SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
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Supported Employment
The Federal Register (1984) defined supported employment in the following
manner . . .
 | Paid employment which is (i) for persons with disabilities for
whom competitive employment at or above the minimum wage is unlikely and who
because of their disabilities, need ongoing support to perform in a work
setting, (ii) is conducted in a variety of settings particularly work sites
in which persons without disabilities are employed, and (iii) is supported
by any activity needed to sustain paid work by persons with disabilities
including supervision, training and transportation |
Supported employment is a program developed to assist individuals with
various disabilities to access mainstream employment settings. Supports
are provided as necessary to assist the worker to maintain his job.
Supported employment workers are supported by an individual known as a "job
coach." There are a variety of models for providing supported
employment including mobile work crews, enclaves,
and individual placements.
Some critical aspects of supported employment are that it should . . .
| Pay workers minimum wage. Under special circumstances, negotiations
may be made with employers to pay workers less than minimum wage in order to
give workers access to other benefits of employment. |
| Allow them to perform socially valuable work or service (that is, work
that someone else would have to do if the workers with disabilities didn't
do it) |
| In an integrated setting. Although the goal is social integration,
at the very least supported employment facilitates the possibility of social
integration by physically integrating individuals with and without
disabilities. |
The models of supported employment can be evaluated on the basis of how well
they meet these minimal criteria.
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