Worker Cooperatives and the Employment of People with Disabilities, Part 3: Adapting a Worker Cooperative to Meet Disability Concerns

The opportunities for self-empowerment and economic justice found in the worker cooperative structure may be especially relevant for people with disabilities, who as a population tend to experience extraordinarily high rates of unemployment.

People with disabilities already successfully engage in a wide range of employment and self-employment situations (Seekins & Arnold, 1996; Shelley, 1999). Employment within a worker cooperative structure carries many benefits for people with disabilities and requires only a few carefully structured adaptations. Benefits include fair wages and an equitable share of profits; authority to manage the business in the best interest of the worker-members; a community-friendly business philosophy; and a trend toward more equitable distribution of income and wealth.

There are only a few key ways a disability-friendly worker cooperative will differ from other worker cooperatives. One is the necessity to incorporate financial policies that will assure that worker-members do not unwisely or prematurely jeopardize their eligibility for government disability benefits. Another is the inclusion of support personnel, such as personal care assistants, interpreters, readers, or other support service providers, into the cooperative's formal structure.