[Nfb-or] OCB

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Jeff,

Now, that is an excellent idea.  And I wish I had a clue how to make it
happen.  I would be happy to brainstorm and do anything to I can to get that
plan into effect.

Your observations about the culture within the OCB hit very close to the
mark, although my case got screwed up (putting it mildly!) enough that I
ended up going to the directors of the departments involved, then to the
agency director, to attempt to establish some sort of reasonable
communication and work towards a resolution.

Therein, the problem lies.  The attitudes they displayed -- and expressed,
when they weren't being recorded -- are, to say the least, appalling.  The
VR director interferes directly with the case, then refuses to take
responsibility by insisting that the client (in this case me) talk to the
case worker because their word is final.  Not so!  Well, it's late, and I'm
stupid, so I won't go on with specifics or details.  But I am convinced tha
tunless oversight of the agency is restored, others will find themselves
worse off for dealing with that agency, as I have.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-or-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-or-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Jeff Anderson
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 3:14 PM
To: nfb-or at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [Nfb-or] OCB

Hi Tamara and fellow NFB members,

I have had mixed feelings regarding the commision for the last couple
of years.  I believe all the counselors had good intentions, they just
lacked the financial resources.  And my experience has led me to
believe that some of the staff lack a certain perspective that only
those with a visual impairment can possess.  In particular, my
counselor referred me to job opportunities culled from various
employment sites on the web.  A good number of them I had discovered
on my own via the Internet.  A majority of these job openings involved
an hour-and-a-half commute each way for a total of 3 hours in transit;
some even required the use of a vehicle (a detail that my counselor
neglected to mention).  I became frustrated with my advocate and
mentioned on a couple of occastions to please focus on jobs that were
within a 1:15 bus ride from my zip code.  This request was considered
too constricting, and even unreasonable.  It became clear to me that
my counselor just needed to place me to improve the commission's stats
and to improve her annual performance review.

Does this suggests that the OCB culture, their incentive structure, is
in need of an overhaul?

In my opinion, the OCB can better serve their clients if the clients
themselves play a more interactive and constructive role with the OCB.
 The OCB may be more effective if the counselors were actually sight
impaired; perhaps an advisory committee consisting of visually
impaired people would benefit the commission.

I also believe that the commission could be more proactive in their
efforts to cultivate relationships with employers.  They need to
establish more enduring relationships with corporate recruiters.

Food for thought,
Jeff Anderson

_______________________________________________
Nfb-or mailing list
Nfb-or at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-or_nfbnet.org