employment
Down on the Urban Homestead (and in the Kitchen)
Published July 27, 2009 @ 12:43AM PT
In thinking about what my son might be doing and even where he might be living, I've been reading some about farms and intentional communities. One concern that's come up about such living situations, and about "intentional communities" in particular, is whether or not they're really segregated institution-like places, where individuals with disabilities live apart from the greater community.
The July 5th New York Times Magazine looks at farms in the city that are quite beyond the proverbial plot of vegetables. Street Farmer profiles Will Allen and his Growing Power farm in Milwaukee which has"14 greenhouses crammed onto two acres in a working-class neighborhood on Milwaukee’s northwest side, less than half a mile from the city’s largest public-housing project. A second article, Home Sweet (Urban) Homestead, looks at farming that's going on in "a gritty block in Oakland, Calif. — the kind of neighborhood that quickens your step even on a bright Sunday afternoon," in the "urban homestead" of Anya Fernald: "In Oakland, where backyard menageries and D.I.Y. charcuterie are the new garage band, the term 'urban homesteading' doesn’t need an explanation. 'It fits into the Oakland sort of self-defined vibe or aesthetic of doing things from scratch and being kind of hard-core,'" as Fernald is quoted.
Both articles are specifically about the numerous benefits---for health, jobs, self-sufficiency, more---of such urban farms. Reading about Fernald's "homestead" in Oakland, I'm reminded very much of the "urban farm" my grandmother, Ngin-ngin, kept going on the porch of her second-story duplex on Madison Avenue and in the yard below. When my father was growing up, they grew vegetables and kept chickens (all of whom wandered away one day when someone left the gate open; I've never been able to get the image of a line of chickens wandering the streets of Oakland by the Oakland Museum and the Alameda County Courthouse out of my head). Ngin-Ngin made everything, from endless types and amounts of food (I was going to write "Chinese food," but that seems somewhat repetitive in this case) to moonshine to clothes, blankets, you name it. (There's also a fireworks angle, but I won't get into that now; it is the fifth of July.) If she didn't get vegetables from the yard ("urban homestead"), they came from Chinatown's markets and, of course, from Tai Wah, which Yeh Yeh, my grandfather, owned.
Suburban New Jersey---I mean, this is the Garden State---offers a few more places to plant some seeds and let a garden grow. As I've learned from making brownies with Charlie, the process is the thing, and why not show him where food (well, some types of food) come from?
Charlie is definitely curious about food preparation.
Monday Autism News Potpourri
Published July 20, 2009 @ 09:50AM PT
Big News -- Last week the senate passed the Matthew Shepard act anti-hate crimes legislation. Many thanks to all of you who contacted your congress critters about that! The bill still has a way to go however, as the article notes. It's not a done deal, as, among other things, it is being amended to a defense bill that may not pass (U.S. policy making--not always making much semantic sense).
Little Followup -- There's a New York Magazine interview with Hugh Dancy who plays Adam in the film Adam. To the reporter, yes, it is crass to insinuate that someone is less lovable if they are less physically attractive since it doesn't "make up for" being autistic. Otherwise, this is just a little followup blurb.
Little News -- The new Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy Kathleen Martinez has been confirmed. She comes from a strong disability background, including being disabled herself. Nothing about us without us.
Big Followup -- I did a main post on Specialisterne earlier this year. Specialisterne ("the specialists") is a Danish company that believes in the value of autistic interest and skills in the workplace, and promotes strengths-based, supported employment. One of the (many) cool things about Specialisterne is that it doesn't automatically assume that a person on the spectrum is only suited for cleaning toilets or other sterotyped menial labor. Instead the company finds skilled technical work for people with a love for detail, and yes, specialization.
Felt that bore some repeating because it's a thriving, successful business model that is now expanding into other countries. According to the BBC, Specialisterne is setting up a new branch in Scotland. Most excellent. Here is some video coverage as well. Perhaps someday there will be a branch in my own town? Perhaps they'd enjoy employing me? Heh.
Jobs & College Transitions
Published July 19, 2009 @ 05:08PM PT
After some gloom-and-doom-y sort of posts, I wanted to note two more positive developments.
