My new Access -VR (formerly known as VESID) worker decided it would be best for me to start working at a sheltered workshop with other people with disabilities. My rate was low, a penny a piece (the state allowed this because it was a non- profit and it was the disabled community). May pay checks wer usaually $20-$50 dollar. It was actually more “agreeable pay” if we were out of work from no contract, you got paid a dollar a day and got to color.

They tried me on the blister packing machine and decided against it as my seizures would make it unsafe. I was then added to the “table” where the “higher functioning” people were. We put tiny rubber bands on these plastic things. We had to use open paper clips to make sure they lay flat. Our supervisors were often mean and told us we were not allowed to talk until lunch. Imagine that a group of 12 people is sitting directly across the table from one another and not able to talk about anything, not even the weather.

For someone who is a social butterfly like me, that was hard. It caused a lot of seizures for me because all day, I couldn’t say anything and got screamed at when I did try to talk to anyone. My main supervisor, whom we’ll call Lucy, often came to sit next to me during a seizure. This wasn’t a nice thing. Because when I woke up Lucy would be in my face, asking if I enjoyed faking my seizures and taking a break from my work. She would remind me that we had a contract and we had to fulfil the orders. The other supervisors were just as mean too.

After a few months of getting in trouble for talking, I was placed in a back room alone. No supervisor checked on me, so my safety apparently wasn’t more important than the contracts.

The only decent person was one of our employment specialists, Dennis. He would often come talk to people to help them get through the day. He felt more like a counselor when he would talk to me. I would sit in the office and cry. Although at the time I wasn’t a fan of him, Dennis became someone who would forever impact my life. Dennis advocated for working at the sheltered workshop on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would go volunteer at a nursing home working in the adult day care unit. Come back next week to hear about that.