How Policy and Advocacy is Changing Employment for People with Developmental Disabilities

When Georgia legislator Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, heard from a constituent that there were residents making as little as 22 cents an hour, she had to do a double take.“It seems like that is something out of the 1800s when we didn’t have child labor laws and they had children working for six cents an hour. It’s just antiquated,” she said.Cooper gathered her team to research the issue and discovered that low wages for people with disabilities isn’t just a common practice, it’s part of federal law.The Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD) is driven by its Five Year Strategic Plan goals to improve services and supports for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities (I/DD). The Council, charged with creating systems change for individuals with developmental disabilities and family members, will work through various advocacy and capacity building activities to build a more interdependent, self-sufficient, and integrated and included disability community across Georgia.This project was supported, in part by grant number 2001GASCDD-03, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.