Specialisterne is a Danish company founded in 2005 by Thorkil Sonne, whose son has autism; three out of four of its employees have Asperger's Syndrome. The plan is for all employees to be ISEB test certified; employees have tested software for the likes of Microsoft and Oracle. The BBC reports that the company is hoping to set up a similar program in the UK---am hopeful for that, and then maybe they might migrate across the pond......
And, closer to home (for me here in the Garden State in the US), the Penn Autism Network is holding a four-day workshop on college coaching to assist students transitioning to post-secondary education. Registration is closed but the description for the workshops highlights some important topics, namely:
• How to support students with social skills difficulties in college
• Ways to recognize mental health problems that need referral
• Strategies for supporting personal independence
• Understanding issues of time management, sensory overwhelm, day to day self-management
• Methods of supporting friendships, social relationships, and faculty and staff interactions
• Approaches to collaborating with on-campus student resources
• Development of a plan for a college coaching relationship
Some previous posts here about students on the spectrum and post-secondary education are: post-secondary programs---US college programs for students on the spectrum---an LD-focused California college fair---the need to give students options and they'll take them---the shift for students from high school to college.
Give work skills, and students on the spectrum, a chance!
Stereotypes About Not Working
Published July 16, 2009 @ 10:17AM PT
This Sacramento (CA) story on the state budget issues intersect disability services came to my attention mostly because of its coverage of the protests last week. But it was another topic embedded in the article that actually grabbed my attention.
They [officials and advocates for the poor] also tried to dispel the stereotype that welfare recipients are not trying to find full-time work.
In a recent opinion piece he wrote for the Los Angeles Times, Schwarzenegger said only 22 percent of the 525,000 families receiving temporary financial and employment assistance are meeting the minimum work requirements.
"That means 78 percent aren't trying to get on their feet at all," the governor wrote. "They're not working, not looking for work, not seeking job training, not performing community service and not pursuing an education."
Advocates said the governor's measurement was flawed because it does not count part-time work and ignores the reality that low-wage earners don't have control over their hours. They said the governor was only perpetuating the stereotype that recipients are lazy.
There is an additional flaw in the assumption that those who actually are not looking for work are by default not doing so because they are lazy. There are a number of other reasons why people may not be looking for work, just for quick and incomplete example:
1. Financial, health, or safety disincentives like losing medicaid benefits that are necessary for survival; i.e. issues with the system.
2. Being unable to both manage basic life activities and work at the same time; i.e. not an issue, just a fact for some.
3. Being so discouraged by the process of job seeking that one gives up; i.e. issues with discrimination and lack of access.
Stereotypes are not just bad because they are personally damaging to people. Stereotypes are bad because perpetuating them ensures that real change to fix problems is never achieved.
Needing Funding to Provide Funding
Published July 15, 2009 @ 09:42AM PT
Needing Funding to Provide Funding in Illinois
This was going to be an update on my State Budget Cut Watch in this week's news potpourri, but then I got going with it and it got longer and longer and--
Illinois just made some pretty severe cuts.
In fact, he [Dale Morrissey CEO of Developmental Services Center] added, in three decades on the job he's never seen a state budget mess have this severe an effect on social-service funding.
"I've never seen it this bad and I've never seen it go this far," he said.
Jobs and programs being cut by one or the other of the two local agencies allow parents of developmentally disabled clients to leave their homes and earn a living. They keep people with disabilities in homes and employed. They help the homeless and keep those with mental health issues out of emergency rooms and police squad cars.
So here's the thing--without the services, a number of people are no longer able to work or avoid crisis situations. Because they are no longer working, they are no longer paying taxes. Because they are no longer paying taxes, they are no longer contributing to the funding that would provide them with the services to enable them work, and pay taxes, and support themselves. Without the services, people are more likely to enter crisis situations and use significantly more costly services such as emergency housing assistance and hospital emergency care.
So we end up with people who have no jobs, people who are in costly crisis situations, and because of these two things even less chance of economic recovery (not to mention anything resembling quality of life).
In order to say anything conclusive of the financial and health and safety impact a real analysis would have to be undertaken, but the potential for a vicious cycle that quickly becomes very hard to break is pretty clear.
Has such an analysis happened? Or are these types of decisions merely panic reactions?
