As Disability rights organizations that support and advocate for people with disabilities in living independently and participating fully in their communities, the Center for Disability Rights (CDR) and the Regional Center for Independent Living (RCIL) help individuals access resources and support services related to independent living. This includes housing, transportation, home care, benefits, and other disability-related needs.

Among these services is support for individuals pursuing competitive, integrated employment, including those transitioning from sheltered workshop settings into community-based work. Programs such as Subminimum Wage Employment to Competitive Integrated Employment (SWTCIE) are designed to support this process. However, real-world outcomes often depend on how barriers are addressed and how individual goals are supported in practice.

This story highlights one individual, whom we will call D.R., to respect his privacy, and his journey into employment at Wegmans. It shows that not only are people readily capable of getting and doing work outside of sheltered workshops, but that well-intentioned programs can sometimes become challenging to navigate when processes don’t align with an individual’s readiness or pace.

D.R. is a young man in his early 30s who was referred to ACCES-VR, a division of the State Education Department that connects individuals with disabilities to workforce opportunities and resources.

This office referred D.R. to RCIL’s SWTCIE program, where he met CDR Director of Quality Assurance and Employment Specialist Susan Stahl. Susan began working with D.R. using an independent living framework to better understand his goals, strengths, and what steps would be needed to move forward.

From the beginning, D.R.’s goal was clear: he wanted to work at Wegmans.

With D.R.’s goal clearly established, the focus shifted toward how to make that goal a reality as close to immediately as possible.

When he was referred to ACCES-VR and then met Susan, D.R. was working in a sheltered workshop. He has a mild to moderate cognitive disability, but it was quickly determined that he demonstrated strong skills, consistency, and motivation to work.

With these strengths, finding a job outside the sheltered workshop was more related to providing him with access to resources and information about how to transition into competitive, integrated employment, not dissimilar to a University’s Job Placement Office.

When Susan began working with D.R. and learned about his goal, the focus shifted toward helping him develop the skills and resources he needed to take practical steps toward employment.

This included:

• Visiting Wegmans in person to inquire about the application process.
• Supporting access to application materials.
• Assisting D.R. with completing job applications.
• Providing coaching around interviews and workplace expectations.

This approach focused on removing barriers in real time rather than adding unnecessary steps or delays in the process by providing training and other pieces of the puzzle that it was clear to Susan D.R. didn’t need.

D.R. worked with Susan to do interview preparation and receive job readiness support, including coaching and guidance to help him prepare for employment.

However, his transition into employment did not follow a strictly traditional SWTCIE pathway because Susan prioritized D.R.’s immediate employment goal; some of the typical process steps were streamlined or completed later in the process.

Despite this, the speed of the process meant some supports had to be adjusted. Susan picked up a paper application for D.R., helped him complete it since he didn’t have computer access, and D.R. turned it in himself. Even with these adjustments, he achieved his goal and was hired by Wegmans.

This reflects an important reality in integrated employment work — sometimes success depends less on process completion and more on meeting people where they are to provide opportunities, resources, and access.

While employment outcomes like D.R.’s are often highlighted as success stories, the work that leads to those outcomes is not always fully visible.

Employment specialists and support staff often play a key role in:

• Connecting individuals to employers
• Assisting with applications and documentation
• Providing individualized coaching and support
• Navigating systems and removing barriers

However, this work is not always fully recognized in broader discussions of success. Sometimes, the work is forced into a box that does not allow these specialists to meet people where they are. They are forced to check boxes instead of helping the individual meet their goals.

This creates a gap between the visible outcome, and the behind-the-scenes work that made it possible. And while often the checkboxes are important, a rigid one-size-fits-all approach can prevent some from achieving the success they desire and deserve because it ignores the individual, their strengths, their capacities, and their desires. Employers often want to fill an opening quickly, and unnecessary processes that create roadblocks and delay successful employment can jeopardize those very starts.

SWTCIE is a critical program. But everything can be improved. To realize SWTCIE’s full potential, we must acknowledge and fund hard workers like Susan, while also creating an individualized strengths-based system that meets Disabled people where they are when they come to us.

D.R.’s journey demonstrates what integrated employment can achieve when systems work as they should. It also underscores how much more progress is needed to ensure that Disabled workers aren’t excluded by outdated policies, limited expectations, or inequitable pathways. Expanding integrated employment means transforming the systems around it, not just celebrating individual success stories.

We also want to take time to acknowledge Wegmans for recognizing D.R.’s ability and hiring him based on his skills, without letting disability bias limit his opportunities and goals.