The Tyranny of Low Expectations

 The Tyranny of Low Expectations

 

Long ago and far away kids with disabilities were shunted off to state facilities.   Out of sight, out of mind.   Families were encouraged to “forget about the child”.   Kids who stayed at home might find themselves as adults in things called sheltered workshops, where they mostly did simple assembly tasks and were paid based on the number of pieces they completed in an hour.  There was no such thing as a minimum wage and folks were supposed to be grateful for having some place to go every day.  

Things are certainly not that bad today.  Today we have a different system of communicating to kids with disabilities that they can’t cut the real world. We send them off to be put in a sheltered working environment where we have no expectation that the student will be able to compete with non-disabled people.  These businesses are often for-profit and trade on the fact that patrons can feel like they are doing a good deed by patronizing the business.

The most common type of these businesses is a coffee shop or a café.  In these businesses people with disabilities work in the lowest skilled job in the café.   If a worker cannot make change then someone else will handle the cash register or there will only be non-cash payments.   If a worker cannot take the pressure of lots of orders being called out, then a more typical staff member will take the order and feed it to the person with disabilities at a rate the worker can manage.  Often these workers with disabilities are paid the prevailing minimum wage.   So, what is wrong with this system.  Seems like a win-win.
What is wrong is that the system is disrespectful to the abilities of the worker with disabilities.   It represents an environment that is not a real environment in the commercial world.  Employers might make allowances for employees with disabilities.   BUT, they will also instigate training programs so that the person with disabilities can move beyond what he/she cannot do to being able to do more advanced tasks.   In the supported employment scenario, the business accommodates to the skill set of the disability.  It is ok, to be disabled.  Expectations are lowered to the level of the employee. 

In a competitive employment situation, the employee with disabilities is trained to increase his/her skill set.  And as the employee learns to do more tasks that employee is enabled to possibly work somewhere else if the current environment is not working.  If Starbucks doesn’t work, what about Dunkin?   Whereas, if a person with disabilities is totally accommodated by the supported employment that person does not have options to try another employer because the employee has not increased in skills to be able to do so.   In the real world, employees accommodate to the employer’s needs, not the other way around.

When we have low expectations for employees with disabilities, we are sending a clear message- this is the best you can be- adjust.

Is that what we want for our kids?