Many students and adults with disabilities appear unmotivated by money. How can we expect them to run a business?
Many students and adults with significant disabilities have not been exposed to family or professional expectations of career success. Medical personnel who advise parents of infants with disabilities, so prenatal dreams of children growing up to be firefighters, doctors, seldom anticipate bright futures or plumbers yield to the realities of speech and other therapy schedules. Transition aged students, if they receive any inclusive vocational training, are often exposed to entry-level jobs through unpaid work experience. Unpaid work experience can be especially helpful to students, families, and educators in discovering individual talents and passions. However, unpaid work can be somewhat unnatural and de-motivating if these are the only opportunities offered. Most youth who have paper routes, flip burgers at MacDonald’s, or baby-sit, or mow lawns expect to be paid and draw a critical connection between effort and reward. Eliminating pay is counterproductive. Furthermore, earnings in s
