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April 23, 2008
Sheltered?
A first glance, shelter workshops seem to be a positive solution to combat the staggering unemployment rate among working age people who are blind. For many years, the sheltered workshop has been the only alternative to staying at home for many people who are blind. Moreover, many people who are blind like sheltered workshops because of their security, safe or risk-free environment in which to work, earn a livelihood, develop friendships and sometimes even the chance to obtain other help such as transportation and health care.
That being said, with the explosive advancement in adaptive technology, which has vastly leveled the playingfield for people who are blind, the question to be asked is are sheltered workshops still necessary? Shelter workshops often do not promote skills that are transferable to the general workplace and often become the community expert on what kinds of jobs people who are blind can do and how best to train them.
What is your opinion regarding sheltered workshops? Do sheltered workshops do more harm than good?
Posted by J at April 23, 2008 12:13 PM
Comments
I believe in sheltered workshop employment only for those blind or visually impaired people who have additional disabilities (such as developmental disabilities impacting their mental function) that really do make it impossible for their ability to hold competitive employment. In all other cases, we blind folks should get out and stay out of such jobs. I wouldn't want to see these agencies once again becoming the "shelter" where we go when most workplace technologies have been made inaccessible to our expensive, underpowered screen readers.
Posted by: Darrell Shandrow at April 23, 2008 07:09 PM
I agree with Darrell. I have a friend who is blind and has an additional cognitive disability, and he works at a nearby sheltered workshop. He has been there for several years and is quite good at what he does. When I first embarked on my job search many years ago, my VR counselor at the time suggested to my mom and me that we check out this same sheltered workshop. Upon speaking with a job person there, we found that I couldn't very well perform the tasks anyway, not because of my cognitive abilities but because of motor coordination difficulties. The work involved fitting very small pieces together, and at the time my hand coordination was worse than it is now. Ironically, that job coach with whom my mom and I spoke is now working at a college-prep program for students with learning disabilities and a sister of mine worked with this job coach. As has been said before, sheltered workshops just might be the perfect solution for some people due to their disabilities. However, these workshops aren't always the answer.
Posted by: Jake Joehl at April 24, 2008 12:34 PM