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Will Work for Self. State doesn’t offer enough help for disabled to find self-employment

Dusty Dutton, a 30-year-old Larkspur woman with Down syndrome, is a successful and self-supporting puppeteer whose shows delight visitors to local farmers markets and children throughout the area.

John Coleman, 45, of Oakland, disabled since undergoing knee surgeries a couple of years ago, cannot get the funding to start his high-tech manufacturing business from the state agency charged with rehabilitating the disabled.

Besides the vast differences in complexity of their business plans, Dutton and Coleman are different in two other ways — Dutton has had the full support of her parents in navigating the state’s agency for the severely developmentally disabled, the Department of Developmental Services.

Coleman, on the other hand, stands alone before the Department of Rehabilitation, a state agency critics say is ill-equipped to help the disabled achieve self-sufficiency through self-employment.

By Francine Brevetti, Staff writer

Full Story: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_6663444

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