[Ct-nfb] Wall Street Journal Article

Wed Apr 3 20:08:37 UTC 2013

Very informative and I will see if the Bristol Press will publish it. The
more information like this gets out, the better chance of employment
opportunities for us. Thank-you Justin.

On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 10:01 AM, Stanley Torow <setorow at optonline.net>wrote:

> I believe the wording" disability workers are an inconvient{ sorry about
> the
> spelling} is the top reason why they do not hire blind workers.this is
> important to understanding and work on the business to get rid of this
> idea.
>
> Eileen torow
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ct-nfb [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Justin
> Salisbury
> Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2013 8:32 PM
> To: ct-nfb at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [Ct-nfb] Wall Street Journal Article
>
> Fellow Federationists,
>
> Have you seen this article?  It is pretty profound, and I really think we
> ought to see if other newspapers want to re-post it.  It would be a great
> subject for editorials.
>
> When a big paper like the Wall Street Journal publishes an article like
> this
> one, we need to take advantage of the opportunities it presents.
>
> We read and discussed this article at the Louisiana Center for the Blind.
>  I
> encourage everyone to distribute this article to your local papers and also
> add your comments with a positive philosophy about blindness.
>
> Yours,
>
> Justin Salisbury
>
> Justin M. Salisbury
> B.A. in Mathematics
> Class of 2012
> East Carolina University
> president at alumni.ecu.edu
>
> "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
> change
> the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."    -MARGARET MEAD
>
> ________________________________________
>
>
> When It Comes to Hiring, Blind Workers Face Bias The Wall Street Journal
> .         March 18, 2013, 10:27 AM
>
> By Leslie Kwoh
>
> When it comes to hiring blind employees, many employers remain skeptical.
>
> Bosses often assume blind workers cost more and produce less, according to
> a
> new study. They also believe blind workers are more prone to workplace
> accidents and less reliable than other workers.
> The study, scheduled to be released this week by the nonprofit National
> Industries for the Blind, polled 400 human-resources and hiring managers at
> a mix of large and small U.S.-based companies. The group commissioned the
> survey, in part, to shed light on why roughly 70% of the 3.5 million people
> working-age Americans are not employed. (Legally blind Americans are
> eligible for Social Security disability, according to NIB.)
>
> NIB president and chief executive Kevin Lynch described the survey results
> as a "terrible surprise." With the exception of certain jobs that require
> driving or steering, "there are very few jobs that a person who's blind is
> not capable of doing," he says.
>
> The findings reveal a disconnect between what employers say and what they
> do. While the majority of executives claim they want to hire and train
> disabled workers, many view blind workers as an inconvenience.
>
> Hiring managers tended to be slightly more negative than human-resources
> managers, but overall results were similar.
> .         Among hiring managers, most respondents (54%) felt there were few
> jobs at their company that blind employees could perform, and 45% said
> accommodating such workers would require "considerable expense."
> .         Forty-two percent of hiring managers believe blind employees need
> someone to assist them on the job; 34% said blind workers are more likely
> to
> have work-related accidents.
> .         One-quarter of respondents said blind employees are "more
> sensitive" than other employees; the same percentage said they were "more
> difficult to supervise."
> .         Twenty-three percent of hiring managers said blind employees are
> not as productive as their colleagues, and 19% believe these employees have
> a higher absentee rate.
>
> Blindness is largely absent from corporate conversation about employees
> with
> disabilities with the exception of sporadic lawsuits: Last August, Hawaiian
> Electric Co.
> agreed<
> http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hawaiian-electric-settle-discrimination
> -lawsuit-140923965.html> to pay $50,000 to settle a discrimination suit
> by a
> partially blind employee, the AP reported. And in December, Bloomberg
> reported that a blind ex-banker at the Royal Bank of Scotland
> Group<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=RBS.LN
> >
> lost a
> suit<
> http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-12-11/blind-banker-loses-rbs-disc
> rimination-lawsuit-at-u-dot-k-dot-tribunal> seeking disability benefits.
>
> Rarer still is news about companies like apparel business SustainU, based
> in
> West Virginia, which hires blind and visually impaired employees to man its
> factory, according to the New York
> Times<
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/business/sustainu-an-apparel-maker-t
> urns-to-blind-workers.html?_r=0>. The company said there was no difference
> in the cost and quality of its goods when compared to that of other U.S.
> manufacturers.
>
> Companies may have to invest some money to provide "reasonable
> accommodations" for a blind employee, as required by the Americans with
> Disabilities Act. However,  says NIB's Lynch, many computers and
> smartphones
> already have built-in features that enable users to change font size and
> light intensity. Installing voice technology that allows computers to
> "read"
> text to a blind employee costs just $1,500 to $2,000, he says. The American
> Foundation for the Blind has
> estimated<
> http://www.afb.org/section.aspx?FolderID=2&SectionID=7&TopicID=116
> &SubTopicID=70&DocumentID=2887> that 88% of employee accommodations cost
> less than $1,000.
>
> As for health insurance, company rates are determined by the number of
> incidents among the entire group - not individual employees - no evidence
> suggests that blind employees incur more costs than other workers, Mr.
> Lynch
> says.
>
> Blind employees may also be more loyal than most, he adds. A DePaul
> University
> study<
> http://www.disabilityworks.org/downloads/disabilityworksDePaulStudyCom
> prehensiveResults.pdf> from 2007 found that employees with disabilities
> were
> likely to stay on the job four months longer, on average, than employees
> without disabilities.
> The study also found that workers with disabilities took 1.24 fewer
> scheduled absences than non-disabled workers during a six-month period. But
> they took, on average, 1.13 more days of unscheduled absences
>
>
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