« Dispel a Disability Employment Myth | Main | Pulling the Plug on Your 'Fountain of Youth' »
August 02, 2005
Summary for July: Addressing 20 False Assumptions
Last month, eSight members took advantage of an opportunity to help employers understand their perspective on 20 false assumptions job seekers with disabilities find most harmful in their efforts to gain meaningful employment.
It all took place here on eSight’s “Swimming in the Mainstream” (SiM) blog as we celebrated the ADA's 15th anniversary during July.
Take a look at the insights SiM bloggers generated. They’re summarized in a new article,
"20 False Assumptions to Tackle as an Equal Opportunity Employer."
We’ll distribute widely that collective wisdom to employers – all made possible by a grant from the American Express Foundation. Thank you.
If you have further thoughts to add to the discussion capped by "20 False Assumptions to Tackle as an Equal Opportunity Employer" (currently highlighted in Employer Resources), please do so here.
Add your comments to this posting
Posted by Jim at August 2, 2005 01:49 PM
Comments
In my experience as a legally blind individual, I have found through working on behalf of the charity which supposedly provides services and
programs for the blind that they will ignore the blind working individual -- similar to any other business in the community.
They will prefer to have friends doing the work that the blind could do, and they justify their actions by saying, "Well, this employment opportunity isn't one of the main core services, so, therefore, we can give this work to however many friends who want it. Cost of adaptive devices or ability to work at an efficient level isn't even the question.
The blind have no rights to employment at their own charity. The business community doubts whether the blind can work efficiently. Is it any wonder that the business community has little faith in a blind individual’s ability when the charity
representing the blind prefers to hire anyone as long as they aren't blind
or visually impaired?
Isn't it better to have the example being set for the business community by the charity which provides core services for the blind and showing the rest of society how the blind can do it?
Posted by: Tony at August 24, 2005 12:49 PM