All eyes are on Gabrielle Guedon as she approaches the witness stand at the federal courthouse in Portland. She swears in and sits next to U.S. Magistrate Judge John Acosta. Lawyers and state officials listen intently as she talks about her experiences finding work as a person with an intellectual disability.
In 2014, a government employment service office referred Guedon to a state-funded sheltered workshop — a segregated workspace for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. There, she and her coworkers were isolated from workers without disabilities. She was paid a subminimum wage completing menial tasks such as stapling.
“I would go to the back area on the bench and actually cry at lunch, because it hurt so bad knowing that I was being told I was too disabled to work,” Guedon said.
Guedon’s testimony last Thursday came at the final hearing for a landmark disability rights case: Lane v. Brown. The federal lawsuit against the state of Oregon closed this month after 10 years of litigation.
When the plaintiffs in Lane v. Brown won, it ensured people with disabilities would be paid at the same rate as workers without disabilities, and that they would receive employment support from the state to find a job that suits them. Judge Acosta determined the state complied with a settlement agreement reached in 2015, ending a decadelong legal fight for employment...
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