[blindlaw] Finally, a positive media story . . .

[Carlton Anne Cook Walker]

Employer Bias Thwarts Many Blind Workers

By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer

Posted: Today at 1:11 p.m.

NEW YORK — Technology and training have improved to the point that
blind people can adeptly perform a dazzling array of jobs - soon to
include the governorship of New York. The biggest obstacle still in
their way, advocates say, is the negative attitude of many employers.

The most recent available statistics suggest that only about 30
percent of working-age blind people have jobs. That figure was
calculated more than 10 years ago, but the major groups lobbying on
behalf of blind Americans believe it remains accurate despite numerous
technological advances.

"Most people don't know a blind person, so they assume that blind
people are not capable of doing most jobs when in fact that's not
true," said Chris Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of
the Blind.

Exhibit A, for the moment, is David Paterson, the legally blind
lieutenant governor of New York from Harlem who will be sworn in
Monday as governor, replacing scandal-tarnished Eliot Spitzer.

However, blind people hold all sorts of jobs these days - judge,
fitness trainer, TV show host, registered nurse, lawyer and so on.

"Unfortunately we're still living in an age of misperceptions of what
blind people can do," said Carl Augusto, president of the American
Foundation for the Blind. "We're hoping that an employer considering
hiring a blind person will say that if David Paterson can be governor
and be legally blind, maybe this applicant who is blind can be a good
computer programmer."

There are an estimated 10 million visually impaired people in the
United States, including about 1.3 million who are legally blind,
according to Augusto's foundation. The foundation says legal blindness
is generally described as visual acuity of 20-200 or less in the
better eye, with a corrective lens. Paterson has enough sight in his
right eye to walk unaided, recognize people at conversational distance
and read if the text is close to his face.

In theory, those people are covered by the Americans with Disabilities
Act, which among its many provisions requires employers to give fair
consideration and treatment to visually impaired employees and job
applicants. But Augusto said employers routinely turn down blind
applicants without incurring legal sanction.

"The ADA is a wonderful law, but many employers find a way not to
seriously consider blind people," he said. "They look at themselves
and then say, 'I can't imagine how a blind person can be a computer
programmer. They can't possibly do it.'"

Advocacy groups work persistently to change such attitudes, with
employer education programs and public appearances by successful blind
people to discuss their capabilities. One component of such campaigns
is to raise awareness of the ever-evolving technology that helps blind
people handle more types of jobs - including software that reads aloud
information on a computer screen and scanners that can covert printed
material into Braille or an accessible electronic format.

"The assisted technology has made the playing field as level as it's
ever been for blind people," said Kirk Adams, president of Seattle's
Lighthouse for the Blind, a nonprofit agency that provides job help.
"There are fewer and fewer jobs a blind person can't do."

Adams, 46, said being blind seemed a hindrance when he first began
post-college job hunting, but he was hired as a securities broker and
later served in various nonprofit fundraising jobs before moving to
Lighthouse, which has 190 blind people on its payroll.

One problem he notes is the difficulty many young blind people face in
getting short-term or part-time work during high school and college.

"There's a real divergence with sighted kids," Adams said. "It's very
typical that a blind kid at 16 or 18 is not having success finding
that first employment - we see a lot of frustration around that age
because employers may not be thinking about making those short-term
jobs accessible."

The American Foundation for the Blind says it latest research
indicates that once young blind people complete top-notch training and
education programs, they attain an employment rate not much lower than
sighted people. But Augusto said the overall portion of blind people
with jobs remains low because many older workers who lose vision in
middle age drop out of the work force rather than undergo retraining.

"You get a bunch of people in their 50s who all of sudden are visually
impaired - they can't drive anymore, they'll get Social Security
benefits and maybe disability insurance," Augusto said. "They say,
'The heck with it, we're not going back to work. We don't want to go
through the rehabilitation training - it's too hard.'"

Kevan Worley, a blind Coloradan, runs a company that provides
thousands of meals a day to Army troops at Fort Carson in Colorado
Springs. About 70 percent of his 200 employees are blind or otherwise
disabled.

"There are still stereotypes of blind people," he said. "When
employers, educators, even parents of blind kids have those
stereotypes and low expectations, many are being kept down and out."

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which tracks workplace
discrimination cases covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act,
says 455 such complaints were filed last year by visually impaired
workers - the highest number since 1995.

"If someone's blind, there's a huge stigma to overcome and all kinds
of myths and fears in the employer community," EEOC spokesman David
Grinberg said.

"The fact is that in the 21st century workplace people who are blind
are just as able to do a job as anyone else - they just need to be
given a chance," he said. "They know the deck is stacked against them.
They work harder than others, and they end out being more effective
workers."


-- 
Carlton Anne Cook Walker, Esquire
Attorney at Law
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