Another major change is that the federal government will collect data on how COVID-19 is affecting people with disabilities. Disability advocates had long sought such data, arguing that it’s not possible to properly address a problem that goes unmeasured.

And, the strategy includes a commitment to establish new models to get vaccines to high-risk individuals, specifically including institutions for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and to “work with CDC to review concerns about vaccine guidelines for people with disabilities and other groups.”

In speaking about his national strategy, Biden acknowledged that things will take time.

Moreover, FLSA 14(c) programs are not just about the wages, they often offer multiple benefits unavailable in the competitive workplace, including close supervision, therapeutic care, ongoing coaching, and social and recreational activities. A standard job supervisor is unlikely to treat seizures, change diapers or menstrual pads, allow for poor performance or absenteeism, or handle getting punched or scratched, to put it mildly. There is nothing "discriminatory" about jobs that protect the severely disabled from being fired or from the vicissitudes of the free market. Further, seen from a broader perspective, 14(c) paychecks often represent a small part of a suite of benefits, including SSI as well as Medicaid waiver programs. The job earnings — which are subject to an exacting certification process to ensure the wage is commensurate with the worker’s actual productivity — needs to be seen as part of a whole package of benefits that allow our most vulnerable citizens to participate in and contribute to society.

 

If the Biden administration stands by its fact-driven approach to policy, it will accept the realities of severe disability instead of the data-free fantasy often touted by high-functioning disability rights advocates that "all people with disabilities can earn minimum wage," when any reasonable observer can see this is simply untrue. My own autistic children, for example, are nonverbal, cannot follow even simple directions without continual guidance, and exhibit an array of disruptive behaviors . It is not just unlikely, it is impossible that they would ever be hired for competitive-wage jobs. The Biden plan would extinguish any hope for their future employment. In addition, a fact-based approach would be mindful of the staggering increase in the population with severe autism (growing at least 10- to 40-fold, depending on the data source), who will need vastly more, not fewer, options for day programming and supported forms of employment for those incapable of attaining competitive work.

 

The bottom line is this: retaining a non-competitive work option for the severely disabled does nothing to negate or undermine expansion of competitive employment for those capable of integrated minimum wage jobs. Both work options can and should peacefully coexist to serve a dramatically diverse disability population.