[Jobs] Fw: BlindNews: Blind entrepreneurs work to break employment trend

[Robert Jaquiss]

Hello:


     I thought this might be of interest.

Regards,

Robert Jaquiss

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews at GeoffAndWen.com>
To: <BlindNews at BlindProgramming.com>
Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 8:59 PM
Subject: BlindNews: Blind entrepreneurs work to break employment trend


> Pittsburgh Live, Pennsylvania USA
> Tuesday, November 07, 2006
>
> Blind entrepreneurs work to break employment trend
>
> By Jeremy Boren
>
> Caption: Samuel Willard teaches a defensive technique to a blind student, 
> Kristen Gigliotti Philip G. Pavely/Tribune-Review
>
> Caption: Carla Hayes instructs Tristan Slator and Tim Cantine
> Keith Hodan/Tribune-Review
>
> For a man who relies on a seeing-eye dog named Yogie, Samuel Willard has 
> plenty of vision.
>
> Willard, 54, of West View, is legally blind and wants to start a small 
> business training the visually impaired how to defend themselves from 
> opportunistic criminals who prey on the disabled.
>
> The full-time UPMC "patient ambassador" is one of a small number of blind 
> Americans who are venturing into the daunting world of entrepreneurialism 
> and bucking the trend of high unemployment and underemployment among the 
> blind.
>
> "I'm interested in helping people who don't think they can help 
> themselves," Willard said of his slowly growing list of blind students. 
> "They don't think they are capable of fighting back."
>
> Willard once counted himself among that group, when he arrived by 
> Greyhound bus in Pittsburgh in 1987 shortly before he began working as a 
> receptionist and patient ambassador for UPMC.
>
> While in the station, Willard was threatened with what his assailant said 
> was a gun and robbed of his wallet. On two separate occasions since then, 
> Willard has been robbed while withdrawing money at Oakland automatic 
> teller machines.
>
> "After that, I said enough is enough," said Willard, who lives with his 
> wife of two years, Jean.
>
> In 2004 he began martial arts training, primarily Tae Kwon Do. In August 
> 2005, after winning several competitions against both blind and sighted 
> challengers, he earned his first-degree black belt and began teaching 
> others who are blind or physically impaired.
>
> "I have something unique to offer (blind) people," Willard said. "I know 
> what it's like, what it takes."
>
> So does Carla Hayes, 47, a language teacher and translator from Peters, 
> Washington County, who runs a small business called Lengua-Learn 
> Communications. She teaches German, French, Spanish, Latin and English as 
> a second language. She is learning Italian.
>
> "I've had to develop my listening skills so much just to get along that 
> it's really been a boon to me" in life and business, said Hayes, blind 
> since birth.
>
> To any parents who doubt her capabilities because of her impairment, Hayes 
> relies on thousands of flash cards for her students and can tailor lessons 
> to visual and auditory learners, many of whom are home-schooled children.
>
> "I made up my mind that my students were never going to suffer because of 
> my lack of vision," she said.
>
> Updated employment statistics for the blind are difficult to find.
>
> Based on a 1994-95 survey from the National Center for Health Statistics, 
> the American Federation for the Blind reports only 46 percent of visually 
> impaired adults 18 to 69 were employed. Among legally blind adults, who 
> numbered 1.3 million nationwide, only 32 percent were employed.
>
> John G. Pare, a spokesman for the National Federation for the Blind, 
> believes that number is improving thanks to better adaptive technology.
>
> "But there's still a huge amount that are unemployed or underemployed," 
> Pare said. "And there's no reason for it."
>
> Janet Simon, executive director of the Western Pennsylvania School for 
> Blind Children, believes more blind people, some of them entrepreneurs, 
> are finding work.
>
> Nationwide, 10 million people are considered visually impaired, meaning 
> they can't read newspaper print even with corrective lenses.
>
> "It has been incredibly hard for very competent blind people to find 
> employment," Simon said. "I do think it's changing. ... For these highly 
> motivated people who want to be part of the mainstream and who have that 
> drive, you have to give them loads of credit."
>
> Despite anecdotal evidence of progress, blind entrepreneurs and the 
> visually impaired work force in general still have many prejudices to 
> overcome, said James Antonacci, state president of the National Federal 
> for the Blind's Pennsylvania affiliate.
>
> "The instant you put a white cane in a person's hand he or she is viewed 
> by society as being incapable of doing what other people do," said 
> Antonacci, who is blind.
>
> "The person has two different ways of going, they can either fight back 
> ... so they can overcome the problem, or they can succumb to that and say, 
> 'You're right, I believe it, so take care of me.' "
>
> Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren at tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
>
>
> http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/health/s_478518.html
>
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