[nabs-l] Stop Blaming the Economy

Fri Nov 15 05:14:30 UTC 2013

Arielle,

A classy post as always. Points well taken.

Minh,

To borrow your words, there are many people who "work their asses off" and
still don't get the jobs or opportunities they wish they had. I was really
discouraged from pursuing law school when I saw sighted friends graduating
from top law schools with no job prospects in the legal field. My own
brother graduated from a top engineering program and found it difficult to
get his foot in the door with the companies he wanted. So, let's clear up
that blindness is irrelevant. No, I do not deny that we face additional
challenges as blind individuals, but to say that the challenges are so
insurmountable as to keep us out of the job market denies the achievements
many of us have worked hard to earn.

I think a bigger constraint is a sense of entitlement. We graduate with
honors, volunteered at X, Y and Z, donate a kidney, and somehow we're
supposed to have opportunities fall onto our laps. It doesn't work that way.
I've put in bids for jobs I knew I was over qualified to tackle, and the
client chose to go with a less qualified competitor. That's life. It's
harsh, but I would hate for anyone to leave college with a skewed perception
that the need to stay as competitive as possible stops at the graduation
ceremony.

And why do the other reasons for rejection have to be based on
discrimination at all?

Tyler,

Let's get the JAWS license information straight. You're not limited to two
computers. You actually get five keys and can refresh the count upon
request. That doesn't mean you go willy-nilly installing the software on
friends' computers, but I have called tech support many times and referenced
work versus home computers and was never yelled at for doing so. After all,
they can't really expect you will have several computers lying around the
house. Further, while it is true that companies can hesitate to
automatically accept screen reading technology in their networks, it is not
true that the software is outright rejected. You may not be able to bring
your laptop to work, but you can use one of their terminals after the
software has been vetted. If the company refuses to hire you on the grounds
of software they do not want in their system, then you're laying the
groundwork for a discrimination complaint.

Ashley,

You know I have a world of respect for you for hunting down those volunteer
opportunities. The unfortunate aspect of volunteer work is that you are more
at a disadvantage as to what a company can and cannot allow. If you were an
employee, there would be an obligation to vet the software for their system.
As a volunteer they enjoy the privilege to accept and deny at will.

And, come on now. Conservatives do not believe people should be left on
their own to pull themselves up by their boot straps. Speaking for myself, I
just don't like to see anyone rely on someone else to provide the straps
when they are more than capable of manufacturing their own. The irony in the
liberal versus conservative debate in blindness is that the organization we
all more or less belong to is pretty garsh darn conservative in its views of
how blindness should be perceived...

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of minh ha
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 11:32 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Stop Blaming the Economy

Ashley,
I do live in the U.S.; I was born in Vietnam but I moved here 12 years ago.

Joe,
Maybe you don't agree with the part about the economy, but I have had too
many personal experiences of being denied opportunities because of my
blindness for you to tell me it's soly because I'm not qualified enough. I
graduated high school top of my class with hundreds of community service
hours and am currently attending one of the best universities in the
country; I have built a solid professional network filled with teachers,
professors and leaders who can vouch for my competence and yet I was almost
rejected from an internship position from the nonprofit I spoke of earlier.
I think it's quite insulting to those of us who work our asses off and are
extremely well qualified for internships and jobs but get rejected for you
to say that the reason we get denied is because we don't sharpen our skills
enough.
Sure, you could argue that there are other factors involved in the decision
making process like maybe the supervisor discriminated against me because I
am Asian or female, but I'm not quite that dillusional. I'm all ears though
if you would like to explain further how I and other blind students can
sharpen our skills in order to make ourselves more qualified than we are
now.

On 11/14/13, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Min,
> Do you live in the US? I thought you lived in an eastern country based 
> on earlier posts.
> I agree with you. I've also volunteered at a nonprofit and  seen very 
> highly
>
> qualified people looking for work now.
> Its not an excuse to give up. But the jobs are in shorter supply and 
> to just
>
> dismiss this is very well, shortsighted.
> We just have to work harder to find unadvertised jobs; network all you 
> can and volunteer because volunteering can turn into a job.
>
> Ashley
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: minh ha
> Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 8:01 PM
> To: jsoro620 at gmail.com ; National Association of Blind Students 
> mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Stop Blaming the Economy
>
> Are you kidding me? The economy is in the dumps right now and no 
> matter how well qualified you are, there just aren't enough jobs to go 
> around for everyone. I volunteer at a nonprofit that helps low-income 
> people look for employment, housing and benefits, etc, and I work with 
> people that have bachelors degrees and Ph.D.'s and they are hanging on 
> by a thread or actually homeless. If perfectly able bodied people 
> can't gain employment, then it's definitely a hundred times harder for 
> us to get a job because of our blindness. When the market is inundated 
> with qualified people looking for a position, who do you think 
> employers are going to look at first, the person with all the 
> qualifications that don't need accommodations or the person with the 
> same qualifications but need extra resources in order to work on a 
> level as everyone else. This is not an excuse for blind people to be 
> lazy and just sit at home and blame it on the economy, but it is a 
> reason why so many of us are unemployed.
>
> Minh
> On 11/14/13, Joe <jsoro620 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Yes, the economy could be better, but I have to say it irritates me 
>> to hear people blame the economy for being unemployed. There are lots 
>> of jobs out there. The shortage has more to do with unqualified 
>> applicants. Brush up your skills. Don't be picky about the job you 
>> can grab. Prepare a compelling resume. Be honest at the interview 
>> about what you can and cannot do.
>> Think
>> outside the box, because if the training centers are as phenomenal as 
>> people say, we ought to see more blind people working the fast food 
>> circuit. I'm not saying you should settle for minimum wage for the 
>> rest of your life.
>> I'm
>> not saying you're going to get hired tomorrow if you pound the 
>> pavement according to the suggestions above. I'm not even saying that 
>> everything you find will be easily accessible, but I am saying you 
>> need to stop blaming life for not getting a fair shake in the job 
>> market. I met a guy once who was really ashamed to admit he was 
>> working at a Lighthouse, and it pissed me off to no end because to me 
>> what mattered is that he had a job.
>> Eventually
>> you work your way to the job you really want, work up the corporate 
>> ladder, and you know, you work your ass off to get there just like 
>> everyone else, blind or sighted. Figure out your weaknesses and make 
>> it your full-time job to strengthen them, whether it's screen reader 
>> proficiency, Excel, Word, whatever. But, for crying out loud, stop 
>> blaming the damn economy, because if you wait for a perfect economic 
>> state, you'll still be looking for a job when you kick the bucket.
>>
>> Joe
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty 
> recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity:
> but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on 
> their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible." T. E. Lawrence
>
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--
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty
recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity:
but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their
dreams with open eyes, to make them possible." T. E. Lawrence

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