McDonalds. Burger King.
They’re the competition.
Not against Guardians of Healthy (and Happy) Meals.
They’re competition for staff—for workers—for disabled adults who need support in their living, work, and other arrangements.
And, if you cook burgers and fill drinks at a fast-food restaurant, you don’t need the sort of training—which can be extensive—that can be called for in assisting some disabled adults.
Emily Homer of VOCA of Maryland D.C. made this point at last week’s IACC meeting and it sobered the atmosphere in the room up. She noted that, if Americans won’t take these kinds of jobs for those wages, it’s likely that people will …read more

I wrote a few days ago about a new study about how parenting disabled children can become less taxing over time. This has been our experience in many ways over the years with Charlie, though he has yet to have any really serious medical issues (he has certainly had some very serious behaviors problems). Today’s Guardian about the “financial ruin, stress and exhaustion”—about the difficulties faced by carers of adult disabled children and relatives, especially as they (and the carers) grow older. One thing that keeps me going is mentioned at the end of a quote from Henrietta Spink, …read more

Nuala Gardner’s son Dale was born in 1988 and diagnosed with autism. In an essay in yesterday’s Guardian entitled The day I could no longer cope with my autistic son, she writes about how she contemplated suicide when her son was three years old but did not:
At the time I felt incredibly guilty about how close I came to taking my own life, but I now know that many full-time carers reach that level of desperation. I was mentally and physically exhausted; I was on the brink. I’ve since been on a suicide intervention course, and through my work I’ve …read more