From BBC, [UK] Independent:

A report by the National Autistic Society accuses the British government of underserving adults with autism, condemning them to lives of poverty. Of the 300,000 adults with autism, the report said, only one in six are employed full time even though most want to work. A third live without job or benefits.

The report said that almost 80 percent of adult with autism who were receiving government assistance wanted a job. Among the barriers to work, the report concluded, were lack of understanding of the condition among employers and a dearth of specialist employment advisers. The report also found that the process of applying for government assistance was confusing and difficult for many.

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At a time when unemployment and poverty among people with disabilities stand at dramatically high levels, the federal government kicked off Disability Employment Awareness Month with a proclamation from President Obama.

Data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that only 18.4 percent of working-aged people with disabilities had jobs as of August of this year. By comparison, about 64.6 percent of people without disabilities were employed.

An excerpt from the president’s statement:

This month, we rededicate ourselves to fostering an inclusive work culture that welcomes the skills and talents of all qualified employees.

… I call on all Americans to celebrate the contributions of individuals with disabilities to our workplaces and communities, and to promote the employment of individuals with disabilities to create a better, more inclusive America, one in which every person is rightly recognized for his or her abilities and accomplishments.

See also:

October named disability awareness month in Tennessee — WTVC-TV Chattanooga

Cornell institute gets grant for disabilities employment — Ithaca [NY] Journal

Companies honored for hiring those with disabilities — Tallahassee Democrat

From the Miami Herald (with video):

A growing number of children with disabilities are being abandoned in Haiti by parents who cannot cope, advocates say. The children are being left for dead along roadsides, hospital courtyards and sewers.

In this grindingly poor country, disabled children seem to disappear, hidden away as burdens in a culture where parents count on their children to someday provide for them.

… The problem with unwanted disabled children in Haiti stems from a society that stigmatizes parents who give birth to imperfectly formed children, in a place where few women get prenatal care amid an exploding birth rate.

Advocates say the Haitian government’s Institute of Social Welfare and Research is not equipped or funded well enough to care for children with disabilities. They are pushing the Haitian government to make children with disabilities a priority.

From the Honolulu Advertiser:

Hawaii officials say the state’s Department of Human Services will reduce by half its monthly payments to poor people and those with temporary disabilities, from $469 to $234 per person. They say they must act to make sure the program does not run out of money before the end of the fiscal year in June.

The general assistance program serves about 5,150 of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the state. Full payments are expected to resume when the new fiscal year starts in July.

…. The Welfare and Employment Rights Coalition plans a news conference … to urge lawmakers to take money from the state’s rainy-day fund to maintain general assistance payments during the fiscal year.

In a statement, the coalition said “the governor and Legislature are balancing the state’s budget on the backs of those least able to stand up for themselves, including the temporarily disabled.”

See also:

Aid to Utah’s impoverished, disabled at risk — Salt Lake Tribune

Kansas reopens program for disabled — Wichita Eagle

‘Last hired, first fired’

From US News & World Report:

The recession is hitting Americans with disabilities particularly hard. Already facing staggering rates of unemployment, they are now experiencing a sharp increase in layoffs.

“People with disabilities tend to be the last hired and the first fired,” says Rick Diamond, director of employment services at Disability Network/Lakeshore, a disability rights nonprofit based in Holland, Mich.

Advocates nationwide say they’ve seen a sharp increase in the number of their clients who have been laid off. And if data from 2007 — as well as from previous recessions — holds true for this year, people with disabilities will be cut from their jobs at a rate disproportionate to that of nondisabled workers.

The disparity in employment between people with and without disabilities has already been growing. In 2007, according to last month’s Disability Status Report, only 36.9 percent of working-age individuals with disabilities were employed. The year before, it was 37.7 percent. But the employment rate of people without disabilities, at 79.7 percent, didn’t change.

As the recession has deepened, programs serving people with disabilities are increasingly threatened by government funding cuts and a dropoff in charitable giving.

Nearly a quarter of working-age Americans with disabilities were living in poverty in 2007, compared to fewer than one in 10 people without disabilities.

Guest commentary:

What Kind of Advocacy

Do Americans with Disabilities Really Need?

By Paul K. Longmore

Ever since Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech, the “needs” of children with disabilities have gotten a lot of press. Palin pledged to be a “friend and advocate” for those children. News stories have reported the excitement of parents and other people in the disability rights constituency that disability issues are finally getting some attention. Some of them have decided to support the election of Palin and John McCain. But do the Republican candidates offer the kind of advocacy Americans with disabilities really need? I don’t believe they do, and I want to explain why I am voting for Barack Obama and Joe Biden instead.

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Guest commentary:

By Rud and Ann Turnbull

To the disability community in America: Be cautious.

Governor Palin’s comments at her party’s convention bring to mind a famous line from Virgil’s Aeneid: “Timeo Danaos et donas ferentes”: I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts.

On the one hand, Gov. Palin appealed to the hopes and fears of people with disabilities and their families by proclaiming she will be their friend and advocate in Washington.

On the other, she dismissed Sen. Obama’s experience as a community organizer. She asserted he bore no responsibility for his activities; she contrasted her roles as mayor and governor as freighted with responsibility.

Gov. Palin’s promise has understandable allure for the disability community. But words take on authentic meaning when buttressed by biography.

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