European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 15, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Jobs a for the mentally disabled by Peter t. Kilborn new York times Matthew r. Starr washes pots and pans at the Marriott hotel in Gaithersburg. My. For $3 60 an hour 40 hours a week he presides Over three Arm deep steel sinks one Lor washing one Lor a regular rinse and one Lor an extra sanitizing rinse he cleans the pots with a dark Green sponge sometimes i use a scrub Brush he said but it does t do a Good Job. A sponge does a Good of because it gets in the  scouring the inside of a heavy aluminium pot he explained you do the Bottom first then you do the sides and then the rim then you lip it Over and do the same  it is routine and unremarkable work except that the person doing it has Down s syndrome a congenital mental deficiency Starr has Learned the washing process by Rote he does not discriminate particularly Well among his pots so he scrubs every one even those that Don t need it it s a bit Boring he said i be been doing pots and pans for a year now. Pots and pans every Day. I want to move  with Hii affliction Starr is an amiable 22-year-old Warrior in an Unsung revolution in the workplace. He is in the Vanguard among retarded people who have real jobs paying real wages receiving full benefits working alongside people who Are not disabled he is uncommonly Well equipped for work because of years of special attention at Home and at school he fits into the category of the mildly retarded who make up 90 percent of All retarded people according to the association for retarded citizens of the United states in Arlington Texas until a couple of years ago Low of the four million to five million retarded people could Hope to get real jobs reliable nationwide figures or those who have found work lately Are not available but at least a Lew tens of thousands have experts say hundreds of thousands More including profoundly retarded people who do not read write or sometimes even speak could work too. Once More employers get Over their qualms and More training systems Are established we be just got to look a Little harder to find what they re Good  said David m Mank professor of special education and rehabilitation at the University of Oregon the Issue is not that these people can t work said William e. Kiernan. Director of the training and research Institute Lor adults with disabilities at children s Hospital in Boston. The Issue is that we Haven t made the connections yet in countless communities Public and private agencies most less than live years old. Have sprung up to accommodate the retarded. One. Transcend inc in Rockville md., discovered Starr Lor Marriott another. The Young adult Institute in new York has placed hundreds in the offices of major corporations in the City experts Call Marriott a Pace setter it has about 6,000 disabled employees a Large but a tabulated number of them retarded others include the pizza hut and Mcdonald s restaurant chains Boeing. United airlines and ism the jobs include pressing and folding linens in hotel laundries tilling last food boxes cleaning tables and sweeping floors altruism has Little to do with the hiring. The companies need the workers they Are competing in a tight labor Market and with the decline in the birthrate Matthew r. Starr is one of a growing numer of mentally retarded americana who hold Down Obi. In the 1970s, they expect it to tighten still More through the next decade. Having tapped most other sources of workers they Are now tapping people who were once deemed unsuitable not every retarded recruit works out any More than other people do said Kathleen Alexander vice president for personnel services at Marriott but what we re learning is not to make  she added it sounds pol Yannish but we re focusing on what s the Job to be done and who can we get to Doit " if Marriott needs someone to Wash pots and pans it looks for someone who can do the Job or be trained to do it Laura Davis coordinator of the company s Effort to hire retarded workers said Matthew happens to have Down syndrome he also happens to be a Good pot  Starr said having Down s syndrome pained him when he was in school some people teased me a lot he said they said hey retard hey slug lace i hated that now at my Job they Don t tease me because i m Able to do the 0b " having Down s syndrome now. He said is like being a Normal kid a Normal  i have Down s  he went on other people have learning disabilities everyone even my parents " his affliction aside. Starr is a Blue Collar everyman with everyman s foibles and fantasies he watches television likes James Bond movies and does his laundry and some cooking in a single family House in nearby Rockville that to shares with five other retarded people and a resident Counselor in the hip pocket of his uniform this week he had a copy of a Hardy boys Book death game i have a whole collection of these he said and on a personal computer in his room he composes a speech on living with Down s syndrome that he gives each fall to first year medical students at the University of Maryland where his father. Raymond Starr is a professor of psychology As do his no disabled co workers in the Marriott Kitchen he commutes to work taking a 40-minute trip each Way on two buses he pays his $325-a-month rent monday january 15,1990 with a Check he writes himself with prompting on an account at a Bank in his neighbourhood where he deposits his paycheck each Friday he has a card to a Teller machine. His Mother Janice Starr the director of a social service Agency in Baltimore that finds financial Aid for College students said her son needs help buying clothes but rents videotapes goes to movies and has his hair Cut on his own. He does t know a great Deal about the inherent concept of Money mrs. Starr said. But he understands it As a mechanism of Trade he certainly wants to get lots of it " he dreams of becoming a movie Star. He played the tin Man in the wizard of of once at summer Camp at Marriott he said he would Welcome a Job in management so i could go around and ask people How they were doing " but he would Settle Lor another raise he has had one of 25 cents an hour and a promotion out of pots and pans. Starr is the beneficiary of important changes in dealing with retarded people for decades in an approach that was thought generous and benevolent people were tucked away in institutional Homes and shuttled in groups to sheltered  there even now Many Are paid a Dollar an hour or so to sit together stuffing envelopes or putting Caps on lipstick tubes attitudes began shifting in the 1970s with the efforts of parents and school systems to keep retarded children at Home and train them to function in the real world. The principal approach today is called supported employment it is assumed that the retarded need help managing the routines of living and working so with Job coaches at the workplace and Counselor at Home such people can stay in the mainstream. Training and placement agencies and a few employers like Marriott deploy Job coaches to supervise the employees adjustment to the Job. Starr needed about 10 weeks of close daily guidance being drilled on his pot washing routine. The stars and stripes Page 13