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21 March was the World Down Syndrome Day.
On this day, organisations of people with intellectual disabilities in Germany asked the government to make sure that people with Down Syndrome can have a job. The government must support people with intellectual disabilities so they can find a job as other people. The government should also help them at their work if they need support to do their work well. |
Lebenshilfe Germany together with other organisations of people with Down Syndrome called on the German government to provide more opportunities for people with disabilities in the open labour market. On the occasion of World Down Syndrome Day on 21 March, Lebenshilfe urged the government to provide more alternatives to the sheltered workshops for people with Down Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities.
5 years after the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, no significant increase in the employment of people with Down Syndrome in the open labour market has been observed. The organisations thus call on the government to put flexible support services in place, which will facilitate the participation of people with disabilities in the open labour market. Serrvices such as wage subsidies or permanent assistance in the workplace to help them perform the tasks.
“Until now, people with disabilities have been barely visible on the labour market”, says Ulla Schmidt, the Chairperson of Lebenshilfe Germany. On the long run, including people with intellectual disabilities in the open labour market would also help change society’s attitude towards them. At the moment, only some federal states like Rhineland – Palatinate, Lower Saxony and Hamburg offer people with intellectual disabilities alternatives to employment in sheltered workshops. For example, there are many enterprises which employ both people with and without disabilities. In addition, sheltered – workshop employees are often ‘outsourced’ to external workplaces such as kindergartens, coffee shops or supermarkets.
For more information on this topic in German, go to www.einfach-teilhaben.de and www.lebenshilfe.de.
Source: Lebenshilfe Germany
