Episode 34: Sheltered Workshops vs. Sweatshops - The Accessible Stall

In this episode, we discuss sheltered workshops. Sheltered workshops are places that can employ people with disabilities and pay them lower than the minimum wage. Obviously, we think this is horrific.  We talk about them in this episode, and compare them to sweatshops, because Kyle found another article which he thinks is absurd called The Feminist Side of Sweatshops. Enjoy!

What are sheltered workshops?

If there’s ever been one thing that all people can agree on, it’s that the purposeful exploitation of people is wrong. And yet, according to the Department of Labor:

Under FLSA Section 14(c), a worker who has a disability for the job being performed is one whose earning or productive capacity is impaired by a physical or mental disability, including those relating to age or injury. Disabilities that may affect productive capacity include blindness, mental illness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, alcoholism, and drug addiction. The following, taken by themselves, are not considered to be disabilities for purposes of paying special minimum wages: educational disabilities, chronic unemployment, receipt of welfare benefits, nonattendance at school, juvenile delinquency, and correctional parole or probation.

Often, these “wages” are much lower than the federal minimum wage. How much lower?  “Rates may go as low as less than a dollar per hour”. Yes, you read that correctly.

This sounds terrible!

It is. Sheltered workshops need to be stopped. It’s that simple. We need to take action. And if you’re thinking to yourself “how bad could it be?” We’ll show you. This map from Rooted in Rights shows all known companies and organizations in the US that have certifications which them to pay workers with disabilities a wage less than the federal minimum. This is a huge problem. Why? Because it’s not only exploitation of labor and people with disabilities. It’s also that this is a problem nobody knows about. And if you don’t have a disability? Odds are you probably didn’t know about this.

There is simply no excuse for them.

Notes from this episode: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Section 14(c) Advisor, Fact Sheet #39: The Employment of Workers with Disabilities at Subminimum Wages

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Episode 33: Accessibility = Wheelchairs?! - The Accessible Stall

In this episode, we talk about why disability seems to be synonymous with a wheelchair. There’s a lot to unpack here and we really liked it so we’re trying to get this one out as fast as possible! Please excuse lazy show notes. Enjoy!

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Episode 32: Carly Findlay, Rude People, Australia - The Accessible Stall

We’re SO excited about this episode. On this episode, we have our friend, and fellow activist Carly Findlay on to talk about her activism, rude people, and Australia. Carly Findlay is an award winning writer, speaker and appearance activist. Carly has the rare, severe skin condition called Ichthyosis. You won’t believe some of the stories she has to tell. Some of them we could barely believe ourselves! Enjoy!

Who is Carly Findlay?

She writes on disability issues for publications including ABC, Daily Life and SBS. She was named as one of Australia’s most influential women in the 2014 Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards. Carly has appeared on ABC’s You Can’t Ask That and Cyber Hate with Tara Moss, and has been a regular on various ABC radio programs. She is currently writing her first book – a memoir. Read her writing on appearance diversity and disability at carlyfindlay.com.au.

She sounds cool!

She is cool. We know how to pick our guests, if we do say so ourselves. While we mainly had Carly on our show to gush about how cool she is, we also talked about the weird stuff she hears on a daily basis being someone with a visible disability. Some of them are genuinely hilarious, and her laughter is nothing short of contagious!

And, we touched on weird myths Americans believe about Australia, and of course unwanted help too, which is the gift that keeps on giving on this show. Her patience with us as ignorant Americans knows no bounds and was much appreciated.

We hope that you like this episode as much as we liked making it. We know we say that after almost every episode, but this one was a real treat to make. To say we were so excited to work with (the legendary) Carly Findlay is a huge understatement, and we welcome her back anytime!

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Episode 31: Disability and College - The Accessible Stall

We recently received a request for an episode from a listener. We’ve never gotten one of those before, so to say we were excited about it would be putting it very mildly. As it turns out, the request was from a young autistic woman named Nicole who is starting college soon, and wanted to hear our thoughts on how disability affects the college experience. As always, we hope you enjoy this episode!

Disability and College

This was a very strange episode for us to make. We both had extremely different college experiences. Emily dormed at school, I did not. Emily had friends, I did not. Emily utilized her school’s ODS, I did not. Basically, our time at college couldn’t have been any more different if we planned them out.

Because of this, we have totally different stories to tell. We meet in the middle as usual though! Accessibility is a huge problem at many colleges. While Emily and I were generally fortunate in that we went to colleges that had the resources to provide a (mostly) accessible time at college, we also talk about times where we’ve had to work with our professors and instructors to get things done.

Self-reliance is important for anyone to learn starting college. But having a disability adds an entire separate layer on top of it all. On the other hand, having a disability allows you to learn self-reliance very quickly. It’s a skill that you will use for the rest of your life.

We also share our embarrassing first day stories, so if nothing else about this episode catches your attention, you may want to listen just for that. We hope you enjoy this episode, but especially Nicole. We hope this episode helps you (and anyone else who listens!) a little. And if you’re someone starting college soon, don’t worry! You’ll be fine.

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