A coalition of more than 30 Wisconsin disability organizations said in a statement Tuesday it supports Gov. Scott Walker’s recently proposed $132 million education and workforce initiative, which the group said could help improve employment training for citizens with disabilities.
The Survival Coalition of Wisconsin Disability Organizations, plans to work with Walker’s initiatives to help people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities gain job experience, according to Beth Swedeen, executive director of the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities and Survival Coalition co-chair.
Swedeen said people with disabilities would have a better chance to avoid unemployment if Walker’s proposed initiatives are applied to apprenticeship programs and technical college employee training courses, which often do not involve people with disabilities.
According to Swedeen, job centers around the state are not staffed with people who know how to assist these with disabilities when they are looking for jobs or training programs. Swedeen said she would like to see more job support put into the job centers to accommodate these needs.
“What we would like to see is that as these initiatives are rolled out, people with disabilities are intentionally included in them,” Swedeen said.
Swedeen said it is important to include people with disabilities in the general workforce because it allows them to be self-sufficient instead of relying on publicly provided services.
“[People with disabilities] just want to be included in the general opportunities anyone would be offered,” Swedeen said. “We’d like see the job growth for people with disabilities be just what the job growth is for the rest of the state.”
