The evolution of Personal Assistance Services as a Workplace Support

Abstract

The evolution of Personal Assistance Services (PAS) as a Workplace Support (WS) is truly one of a long, slow change. This evolution has a shared history with the Independent Living Movement; the Long-term Care, Services and Supports efforts; and the push for full inclusion and community integration for people with disabilities. As it is impossible to separate the need for PAS in the workplace from the need in other areas in life, it is impossible to separate the development of PAS as a workplace support from its development for other areas of life. Consumers across the country used a variety of mechanisms to document the need and value of PAS. States took the initiative to develop and implement community-based personal assistance services. They all shared the strategy of using whatever funding source advocates could pry open to fund PAS. Unable to identify a single source of funding large enough to meet the documented needs for PAS, advocates inserted PAS into each and every program they could. Advocates with disabilities working for PAS as a workplace support have accomplished much. They still have a long way to go to have a well working system, but they are not alone in their quest.