Although calls to expand integrated employment opportunities have permeated recent legislative and policy initiatives in the United States, substantial numbers of adults with severe disabilities still work in segregated settings. We examined findings from events held in eight communities to solicit the views of parents and other family members (n…

Community employment outcomes were examined for 338 transitioning youth with intellectual and other developmental disabilities in one state 18 months after exiting public school. All transitioning youth received ongoing Developmental Disability agency funding. The majority of transitioning youth (57.1%) were engaged in sheltered or nonwork…

This project explores how discourses of difference sustain the separation of people with disabilities from community life and highlights the efforts of one organization, Passion Works, as members perform a counter-narrative of disability. Passion Works is a non-profit organization housed within a sheltered workshop sponsored by its local county…

Shelterd vocational services for mentally retarded persons are analyzed from several organizational, philosophical, and programmatic perspectives, including the availability of work and habilitation service delivery. Targets for remedial action are identified, such as developing time sharing programs with industry and developing employee…

Sheltered workshops can bring new hope and the promise of a productive future to thousands of the nation's handicapped. (DM)

Improving quality of life is the primary focus as adolescents with disabilities enter adulthood. They increasingly, however, encounter difficulties transitioning into domains such as employment as these services occur near the end of their high school experience. Using an ecosystems model within a developmental approach, the program sought to…

Discusses National Industries for the Blind which was established in 1938 as a result of the Wagner-O'Day Act. National Industries serves the vocational needs of multihandicapped blind people. (Availability: Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20401) (JOW)

This paper refutes criticism about industrial workshops for individuals with blindness and argues that they are a suitable vocational option that is often underutilized. The paper explores the role of the sheltered workshop as a continuum for multihandicapped blind persons, employment experience for teenagers, opportunity for older individuals,…

Benefits and costs of supported and transitional employment services are compared with those of adult day care and traditional sheltered workshops (including work activity centers) for the severely disabled. Evidence indicates that all forms of employment (supported, transitional, and sheltered) are more productive and less costly than adult day…

Boatworks, a subsidiary of Stepping Stones Growth Center in Oakland, California, provides work experience to developmentally disabled persons and helps them learn skills useful in private sector jobs. Workers learn job responsibility, quality control, and work safety procedures and are paid according to productivity. (CB)

Four main areas for research focus on study of workshop staff attitudes toward alcoholics, evaluation of the dependency dimension of alcoholism dynamics, and study of the role of the occupational center in the alcoholics aftercare and vocational retraining. (Author)

Cites some examples of effective employment creation, but warns that this is likely to be more difficult in the future due to increasing unemployment and underemployment, demographic shifts, strains on social support systems, and changes in the nature of work. (Author/CT)

Data from surveys of 2,071 facilities providing vocational services to adults with developmental disabilities were used to analyze: employment placement patterns in sheltered, supported, competitive, or transitional settings; employment retention rates; occupational categories; rehabilitation costs; integration with nondisabled coworkers; effects…

Research was conducted to determine differences between groups of trainable mentally handicapped persons using the service of a sheltered workshop and groups which did not use the service, both of which were composed of persons who attended day school until they were 18 years of age. (GW)

Background: Despite research that has investigated whether the financial benefits of open employment exceed the costs, there has been scant research as to the effect sheltered and open employment have upon the quality of life of participants. The importance of this research is threefold: it investigates outcomes explicitly in terms of quality of…