[Tn-talk] Vision-impaired workers sue over job loss

Wed Oct 18 13:48:06 CDT 2006

Please do not reply to me. I am forwarding this e-mail for your
information only. If you have comments, send them to Kathy, (e-mail 
address below).

Regards,

Heather field
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kathy Garrett" <kgarrett1984 at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 5:36 PM
This is a copy of an article that Ran in the Courier Journal the
newspaper in Louisville Kentucky. My friend Lonnie who is mentioned in
the article would like to see if you guys have any feedback, however 
he
isn't on list, so if you want to post your comments directly to the 
list, or
send them directly to me that would be fine. I'll get them to him 
either
way.

Kathy

Vision-impaired workers sue over job loss

Four released from VA Medical Center

By Patrick Howington

phowington at courier-journal.com

The Courier-Journal

Lonnie Swafford, who is legally blind, was a switchboard operator at
the VA
Medical Center in Louisville for more than three years. But that ended
last

fall when the Department of Veterans Affairs decided it shouldn't rely
on
blind people for the job.

That was discrimination, Swafford and three other operators who lost
their
jobs contend in a recent lawsuit against U.S. Secretary of Veterans
Affairs
R.

James Nicholson.

The change of workers was triggered by the medical center's switch
last year
to a different alarm system. The VA said the new system required that
switchboard

operators, who monitor alarms and issue alerts to hospital personnel,
have
good vision.

The lawsuit says the VA could have altered the system so that
vision-impaired people could monitor alarms more effectively, but
chose not
to.

Even without such adaptations, legally blind operators manned the new
system
for several months with no problems before they were let go, said
Swafford,

25.

"All of us had been in this job with no problems for years," he said.
"I
feel angered. I feel like we were excluded just because of our visual
impairment."

"I was still able to function and do my job," said Charla Shown,
another
former VA operator. Because she is totally blind she didn't monitor
the
screens,

but performed other functions such as issuing alerts.

Shown, 52, said she lost her apartment because she couldn't pay the
rent
after losing her job. She moved in with a daughter, while her
18-year-old
son who

had lived with her moved in with his older brother.

"It's a big change, not having your own place. But we have to do what
we
gotta do."

Shown, Swafford and other blind operators were replaced by people with
other
disabilities, under a government program to provide such employment
opportunities.

The VA Medical Center and the Department of Veterans Affairs declined
to
comment because the litigation is pending.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville by an
attorney
for the National Federation for the Blind. It has five plaintiffs --
the
four

former operators and another man who kept his position but claims he
was
denied a promotion because of poor vision.

The Department of Veterans Affairs hasn't yet submitted a response to
the
complaint, which was filed Aug. 14. That's because the department
hasn't
been

served with a copy of the complaint, a spokesman said.

Swafford and the other former operators were employed by Raleigh Lions
Clinic for the Blind, which had a contract to provide switchboard
operators
for the

center,

800 Zorn Ave. The nonprofit North Carolina agency is associated with
National Industries for the Blind.

Under the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act, federal agencies must purchase some
services from nonprofit organizations that employ blind or disabled
people,
including

agencies in National Industries for the Blind's network.

In addition to working the phone system at the medical center,
Raleigh's
operators monitored alarm systems that detected fires, patient
emergencies
and

other problems. That involved reading text messages on screens at
their
desks. Swafford said he and two other legally blind operators could
see well
enough

to do that, sometimes using magnifiers.

"They were good employees," said Janet Griffey, president and chief
executive of Raleigh Lions Clinic for the Blind. "I even offered jobs
to
them here in

Raleigh."

But in spring 2005 the center installed a new fire and security alarm
system, Swafford said. Instead of a screen at a desk, it displayed
messages
on a wall

panel, he said.

Swafford, who has 20/600 vision in one eye and none in the other, said
he
could read the panel, but had to walk across the room to do so. He
said two
other

former operators had better sight than he does.

Swafford said the three were able to use the new system, but the VA
didn't
give them a chance to prove it. When the contract with Raleigh came up
for
renewal,

the VA specified that one operator on each shift must have 20/70
vision or
better, the lawsuit says.

That effectively kept blind operators from working the evening and
overnight
shifts, since only one operator works then, the lawsuit says.

Raleigh lost the contract last fall to Employment Source, a
Fayetteville,
N.C., agency that employs workers with disabilities -- but with sight.
Employment

Source is affiliated with NISH, formerly called National Industries
for the
Severely Handicapped. Employment Source's president declined to be
interviewed.

Swafford and Cathy Jackson, president of the National Federation of
the
Blind of Kentucky, said the VA could have adapted the new alarm system
for
vision-impaired

employees.

Technology exists to translate written alarms into spoken ones,
Swafford
said. The National Federation of the Blind has a department that
researches
such

adaptations, Jackson said.

"They chose not to ask anyone who is blind, who works with the blind,
any of
these questions," Jackson said. "They just said it couldn't be done,
and
that

was that."

"I understand where the VA was coming from, to a degree, as far as it
being
a safety concern," Swafford said. But in their months of monitoring
alarms
under

the new system, the blind operators "demonstrated that we were able to
do
it."

The lawsuit seeks to recover lost wages and benefits and other
damages.

Swafford now works at a Citigroup call center in eastern Jefferson
County.
He said he earns less money, but has better benefits.

He bought his Clifton-area house so he could walk to his job at the
medical
center, Swafford said. Now he rides the bus or with a co-worker.

"I got a feeling of satisfaction with helping the veterans," Swafford
said.
"To be honest, it may have been a better move in the long run, to go
to
where

I am now. But still, it doesn't justify what happened."

Reporter Patrick Howington can be reached at (502) 582-4229.

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