Size Matters
Published July 14, 2009 @ 02:22PM PT
I confess: I've been wanting to give this title to a post for awhile but the, ahem, unintended pun(s)/associations have deterred me. But then I read about a study entitled "Does Size Matter in Australia?" in the July 13th Science Daily:
Taller men are able to earn more money than their shorter counterparts simply because taller people are perceived to be more intelligent and powerful, this according to a study published in The Economic Record by Wiley-Blackwell.
The study entitled "Does Size Matter in Australia?" uses newly available data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to estimate the relationship between hourly wages and two aspects of body size: height and BMI.
It finds that taller people, particularly men, earn more money - with every five centimetres of height being worth about $950 per annum.
If the average man (178 centimeters; approx. 70 inches) were to gain "an additional five centimeters [just under two inches] in height, "he would be able to earn an extra $950 per year," according to study co-author Andrew Leigh.
Charlie, at 5 feet 6 inches (= 66 inches) is just about "average" (in Australia). So if he were to grow about six more inches (and be six feet tall), he'd make that "extra $950 per year"?
Things being as they are, I rather suspect not. Charlie's height (six inches of which he acquired in the past several months, starting in October of 2008) has made things more difficult for him rather than less. I'm 5 feet tall and still (true confession #2 in this post) get mistaken for a student. People see me jumping to retrieve an item from a top shelf and hasten over to get it for me. People see Charlie walking down the sidewalk and (is it my imagining? no, it is real) draw back. He's a bit bow-legged and (thanks largely to long bike rides like yesterday's 12-miler with Jim) he's got the muscles to show for his efforts.
But what if he were small and slight? And people thought he was his actual age or younger, rather than 15 (Charlie turned 12 in May). And when they hear Charlie's speech, which is not what is "expected" of a person his size, something like a frown, a sort of look of puzzlement, of consternation, passes over their faces. I hate to say it: They are fearful because of his size and because of who they perceive Charlie to be, and what they think he might do.
Of course appearances shouldn't determine what people think. Of course they do.
Size really does matter and it's not necessarily, as the study suggests, for the better. The one they call Mr. Big doesn't get called that for nothing.
Photo from jonnybaird via Flickr.
The Finer Points of Employment Discrimination
Published July 10, 2009 @ 10:52AM PT
The sorts of employment issues we tend to read about, write about, worry about are all fairly large and obvious, and often times even against the law. But employment discrimination can also be subtle, insidious, and even culturally sanctioned.
True Story: County social services, wowed by a person's skills, wants to hire the person--until they find out the person is also a client of county social services. There is a rule in the office that the county can not employ anyone who receives county DD services.
True Story: Person with an impressive set of skills is hired--but not for their actual skills, only as a representative of a person with a disability on the staff. When the person attempts to apply their actual skills to the job, they are told their skills are not wanted (in fact, that the person even possesses such skills is actively denied), and they are only wanted in their capacity as a PWD, not as a professional in any of the ways they have been trained.
True Story: Dora says, "Why aren't there any self-advocates on your autism committee, only parent advocates?" Committee member answers, "Oh, because those parent advocates have other skills that they can contribute to the committee." (It does not cross anyone's mind that the same might also be true of self-advocates.)
True Story: Autistic person who has appropriate credentials does a training series for education workers on how to work better with students on the spectrum. The education workers ask for personal details about the trainer's life: details about the trainer's marriage, mental health, and childhood. The education workers do not ask for details related to the content of the training.
True Story: An appropriately credentialed graduate student attempts to hook up with an academic group involved in assistive technology design. The student is instantly dismissed with no further discussion because the student is an end user of the type of assistive technology being developed--the principle investigator (even after some coaching by others) simply can not fathom how someone who uses the technology could possibly have anything useful to contribute to its design (the fact that this is a grad student looking for research experience like any grad student is completely ignored).
The fact is, none of these things would happen to someone who wasn't on the spectrum. These are clear cases of discrimination. However, there is no recourse to them. They are socially sanctioned as acceptable forms of discrimination. They exist because of attitudes. Because of how disabled people or autistic people are perceived. That we are only good for work that has to do with our disability, and that we are not useful in any other way. That what makes us "remarkable" is our knowledge of being autistic or being disabled, but never our knowledge of things like graphic design, computer programming, engineering, nursing, or whatever else is in our actual skill sets.
Anti-discrimination laws alone do not solve discrimination problems. A paradigm shift in how society sees us is equally necessary. Else these sorts of stories will continue to be told.
