H.97 is named ""An Act to promote employment for people with disabilities." My testimony summarized: Let's call it by its real name. This is a bill to promote subminimum-wage employment for a certain class called persons with disabilities (PwD), while promoting a situation in which a certain non-profit entity (to be designated by the Council proposed by this bill) would receive certain non-competitive lucrative state contracts while managing those low-wage workers in (generally) sheltered-workshop settings.

1. Chairman Khan and Chairman Barrett
November 19, 2013
Opposition to H.97 "An Act to promote employment for people with disabilities"
Page 1 of 5
Eileen Feldman, Director
Community Access Project, Somerville 02143
CAPSom@verizon.net
November 19, 2013
BY EMAIL
Representative Kay Khan
(Kay.Khan@mahouse.gov)
House Chair
Joint Committee on Children, Families and
Persons with Disabilities
Room 146
Boston, MA 02133
Senator Michael Barrett
(Mike.Barrett@masenate.gov)
Senate Chair
Joint Committee on Children, Families and
Persons with Disabilities
Room 313A
Boston, MA 02133
Re: Written testimony of Eileen Feldman OPPOSING H97
"An Act to promote employment for people with disabilities"
Dear Chairman Barrett and Chairman Khan:
Please accept this written testimony regarding the November 19, 2013 Hearing of the Joint Committee on
Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities on DDS bills, including H97, "An Act to promote
employment for people with disabilities."
My name is Eileen Feldman. I was born with digestive and sensory disabilities and live with multiple
chronic conditions. I currently lead a grassroots organization, Community Access Project Somerville
(CAPS). We work with low income families and individuals to help them to claim their fundamental rights
to integrated and accessible opportunities, services and jobs in employment, public accommodations, lifelong education, and political, social and cultural events. Prior to founding CAPS, I served as Chair of the
Somerville Commission on Persons with Disabilities.
H97 is anything but a bill to "promote employment for persons with disabilities in the Commonwealth."
Let's call it by its real name. This is a bill to promote subminimum-wage employment for a certain class
called persons with disabilities (PwD), while promoting a situation in which a certain non-profit entity (to
be designated by the Council proposed by this bill) would receive certain non-competitive lucrative state
contracts while managing those low-wage workers in (generally) sheltered-workshop settings.
Here are some bullet points to illustrate how backwards this proposed bill is:
• These job "opportunities" for PwD would not create any meaningful skills training, job advancement,
retention or skill-training. Instead, H.97 defines the direct labor jobs available to PwD as not inclusive of
supervision, administrative, inspection positions:
"D. "direct labor" means all work directly relating to the provision of services, but not
work required for or relating to supervision, administration or inspection"

2. Chairman Khan and Chairman Barrett
November 19, 2013
Opposition to H.97 "An Act to promote employment for people with disabilities"
Page 2 of 5
•
Where it stipulates that the Council would...
"(8) ensure that the work provides opportunities for integration with nondisabled persons,
fair pay and adds value to the service provided."
... That language provides absolutely no guarantee that this direct labor will provide opportunities for
workers to acquire any competitive job skills- it's an empty promise. In fact, very few, if any, disabled or
nondisabled individuals acquire a competitive job skill through performing menial tasks in sheltered,
segregated, subminimum-wage work environments. Furthermore, such subminimum-wage jobs do not
receive the same protections as other American workers.1
• The Council membership includes 9 persons, of which 7 are described by qualifications and knowledge
associated with procurement and marketing of "community rehabilitation programs". The remaining two
are merely named as "two persons with disabilities." (Section IV(a)(4))
These are clearly token minority positions. Instead of being directly appointed by the Governor, they are
chosen by the Commonwealth's Procurement officer and two others appointed by the Governor.
Furthermore, members are not even offered any cost reimbursement for attending such meetings, so the
token disability members would not even be reimbursed for transportation, printing or other necessary
costs, which could certainly be a "handicap" to their regular attendance. Instead, H.97 stipulates:
D. Except for the regular pay of public employee members, council members shall serve without
compensation or cost reimbursement.
• The definition employed within this proposed bill of "persons with disabilities" is an archaic, stereotypical
concept. It doesn't even reference the Federal Rehabilitation Act definition accurately. H.97 says:
"F. "persons with disabilities" means persons who have a mental or physical impairment that
constitutes or results in a substantial impediment to employment as deemed by the federal
Rehabilitation Act of 1973..."
FACT: The Rehabiliation Act's definition of PwD does NOT define disabilities as a substantial impediment
to employment; rather, the Rehabilitation Act defines disability as any physical or mental impairment that
“substantially limits one or more major life activities.”
• H.97 is in direct opposition to the values expressed within Governor Patrick's E.O. Executive order
5262 (Feb. 2011), which states, " (Section 3.) All state agencies shall develop and implement affirmative
action and diversity plans to identify and eliminate discriminatory barriers in the workplace; remedy the
effects of past discriminatory practices; identify, recruit, hire, develop, promote, and retain employees who
are members of under-represented groups; and ensure diversity and equal opportunity in all facets, terms,
and conditions of state employment.
1
For more information on subminimum wage and supported employment, please read the National
Council on Disability 2012 Report and August 2013 findings:
http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/08012013/
2
ORDER REGARDING NON-DISCRIMINATION, DIVERSITY, EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, AND
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION at http://www.mass.gov/governor/docs/executive-orders/executiveorder526.pdf

