Photo by Rachel Dornhelm
California's unemployment rate crept up to 11.5 percent in May, far worse than the national rate of 9.4 percent. By any measure those numbers are bad. But estimates of the jobless rate for people with developmental disabilities are twice that high. And organizations working to place people with autism and Down syndrome in jobs say they're facing a double hit in the current economy. Reporter: Rachel Dornhelm.
-Click here to listen to the full interview produced by KQED
What's Going to Happen to Rob?
Rob and Laura Repke on The Arc sailing trip, with donated boats and captains for the event from a local club - Summer 2008
For those of us in California who have not lost our jobs, the state budget crisis might be an abstraction. For adults with developmental disabilities, the consequences are severe, concrete and immediate. Take my son Rob, for example.
Rob, 30, was born with cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities and optic nerve atrophy that left him legally blind. He is one of more than 20,000 people in the Bay Area who have a developmental disability. There was a time when Rob would have been sent off to a costly, state-run institution - deprived of the ability to live in his community. As a society, we wisely realized that closing such institutions would enable people with developmental disabilities to live healthier and more fulfilling lives.
-Click here to read this San Francisco Chronicle article and learn more about our state budget and how it effects people with developmental disabilities
