 |
 |
Um, Colin, I think you may have jumped the gun on this one. First, I am no big fan of NAAR, so I'm trying to defend them. It's just that you got some facts wrong. The press release describes three different programmes: One (the first one mentioned) involves work for adults who currently live in group homes. Are they unpaid? Are they "forced" to do this work? I couldn't tell you--the press release doesn't say. It is entirely possible that they are volunteers, or that they are in fact paid. Without work experience, it is unlikely that adults living in group homes will find real jobs and live independantly, so unless there are elements of coercion or exploitation, this is usually a darn good opportunity. The second part is about once-a-week work experience for secondary school students. I don't know any schoolchildren who get paid for work experience, but I do know there's usually fewer places on offer than there are eager volunteers. Finally, the third part is about workers with the ARC's Workforce programme, who are indeed paid and are certainly not "forced." This is a programme that helps individuals with intellectual disabilities (many of whom also have autism) find and keep paid jobs, and also places crews of paid temps who also receive on the job training. Here are a couple of web sites about what they do: http://www.t-tap.org/indbarrierarc.html http://www.communityinclusion.org/press/cnn.html For people in the US, where there is no entitlement to government benefits or health care, access to paid work is just plain crucial. Although there are sometimes abuses with companies supplying workers with disabilities (Goodwill Industries has a particularly bad rep in some areas, for example...) they are really, really crucial. Whether someone with autism would want to work for NAAR if they knew what kind of research they fund is another matter!! Mitzi ----- Original Message ----- From: Colin Revell <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thursday, November 3, 2005 2:23 pm Subject: Institutionalised autistic people forced to stuff NAAR envelopes > Take a look at this: > > http://www.naar.org/news/render_pr.asp?intNewsItemID=321 > > National Allianance For Autism Research(NAAR) admits in this press > release > that it uses the labor of autistic adults in New Jersey > institutions to > stuff envelopes with mailings soliciting donations. They're even > claiming > that they're promoting equal employment opportunity. > > The residents of these institutions are not paid for their work, > are not > free to leave, and cannot refuse to participate in any activity > that is made > a part of their behavioral program. > > This is despicable abuse and exploitation of basic human and civil > rights > and I hope that the UN Disability Treaty will legislate for this. > > Are not austistic disabled people protected under the ADA and > within the > American Constitution of Rights then? > > FREEOURPEOPLE > > Colin > > _________________________________________________________________ > MSN Messenger 7.5 is now out. Download it for FREE here. > http://messenger.msn.co.uk > > ________________End of message______________________ > > Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List > are now located at: > > www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html > > You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page. > ________________End of message______________________ Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List are now located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.