[Jobs] Ideas for seminar at NFB convention
Dick Davis
ddavis at blindinc.org
Tue Apr 8 09:36:45 CDT 2008
Hi guys,
You're a smart bunch so I thought I'd get your ideas on this. The
Employment Committee of the NFB is going to put on a seminar at the national
convention. Below is the description of the agenda item that I sent to the
committee chair. Since she agreed to the item, I have some questions for
all of you. But read the description first:
New Challenges for Blind Jobseekers
The requirement that a person possess a valid driver's license is showing up
in more and more job listings. That would be reasonable if a position
provided transportation to others, such as bus driver, van driver, etc. But
most of them don't have that as a primary job function. Some blind job
applicants, seeing the requirement, have decided not to apply.
Why is there an upsurge in job descriptions with this requirement? Is it
because the employee might need to use a company car from time to time? Or
is it that a driver's license is a good form of identification? Since no
blind person can get a valid driver's license, doesn't such a requirement
discriminate against blind people as a class?
What strategies should blind jobseekers use in dealing with this
requirement? Has anyone dealt with it before? Are there approaches that
have proven successful? Should we try on the state or national level to get
this requirement stricken, or reworded in a nondiscriminatory way?
Do any of you have answers to the above questions? Do you have any
suggestions for the seminar, such as whether or not we should have a panel,
talk directly with the audience, or both? If so, please e-mail them to me
at ddavis at blindinc.org, or call me at 612-872-0100 or 800-597-9558. I
probably won't answer if I'm teaching a class, so leave me a message and
I'll get back to you.
Since I originally wrote this, I've had a call from one jobseeker that's
seen the following questions on a job application (I haven't seen the
application forms yet, so this is a rough paraphrase):
Do you have any physical or mental challenges?
If so, what reasonable accommodations do you need to do the job?
Yes, these really are actual questions. The job seeker has seen them more
than once. Yes, I know they're illegal, and I intend to do something about
them, but first, I wanted to know if any of you have seen them on job
applications too. If so, I intend to add them to the agenda item and
discuss them.
You can see why I thought this would be a good agenda item.
Dick Davis
Assistant Director for Employment
BLIND, Inc.
ddavis at blindinc.org
612-872-0100
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Hi guys,
You’re a smart bunch so I thought I’d get your ideas on this. The Employment Committee of the NFB is going to put on a seminar at the national convention. Below is the description of the agenda item that I sent to the committee chair. Since she agreed to the item, I have some questions for all of you. But read the description first:
New Challenges for Blind Jobseekers
The requirement that a person possess a valid driver’s license is showing up in more and more job listings. That would be reasonable if a position provided transportation to others, such as bus driver, van driver, etc. But most of them don’t have that as a primary job function. Some blind job applicants, seeing the requirement, have decided not to apply.
Why is there an upsurge in job descriptions with this requirement? Is it because the employee might need to use a company car from time to time? Or is it that a driver’s license is a good form of identification? Since no blind person can get a valid driver’s license, doesn’t such a requirement discriminate against blind people as a class?
What strategies should blind jobseekers use in dealing with this requirement? Has anyone dealt with it before? Are there approaches that have proven successful? Should we try on the state or national level to get this requirement stricken, or reworded in a nondiscriminatory way?
Do any of you have answers to the above questions? Do you have any suggestions for the seminar, such as whether or not we should have a panel, talk directly with the audience, or both? If so, please e-mail them to me at mailto:ddavis at blindinc.org ddavis at blindinc.org
, or call me at 612-872-0100 or 800-597-9558. I probably won’t answer if I’m teaching a class, so leave me a message and I’ll get back to you.
Since I originally wrote this, I’ve had a call from one jobseeker that’s seen the following questions on a job application (I haven’t seen the application forms yet, so this is a rough paraphrase):
Do you have any physical or mental challenges?
If so, what reasonable accommodations do you need to do the job?
Yes, these really are actual questions. The job seeker has seen them more than once. Yes, I know they’re illegal, and I intend to do something about them, but first, I wanted to know if any of you have seen them on job applications too. If so, I intend to add them to the agenda item and discuss them.
You can see why I thought this would be a good agenda item.
Dick Davis
Assistant Director for Employment
BLIND, Inc.
mailto:ddavis at blindinc.org ddavis at blindinc.org
612-872-0100
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