[blindLaw] Interviewing whilevisually impaired

[Julie McGinnity]

Hi Sarah,

First, you are not required to disclose your blindness in an
interview. The employer is also not allowed to ask about it. I have
taken a variety of approaches to disclosing blindness, and full
disclosure, I'm not even out of law school. So I'm also still
learning.

I think how/when you disclose also depends on the kind of
jobs/internships you want. I'm primarily interested in public
interest, civil rights work. That work sometimes lends itself to
disclosing in a cover letter or in the interview because you can
discuss your advocacy efforts in the disability community. Of course,
someone with more experience may not need to pull from personal
advocacy experiences for an interview.

I have gotten interviews after disclosing in a cover letter and after
not disclosing in a cover letter. I would probably not do this if I
was in a different field. Also, I generally find a smoother way to
disclose that doesn't put your blindness in their face, so to speak.

I really struggle with Zoom interviews. I tend to think the
interviewer can tell I'm blind because of the way my eyes look, but
this probably isn't true for most blind people. So I generally try to
bring it up towards the end of the interview. If the employer is going
to be weird or comfortable with blindness, I would rather know that
and reassure them that I have an open approach to my disability. If I
felt like the interview was going super extra well or super extra
terrible, I may take a different strategy. And well, I'm still
learning. So all of this is still kind of a work in progress.

Good luck, however you choose to tackle these interviews!

Julie

On 3/9/23, Lauren Bishop via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Good afternoon,
> You don’t have to disclose your visual impairment in an interview. Last
> legal internship I had, I disclosed it after the offer was made.   Know that
> a lot of places are doing zoom interviews, they will likely not know that
> you were visually impaired. This gives them an opportunity to discuss your
> unique skills, and what you can bring to the table.  if questions about your
> visual impairment to come up, you can always answer them the best you can.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Mar 9, 2023, at 9:19 AM, Sarah Badillo via BlindLaw
>> <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any tips on job interviews while
>> visually impaired. I know that with each job interview, it’s necessary to
>> explain your visual impairment, and there may be a shock to the
>> interviewer upon discovering this fact. When and how do you think is the
>> best time and method to broach the subject with them. I think the biggest
>> question for them is whether the applicant can perform as an attorney,
>> whether they can handel a large volume of cases and for us, whether the
>> software they use will be accessible with jaws. Any advice would bee
>> appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
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-- 
Julie A. McGinnity
MM Vocal Performance, 2015; American University Washington College of
Law, JD Candidate 2023