3. Chairman Khan and Chairman Barrett
November 19, 2013
Opposition to H.97 "An Act to promote employment for people with disabilities"
Page 3 of 5
• Finally, there is currently a nationwide civil rights effort to repeal the set-up of such subminimumwage sheltered-workshop conditions for PwD. The effort is specifically to repeal Section 14(c) of the Fair
Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).
Section 14(c) of the FLSA has allowed entities holding what are called “special wage certificates” to
pay their disabled workers less than the federal minimum wage. These entities are almost always segregated
workplaces, sometimes called “sheltered workshops,” that employ workers with various disabilities,
including sensory, physical, and cognitive or developmental disabilities.
As of Oct. 17, 2013, there are currently 68 national civil rights organizations working to repeal Section
14(c) of the FLSA. For your conveinience, the listing of those organizations is included as page 4 of this
testimony.
In summary, please vote "Ought NOT TO PASS" on H. 97. This is a thoroughly backwards direction for the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts; instead, we should be working to phase out all sheltered workshops in
Massachusetts; and, at the same time, be examining whether impediments currently exist that may be
preventing the state's vocational rehabilitation settings from accomplishing their legally-mandated goals,
which are: to provide direct services to people with disabilities which help them to become qualified for
competitive, fair-wages employment in integrated settings. All Massachusetts residents deserve the
freedom- and dignity- to reach their fullest economic and social potentials. This bill promotes the very
opposite of dignity for PwD.
Thank you,
Sincerely,
Eileen Feldman
Eileen Feldman,
Somerville MA
Eileen Feldman, Somerville MA

4. Chairman Khan and Chairman Barrett
November 19, 2013
Opposition to H.97 "An Act to promote employment for people with disabilities"
Page 4 of 5
Nationwide civil rights groups supporting the repeal of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act:
ADAPT (formerly known as American Disabled
for Attendant Programs Today)
ADAPT Montana
AHEAD (Association on Higher Education And
Disability)
Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind (AIDB)
American Association of People with Disabilities
(AAPD)
American Council of the Blind (ACB)
APSE (formerly known as Association for Persons
in Supported Employment)
Association of Programs for Rural Independent
Living (APRIL)
Association on Higher Education and Disability
(AHEAD)
Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN)
Autism Society of America
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Best Buddies International, Inc.
Blind Industries and Services of Maryland (BISM)
Blindness: Learning In New Dimensions (BLIND),
Inc.
California State Council on Developmental
Disabilities
Center for People with Disabilities (CPWD)
Center for Self-Determination
Center for Social Capital
Center for the Human Rights of Users and
Survivors of Psychiatry (CHRUSP)
Center for the Visually Impaired (CVI), Atlanta
Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or
Visually Impaired
Collaboration to Promote Self Determination
(CPSD)
Colorado APSE (formerly known as the Colorado
Association for Persons in Supported
Employment)
Colorado Center for the Blind
Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition (CCDC)
Community Link (formerly Employment Link)
Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates
(COPAA)
Council of Schools for the Blind (COSB)
Council of State Administrators of Vocational
Rehabilitation
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
(DREDF)
disAbility Solutions for Independent Living, Inc.
Equal Rights Center (ERC)
Family Voices Colorado
Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA)
Houston Center for Independent Living
Independent Living Resource Center San
Francisco
Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL)
Japanese American Citizens League
Jewish Guild for the Blind
Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Little People of America (LPA)
Louisiana Center for the Blind
National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery
(NCMHR)
National Council of State Agencies for the Blind
(NCSAB)
National Council on Independent Living (NCIL)
National Disability Institute (NDI)
National Disability Leadership Alliance (NDLA)
National Disability Rights Network (NDRN)
National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC)
National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS)
National Federation of the Blind (NFB)
National Fragile X Foundation (NFXF)
National Organization on Disability (NOD)
National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities
(NOND)
National Youth Leadership Network, Institute for
Community Inclusion at UMass Boston
New York Association on Independent Living
(NYAIL)
Not Dead Yet (NDY)
RISE Center for Independent Living
Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE)
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
TASH
Texas Advocates
Texas Association of Centers for Independent
Living (TACIL)
United Spinal Association
Xavier Society for the Blind

5. Chairman Khan and Chairman Barrett
November 19, 2013
Opposition to H.97 "An Act to promote employment for people with disabilities"
Page 5 of 5
cc:
Senate Vice Chair James T. Welch (James.Welch@masenate.gov )
House Vice Chair Marcos A. Devers (Marcos.Devers@mahouse.gov)
Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (Sonia.Chang-Diaz@masenate.gov)
Sen. John F. Keenan (John.Keenan@masenate.gov)
Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry (Linda.DorcenaForry@masenate.gov )
Sen. Robert L. Hedlund (Robert.Hedlund@masenate.gov )
Rep. Danielle W. Gregoire (Danielle.Gregoire@mahouse.gov )
Rep. Jonathan Hecht (Jonathan.Hecht@mahouse.gov )
Rep. Jason M. Lewis (Jason.Lewis@mahouse.gov )
Rep. Nick Collins (Nick.Collins@mahouse.gov )
Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier (Tricia.Farley-Bouvier@mahouse.gov )
Rep. Paul R. Heroux (Paul.Heroux@mahouse.gov )
Rep. Daniel Cullinane (Daniel.Cullinane@mahouse.gov )
Rep. Kimberly N. Ferguson (Kimberly.Ferguson@mahouse.gov )
Rep. Shaunna O'Connell (Shaunna.O'Connell@mahouse.gov )
Committee Counsel Lisa Rosenfeld (lisa.rosenfeld@mahouse.gov)
Somerville Rep. Denise Provost (Denise.Provost@mahouse.gov)