The paper reviews problems in the sheltered workshop concept and proposes a change of focus in the provision of occupational life preparatory services for individuals with severe disabilities. Among problems cited are a lack of efficient production and training technologies, a lack of trained community placement personnel, and a general lack of…

Mentally retarded adults' ability to express facial emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear was investigated. Photographs of facial emotional expressions posed by 52 retarded adults were judged by familiar and unfamiliar nonretarded adults. Happiness and sadness were accurately posed most often. The ability of retarded adults to encode…

Project ADVANCE currently provides vocational training to 26 deaf-blind adolescents and young adults attending Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts. The project has developed community work sites in four different vocational options: (1) competitive employment, (2) a student operated small business, (3) sheltered enclave within…

A Washington (District of Columbia) special school offers several programs to serve its population of severely and profoundly retarded students. The Family Style Eating Program focuses on skills involved with eating, while reinforcing on-the-job training in food services. Hands-on experience in a variety of life skills is provided through the…

Systematic observations and ratings by self and others were part of an ethnographic approach to studying the self-concept of 48 severely to mildly mentally retarded adults in a sheltered workshop setting. Ss completed both the Self-Esteem Inventory for Adults and "The Way I Feel About Myself" Self-Concept Scale. Rehabilitation counselors completed…

The development of a work practice center for visually impaired multihandicapped adolescents in a residential school for the blind is described. The purpose of the center is explained to be preparation of work habits and skills for adult placement in sheltered employment settings. Six stages in program development are traced: intake information,…

The paper presents 24 suggestions for the employment of mentally handicapped individuals. Each suggestion is described briefly and considerations or actions are posed as applicable. Among opportunities listed are free labor market status plus additional support, selective placement, quota system (requiring a percentage of those hired be…

Informal discussion groups, "rap groups", have been found to be an effective method for establishing rapport and understanding with mentally retarded adults in sheltered workshop settings. To investigate the use of rap groups as a field research approach with mentally retarded adults, four groups of 6 to 9 mentally retarded adults,…

A system of task analysis and positive reinforcement was used in the vocational training of a 19-year-old trainable retarded youth (MA=6 years). The task of polishing shoe skates was analyzed and programmed into 29 steps and was reinforced with praise and money. The trainee learned the task in 13 sessions (approximately 1 month) and was employed…

This paper provides a historical overview of sheltered workshops and presents information about service innovations and mission expansion. The first workshop in the United States was the Perkins Institute, opened in 1837 for individuals with visual handicaps. This workshop was typical of "categorical" workshops that were established during this…

The paper describes a system used in Nebraska in which vocational rehabilitation specialists determine who is a high need client and develop programs via a social-ecological or "person-environment" perspective. A high need client is defined as an individual who will require considerable staff support, intervention, and time. A three-phase study…

It has been argued that traditional psychiatric labels, hospitalization, anti-psychotic medication, and associated assistance programs tend to reinforce and perpetuate a sense of helplessness and dependency among mental patients. To investigate feelings of power and dependency of 15 neuropsychiatric patients in a sheltered workshop,…

A Finnish study compared the career development, participation in vocational education, and working life 4 to 5 years after the completion of secondary school education of students with mild mental retardation (n=13) and students with other disabilities (n=72). Results found most of the subjects had completed their studies, however, only 25…

Twenty-two physically handicapped sheltered workshop employees were matched on the severity of their disabilities and randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group. Those in the experimental group participated in a one-hour-per-day, fifteen-day job readiness training program in addition to their regular sheltered workshop jobs while…

The project provided vocational training to four deaf/blind profoundly mentally handicapped, secondary students at the Monarch Center School Board of Alachua County in Gainesville, Florida. The training program was designed to develop the students' potential work and work-related skills and utilized a daily evaluation system to guide instructional…