Press Release June 16, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

"Build a Vast Personal Network" Audio
Now Available on eSight Careers Network

(New York City, NY - June 16, 2005) Those in the disability community have often found it difficult to effectively network during a job search or on the job due to a variety of barriers such as mobility and speech.

During a May 19, 2005, "Swimming in the Mainstream" telephone interview with one of the highest-placed people who have a disability in today's U.S. federal government, eSight Careers Network members had an opportunity to explore ways to break down some of those networking barriers.

Olegario "Ollie" D. Cantos VII, Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General R. Alexander Acosta in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, provided eSight members who participated in the free conference call with a blueprint for not only breaking the barriers to networking but also building personal networks which offer added value.

"Build a Vast Personal Network of Supporters," an audio file of Ollie's May 19 conversation with eSight members, is now available on eSight.

This interview has been made possible by a Verizon Foundation grant to The Associated Blind, Inc., parent organization of eSight Careers Network.

Blind since birth, Ollie maintains people with disabilities can obtain meaningful work by "getting the most out of career-oriented mentoring opportunities and building a vast personal network of supporters."

Ollie advised eSight members to "add value to your networking contacts through displays of genuine appreciation of another's strengths."

He said, "That builds people up."

And then, he added, "help develop partnerships by matching the strengths you discover in others with needs among the people you meet."

In an e-mail follow-up to a question from Annette, one of the participants in the telephone interview, Ollie went one step further when he wrote:

"I ask that you please do whatever you can to help others in the way that I have taken the time to help you. 'Pay it forward' by being of assistance to at least three people and, in return for what you do for them, ask each of them to help still three others and to make your assistance conditional upon their promise to help at least that number."

Ollie's current responsibilities include fostering closer ties between the U.S. Justice Department and disability rights leaders at all levels.

Before his current commission, Ollie was the first and only person ever to serve as General Counsel and Director of Programs for the now-100,000-member American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the largest cross-disability national membership organization in the country, based in Washington DC.

One of his primary responsibilities was international coordination of Disability Mentoring Day, a broad- based effort to enhance internship and employment opportunities for students and job seekers with disabilities through job shadowing and hands-on career exploration.

The interview with Ollie is one in a series of Verizon Foundation telephone conferences presented by The Associated Blind, Inc. for eSight Careers Network members.

The Associated Blind, Inc., is a 66-year-old non-profit organization, which has been providing members of eSight Careers Network opportunities to collaborate on disability employment issues through accessible online discussions and resource building since October 2000.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Source: The Associated Blind, Inc.
Contact: Nancy O'Connell
Tel: (212) 683-4950
E-mail: MemberServices@eSightCareers.net

Online community:
www.eSight.org

Blogs:
www.tabinc.org/jsn/
www.tabinc.org/sim/
www.tabinc.org/blog/


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