Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 114

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People are twice as
likely to be disabled at
age 50 as at age 40,
and twice as likely to
be disabled at age 60
as at age 50.

Sheltered workshops have been portrayed as providing an altruistic service, but this is
not the way many people with disabilities, and the organizations that represent them, view
sheltered workshops. In 2012, for example, the National Federation of the Blind and 50 other
organizations of people with disabilities led protests against Goodwill Industries for paying
employees in sheltered workshops as little as 22 cents per hour.61 When asked what they
prefer, disabled people say they do
not want to work in jobs isolated
from the rest of society.62
In the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, Congress
and the White House declared
that “The Nation’s proper goals
regarding individuals with disabilities are to ensure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic selfsufficiency for such individuals.”63
Unfortunately, these inspiring
words often slam into a crueler
reality. For every disabled worker in
the general economy working at a
job paying at least minimum wage,
there are three others employed in
sheltered workshops and earning a
subminimum wage.64
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