People with disabilities live better lives when we are included in our local communities. That’s just as true when it comes to work as it is for education and housing. With the right supports, people with all kinds of disabilities and support needs can have good jobs that pay us well — but too many of us are still warehoused at dead-end, segregated workshops that pay pennies on the dollar. The Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act (TCIEA), which was introduced in Congress earlier this month, would end the discriminatory practice of subminimum wage, and give states and service providers the resources they need to create better employment support programs. Now is the time to take action and tell your members of Congress to support TCIEA!

For almost a century, it has been legal to pay people with disabilities less than non-disabled people for doing the same job. People with disabilities, particularly people with intellectual disabilities, have been paid literally pennies on the dollar for our labor. We have been forced to work in sheltered workshops, which isolate and segregate us from our communities. These practices compound the already lower employment rates and significantly higher poverty rates of our community. 

Disabled people deserve better than this. We deserve real work for real pay. YOU can take action to make that happen by using our new advocacy tool to send an email to your members of Congress. It just takes a few clicks to make your voice heard!

You can learn more about employment policy with ASAN’s Easy Read toolkit.

It’s long past time for people with disabilities to have equal opportunities and equal pay. With every action you take, you bring us closer to making that a reality.

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

PO Box 66122
Washington, DC 20035

 

If you think you received this email in error, 

unsubscribe