[Blindtlk] national telecommuting institute

[Jennifer Piening]

Greetings!
      I'm wondering if any of you have had any experiences with the 
National Telecommuting Institute.  When I met with my VR counselor, he 
suggested that I check them out, and so I did. He was pretty confident 
that they provided blind people with jobs, but my research has shown 
that the results have been mixed.  Some people say that they have 
provided them with a job, then taken the money for the hire and laid 
them off.
      I had a strange experience with a company that I think was the 
National  Telecommuting Institute about 7 years ago.  I got this job 
doing something with taxes without even having an interview.  They sent 
me a disk, and I put it in the computer, and I couldn't get the program 
to work with my screen reader.  When I contacted them about the issue, 
they said that the job wasn't accessible for blind people, and that was 
the end of that story.
      One of the main problems I have with them is that they will only 
work with VR clients.  I wonder if this is because they want to get 
money from them for hiring us.  Then they also want our ticket to work, 
at least that's how I understand it.
      The whole program sounds a bit scummy to me, and if this is the 
case, then why does VR support it?
      I'm really curious about everybody's experiences.  I know a guy 
got into trouble for asking for peoples' experiences about some program 
or other on this list, because they thought he was not legitimate.  Even 
though I'm not expecting anything super wonderful from this company, it 
may be a good option for a temporary job if I ever get my case 
established with VR.  However, I don't want to waste a bunch of time on 
something that doesn't pay.
      Thanks, Jenny