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Inclusive Communities = Stronger Communities
GLOBAL REPORT ON ARTICLE 19: THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNITY
CANADA In talking with a group of
parents eager to learn about supported
paid employment for their children an
experienced advocate on job
development for hard to place groups
which include people with intellectual
disabilities said “Everyone talks about
life skill classes preparing people with
intellectual disabilities to work but we
know these are not the needed skills.
People with intellectual disabilities need
social competency skills, knowing how
to move in the world, useful survival
skills and interviewing skills. To keep a
job they need motivation so we have to
find jobs that are within their interests”.
NICARAGUA Exclusion in the labour
market in Nicaragua is very high.
Although the law provides for a 2% of
people with disability for companies
with 50 employees or more, this is not
met, both by the state and private
companies. There are very few
initiatives for people with intellectual
disabilities in ASNIC we believe we
have a moral debt to the persons with
intellectual disabilities and their families
AUSTRALIA The majority of people
with intellectual disabilities are not in
employment; of those who are most
are in sheltered employment.
MYANMAR (BURMA)
Jobless population is high.
the assistance of resource teachers. These resource
teachers are very few and not adequately trained.
Regular education teachers are provided a short
term orientation on disability which is wholly
inadequate. The new act Right to Education (RTE)
has mandated compulsory, free education for all
children. The reality is too far from satisfactory.
‰ Employment
For adults with intellectual disabilities one of the
biggest barriers to living independently and being
included in the community is exclusion from the labour
market. Having an income in addition to the benefits of
natural supports in the community when one is
working is critical to real inclusion. Yet families and selfadvocates
reported that the kinds of support that
people with intellectual disabilities need to find and
keep a regular job are not available. While supports
such as job coaches and supported employment
agencies exist in high income countries access to them
is extremely limited and their effectiveness is uneven at
best. In low income countries the approach by family
organizations, INGOs and governments has been to
repeat the segregated approach of sheltered
workshops and day programmes which we know to be
ineffective in achieving inclusion in the community.
Most often the programmes which people have access
to during the day are segregated life-skills programmes
which do not develop the necessary employment
related skills and most people who enter the
programmes continue to go there without ever being
“ready” to move into real jobs.
Sometimes when there are no supports or services to
guarantee inclusion, families take matters into their
own hands as reported from Korea. “My son wants to
be a barista. I think he needs experience in a coffee shop.
He wants to work in a Macdonald or so, but it is very
difficult to get a job there. I am thinking of being an
owner of a coffee shop so that he can work there!”