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The MediSked Blog

How Does Your State Rank When It Comes to Employing People with Disabilities? See the Best & the Worst.

Posted by Elizabeth Chatterton on Fri, Apr 22, 2016 @ 11:05 AM

As reported in a great Huffington Post article earlier this week, new data from the Disability Compendium shows that in certain states (the ones with good leadership, advocacy, and initiatives) people with disabilities are twice as likely to have jobs than they are in other states.

Check it out:

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Tags: Employment Services

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month

Posted by Elizabeth Chatterton on Wed, Oct 07, 2015 @ 03:51 PM

We're already a week into October, so I couldn't go another day without mentioning that it's National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM).

This month, in its 70th year of observance, is a time to celebrate the the contributions of America's workers with disabilities and raise awareness about the benefits of hiring employees with disabilities. 

The theme for this year  is "My Disability is One Part of Who I Am." 

Make sure to read Obama's Presidential Proclimation on the White House's official website and check out the Department of Labor's official 2015 poster below. 

While you're at it, consider (re)reading Mike Holihan's recent blog post on I/DD Employment Statistics & Ideas for Growth  and my Open Letter to Employers: Consider Hiring Person(s) with DisABILITIES

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Tags: Employment Services

New Program in Illinois Isn’t Creating Jobs for People with Disabilities. It’s Helping Them Create Their Own.

Posted by Elizabeth Chatterton on Mon, Jun 01, 2015 @ 02:41 PM

When it comes to employment initiatives for people with disabilities, the only thing better than creating more jobs is empowering people to create their own.

And that's exactly what two passion-driven University of Illinois professors have set out to do. .

Maija Renko and Sarah Parker Harris met at one of th

e University's events in Chicago eight years ago - and they found themselves extremely interested in one another’s work.

Today, they’re collaborating on a project that aims to solve the employment issues that many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities face. 

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Tags: Employment Services, 2015

New Hampshire Makes History By Making it Illegal to Pay People Less than Minimum Wage

Posted by Elizabeth Chatterton on Tue, May 19, 2015 @ 01:00 PM

You may have read that title and thought “Wait a minute, isn’t a legally enforced minimum pay rate the point of Minimum Wage?”

Or maybe even, “Hmm…there’s a MediSked logo on this page – but surely this must be an Onion article.”

It does sound rather ridiculous, doesn’t it?

So ridiculous in fact, that I got a little bit worked up sitting down to write this post.

My original title was similar to many other news outlets’ stories:  “New Hampshire Just Made It Illegal to Pay People with Disabilities Less than Minimum Wage”. Then I thought about it.

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Tags: ID/DD News, Employment Services, 2015