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For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome

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Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome

#21

Post by wavefunction »

jwr wrote: post #15
ekianjo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This kind of categorization perhaps wouldn't fly in the States I see this as a bit of a paradox in the States. There is always some discussion about how everyone should be treated as equal, yet your "race" (whatever that means in the age of genetics!) is recorded by the government, and minorities are tracked by employers even though this is absolutely not related with their skills. If i think too much about it, I'd…

I also never understood this. Why ask about race if race is supposed not to matter?

They track it to look for unequal hiring practices. Which is an actual and ongoing problem and one the US Federal government is involved with and interested in fighting.

Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome

#22

Post by nhyun »

GuiA wrote: post #3

I worked with mentally handicapped kids a lot as an educator when I was younger (albeit in a different country). This wonderful article captures perfectly how, in the right environment, children with Down Syndrome can blossom, but how hard it can be for them as adults once society & red tape & bureaucracy all come into play. (I also worked with children who had Down Syndrome and had not grown up in the right environm…

Is it Act One from the episode called Neighborhood Watch?

"Reporter Ruth Padawer tells the story of a woman goes to her neighbors with an incredible request—to help care for her son after she dies—and is shocked by their response."

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/420/n...

Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome

#25

Post by weinzierl »

In Germany another young man with Down syndrome is currently much talked and written about. It is about eleven year old Henri who took part in a model experiment to attended regular school classes.

Now that some of his classmates are about to go to high school, his parents try to get him also into high school. Their reasoning is that it would be cruel and against the idea of the original experiment to separate him from his friends again. They don't argue that does not have the abilities to graduate. The whole argument is if a high schools should accept someone for other reasons than graduating.

The following article is not very good, but the only one I could find in English:

http://international.sueddeutsche.de/post/82661462300/a-touc...

Much better one, but in German:

http://www.spiegel.de/schulspiegel/junge-mit-down-syndrom-he...

Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome

#26

Post by jacquesm »

tatianajosephy wrote: post #9

I have a strong sense that online work - on CrowdFlower, Mechanical Turk, or Elance - could be the path forward for someone like Jaime. Please do note: I work for CrowdFlower. The beauty of online work is its promise of operating as a meritocracy. Access to the labor market is not about who you know, or how you appear, but about your ability to perform. Everything about Jaime, from his diligence to his incredible cat…

The people you work with as colleagues are in cases like these just as important as the work itself, if not more so.

This quite possibly holds true for all people that work from home.

It will be very hard to ride the fine line between providing real work and making sure that you're not exploiting people in an already difficult situation.

If you want I can put you in contact with a lady that set up a courier service for people with what she calls a 'difficult body' that is wildly successful (it has over 1000 employees nowadays). If you feel like reading a bit about it google for 'valid express' and 'Nicolette Mak'.

Best of luck with your endeavour!

Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome

#28

Post by sdrothrock »

dougjordan wrote: post #23

I took french class with Jamie back in high school. He is a great guy, and works incredibly hard. I loved working in groups with him; his french was much better than mine.

Do you know how well he's able to use a computer?

It could potentially be rewarding (both monetarily and intellectually) for him to be able to find things he's interested in on Mechanical Turk or Fiverr.

Perhaps he could also start a blog to talk about the things he's interested in. The more publicity he gets, the more likely it is that he would be "found" by someone who has a niche that he would fit into.

Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome

#29

Post by gadders »

GuiA wrote: post #3

I worked with mentally handicapped kids a lot as an educator when I was younger (albeit in a different country). This wonderful article captures perfectly how, in the right environment, children with Down Syndrome can blossom, but how hard it can be for them as adults once society & red tape & bureaucracy all come into play. (I also worked with children who had Down Syndrome and had not grown up in the right environm…

There was a satirical article in the Onion that exposed a similar truth. I wish I could find it now but it was along the lines of "Learning Disabled Man is Only Decent Employee in Local Burger Bar". He was the only diligent employee and the rest were teenagers that couldn't give a shit.

Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome

#30

Post by user24 »

mike_h wrote: post #20

Would something like a google glass app, or another semi-automated assistant work for augmenting his capabilities? Sounds like he's totally motivated and capable to do e.g. the janitorial work, but his capability needs to be paired with intensive supervision. Could that supervision be implemented as wearable interactive instruction or cheat-sheets?

I can see occulus rift being more suited to this than glass.
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