Chapter 6: “No Exit”: Disability Inclusion and the Future of (Sheltered) Work

This chapter examines the future of work through the institution of the sheltered workshop. Sheltered workshops continue to be the primary institution through which people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) experience the right to work. This is despite global abolition movements and international law declaring sheltered workshops as an anachronism that has failed to lead workers with disabilities into the open labor market. As a case study, this chapter documents the growth of sheltered employment in Germany, which disability activists posit as a direct violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities' (CRPD's) inclusion mandate, as they contribute to segregation and deny workers the formal recognition of their employment status on the equal basis of others. German disability policy has long paved a “separate path” toward disability inclusion that prioritizes protective and segregated institutions. This has prompted public campaigns on the future of sheltered workshops, in which supporters and opponents debate their dual role as employers and service providers and question business model that sustains them. Proponents posit that they offer “more than a job,” whereas opponents critique that workshops provide “no exit” toward the open labor market. As a result, the future of (sheltered) work for people with IDD remains caught in a tension between global abolition movements and a business model that sustains the political and economic function of segregated work.