanks to the settlement of a long, drawn-out lawsuit regarding access, that’s what should happen.  Of course, the Park Service has until Sept. 2019 to comply, but some improvements should start showing up soon—in time for this summer, I hope.

Enjoy!

 

 

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BEFORE You Donate to Good Will…

September 2, 2013 Comments Off on BEFORE You Donate to Good Will…

Put yourself in this position: You are given a job that doesn’t fit your abilities, then criticized and have your pay lowered when you don’t perform well.  You may get 58 cents an hour while the executives are paid $48,000 and up a year.  The “company” grosses $56 million a year while getting hundreds of millions of dollars in government support, yet none of that money is passed on to you, the worker.

This is Good Will Industries.  Their mission is to help the disabled by giving them work, but, in many cases, they hold back people who, properly trained and given the opportunity, could earn their own way into a satisfying, non-poverty-level life.

There are so may other organizations out there that we can give our goods to– Catholic Charities, Salvation Army, charity-supporting thrift stores, etc.–that have low administrative costs and do a huge amount of good work that actually build up people’s lives.

Before you give anything to Good Will, take a look at this eye-opening video: http://www.upworthy.com/words-like-good-and-will-dont-belong-together-if-this-is-the-kind-of-thing-they-do-5?c=bl3.

 

[Full disclosure: I am a person with a disability.]

 

 

 

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We All Earn Our Pride

July 2, 2013 Comments Off on We All Earn Our Pride

It’s the season of Gay Pride and Disability Pride and Italian Pride, etc.  I trouble with all of that.  I don’t think that an accident of birth or some other factor I had no control over is pride that I’ve earned.  Why should I be proud that I’m a woman, heterosexual, disabled, white, a victim of a crime in my childhood, or anything else I didn’t chose, earn, or accomplish? Yes, I admit to some pride when it comes to my learning to adapt to negative aspects of the above–and to some shame when I didn’t adapt in an honorable way.  I feel pride, though, for things that I worked for and accomplished, or ways I made a positive difference in this world: as a teacher, writer, mother, wife, friend, advocate, volunteer, and good example.

Everyone has something in life to overcome, be it homelessness, un/under employment, poverty, bad parenting, illness, lack of education, a disability (physical, intellectual, emotional, age-related), extreme shyness….  If I’m caught in poverty, I don’t feel Poverty Pride; if I’m able to help myself out of poverty, I’m entitled to feel pride of success.  Apply this to all situations.

In other words, it isn’t what we’re born into or what happens to us that earns us pride.  It’s how we handle life itself–and interact with those sharing this Earth–that lets us carry the ultimate sign: “Human Pride.”

 

 

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Dream Tour through Disgraceland

May 24, 2013 Comments Off on Dream Tour through Disgraceland

You probably know that we people with disabilities are granted the privilege of going to the head of the line at places like Disney.  Actually, it’s a practical matter.  We clutter up the line with, say, our wheelchair, plus, we need extra help getting onto the rides.  Sometimes our chair won’t fit through the regular door so they take us to a wider entrance.  Yes, it seems nice for us, although most of us prefer not to be singled out for obvious special treatment.  However, it’s also convenient for the park.

So Florida’s Dream Tours hired disabled persons as guides, meaning they could get up to six people moved to the head of the line with them.  It cost the customer only $130 an hour, or $1,040 for 8 hours (cheaper than Disney’s VIP guides, at $310-$380 per hour).

I wonder what it cost the kids who were ushered in this way: increased sense of entitlement, negative perception of people with disabilities, lessons in cheating, a feeling of being better than others…attitudes that prepare them for what kind of adulthood?

As for the guides, what were they thinking, allowing themselves to be used in this way!  Not to mention the black mark against the rest of us disabled people.

Bad press caused Dream Tours to stop this practice–without even an apology.  I think it’s far too late.  They’ve already lost their way in Disgraceland.

 

 

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Oscar Pistorius’ Handicap

February 25, 2013 Comments Off on Oscar Pistorius’ Handicap

How is Oscar Pistorius “handicapped”?  He must be, because so much was made of it during the Olympics and now, with his arrest.  (He had to receive bail, his lawyers argued, because his prostheses need to be adjusted monthly.)  Yet, I don’t see what it is that he can’t do.  He can run, jump, swim, ski, and engage in other sports.  He can work, date, make lots of money.  He can attract positive attention from women, friends, and  sports-lovers, none of whom see him as being at a disadvantage.  He seems more “able” than “dis-abled” to me.

So, what is his handicap?  It isn’t physical.  Maybe it’s an inability to tell the whole truth or to face up to what he has done.  No, I’m not pre-judging his guilt; I’m just judging his lack of a physical handicap.  And suggesting that the definition of “handicapped” be refined.

 

 

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