The article, "Sheltered workshops are in midst of a storm," July 21, perpetuates the disturbing myth that people with disabilities are unable to cope outside the safe environment of a sheltered workshop.
The truth is that people with disabilities can — and do — work in all areas of the American workforce.
Unfortunately, sheltered workshops still exist today because of self-interested employers and a system of antiquated and conflicting laws, programs and policies that keeps workers with disabilities trapped for a lifetime in their "job training program."
It is true that some sheltered workshops provide a path to regular employment, but many are not what they promise to be. People with disabilities go to the workshop with the desire to learn a skill that will help them get a regular job with a decent wage. But those jobs never materialize because workshop managers want to keep their low-wage workers right where they are.
Sheltered work leaves people with disabilities impoverished and dependent on family or government programs just to meet their basic needs of food, shelter and medical care. It denies them the opportunity to take advantage of life's pleasures that most of us take for granted.
Sheltered workshops are just another institution segregating our neighbors because of an unwillingness to accept that our preconceived notions about who can work may be wrong. Those notions run so deep that even the workers and their families often say they prefer the workshops because they assume it is the best they can do. It is time for all of us to drop these low expectations and embrace a better future.
Curtis L. Decker
Executive director
National Disability
Rights Network
Washington, D.C.