Are workshops effective in rehabilitation?

Society's attitude toward physical and mental disabilities has varied considerably over the centuries and among cultures. Survival of the fittest and man's obsession with "normalcy" have usually predominated. Only those handicapped people who were the most hardy, wise, forceful, clever, or who had a combination of such attributes were able to break through the flimsy but tightly woven "rejection curtain" fashioned by societies throughout the ages. Survival of the tribe, superstition, fear of becoming similarly afflicted, and a host of other conditions and reasons have been suggested by our ancestors as causes for their behavior. With the aid of the psychosocial sciences, shame, guilt, embarrassment (hide them in the closet syndrome), and a sprinkling of other psychological conditions have been cited as prime explanations for diverting the handicapped from the cultural and social mainstream. More recently, society's "rejection curtain", vis-a-vis the handicapped, has been drawn somewhat more subtly, but it still exists. Psychologists can now breathe a temporary sigh of relief because it is now the economist's turn to explain the rejection phenomenon. A few examples of how the present day economy affects our handicapped population gives credence to this contention. Special education classes and buses for the handicapped have been eliminated in certain parts of our country because of budget cuts since programs for "normals" come first. Yet handicapped children need more intensified and quality education to compete with their peers and, therefore, should receive priority over the non-handicapped. Elevators planned for subway stations to permit access by the handicapped and the aged (or very small children) are eliminated because of cost; ramps planned for buildings are overlooked in the actual construction in order to economize; industry does not build better wheelchairs or improve and develop new assistive devices because the margin of profit is thin; some airlines refuse handicapped passengers, because of insurance (suits) problems; and so on and on.