August 02, 2023 | viewpointproject.com

00:00:09:04 – 00:00:30:05
Dennis Quaid
Hello, I’m Dennis Quaid. It is estimated that more than 1.2 million charitable organizations exist in the US today. These groups are made up of people who have committed their lives to changing the lives of others. Here is one such story.

00:00:30:05 – 00:00:56:17
Narrator
America launched the Hubble telescope into outer space before civil rights were codified into law for people with disabilities. Let that sink in. We were only seven months into the 1990s before adoption of the Americans with Disabilities Act. And while this watershed moment finally afforded basic human rights to some of our most vulnerable citizens, the fight for acceptance continues to this day.

00:00:56:17 – 00:01:11:11
Dorothy Goodwin, Chair, Community Options, Inc. Board of Directors
They enjoy life, and they don’t want to be excluded. They definitely don’t want to be segregated. I think that what we’ve learned in the past is that as we embrace differences in people, then we become a better society. We’re able to work together because we get more contributors.

00:01:11:12 – 00:01:18:20
Samantha Cutler, Regional Director, Community Options, Inc.
The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is twice as high compared to the unemployment rate for people without disabilities.

00:01:18:20 – 00:01:33:23
Robert Stack, Founder, President and CEO, Community Options, Inc.
I remember talking to a person in a wheelchair and I said, what do you want to be? And he said, I want to be an astronaut. And everyone kind of scoffed and thought that was sort of a reductive idea. But I said, why do you want to be an astronaut? And he said, because in space I can float and I’ll be just as ambulatory as everybody else.

00:01:33:23 – 00:02:06:12
Samantha Cutler
People who want to live in their own home or they live in four-bedroom homes and receive around-the-clock care. There are waiting lists that are years long. There’s also options for people with disabilities who live with their own family members, and their family members get paid to take care of them, or similar situation where they’re living in somebody else’s home, somebody from the community wanting to take somebody in. Similar to the foster care system, to where they take somebody with a disability and, you know, they become their caretaker and, you know, they live in their home with them and become a family together.

00:02:06:12 – 00:02:11:15
Dorothy Goodwin
They work jobs not just as greeters and they can be successful at it given the proper supports.

00:02:11:15 – 00:02:22:10
Samantha Cutler
People with disabilities don’t want to be a prop. They want to contribute to the business and have a purpose. They offer retention. You know, once they’re in a job, their retention rates are higher.

00:02:22:10 – 00:02:48:15
Robert Stack
When a person with disability rolls in his wheelchair or talks with cerebral palsy or a different accent. People, whether they want to admit it or not, any interviewer has a prejudicial attitude about a person because they base a lot on how you look. Unfortunately, what people with disabilities have to do is they have to fight through that barrier, overcome it, and surpass it. And when they do that, they absolutely amaze a lot of the people that they are employed by.

00:02:49:06 – 00:03:07:16
Samantha Cutler
Sub-minimum wage is when a person with disabilities is paid less than minimum wage to perform a job. So sometimes that can just be mere cents. It shouldn’t be legal. It’s discriminatory. It’s unfair. You know, why should a person just because they have a disability? Because they were born with a disability, be paid less than anybody else?

00:03:07:16 – 00:03:16:13
Dorothy Goodwin
Folks feel that it’s okay for them to be segregated. It’s okay for them to be in a larger institution, when in fact it is not. We all want the same thing, and we all deserve that chance. Whether you’re disabled or not.

00:03:17:19 – 00:03:26:13
Dennis Quaid
Hi, I’m Dennis Quaid. Thank you for watching and supporting public television. I’ll see you next time.