[nfbcs] Fake Cover Letters Expose Discrimination Against Disabled

[John G Heim]

Yeah, I think the 3 most important words for a blind person are "Shake 
it off."  When something bad happens, learn from it if you can, forget 
it if you can't. But one way or another, shake it off.



On 03/10/2016 10:33 AM, Daryl Marie via nfbcs wrote:
> I once interviewed for a job  where the hiring manager told me flat-out that she wouldn't consider me. She told me I couldn't possibly be fast enough on a computer to be able to respond to emergencies appropriately. No matter that I have emergency dispatcher training...
> Nothing I said or did would have changed her mind, and she flat-out told me that.
> As bleak as this article and our own experiences have proven things to be as it comes to hiring workers with disabilities, IMHO, I would rather be unemployed than work for an organization that doesn't respect me as a person. I just got out of a REALLY BAD job situation, and I fully believe that. I never thought I would feel that way, but life with blindness can sometimes be hard, but you truly do need a cheerleading squad behind you, even if it's just one person telling you you CAN.
>
> Daryl
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Tracy Carcione via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
> Sent: Thu, 10 Mar 2016 09:10:20 -0700 (MST)
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Fake Cover Letters Expose Discrimination Against	Disabled
>
> I once interviewed for a job, taking a bus, a train, and walking several
> blocks in Manhattan, only to find the interviewer could not be convinced I
> wouldn't need someone to lead me to the bathroom. Grrrr.
> Tracy
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of John G Heim via
> nfbcs
> Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2016 11:03 AM
> To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
> Cc: John G Heim
> Subject: [nfbcs] Fake Cover Letters Expose Discrimination Against Disabled
>
> http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/upshot/fake-cover-letters-expose-discri
> mination-against-disabled.html
>
> I think I have talked on this list about wanting to commission a study
> similar to the one mentioned in this article except with a blind applicant
> applying for IT jobs. The study has people with spinal injuries and
> Asperger's Syndrome applying for accounting jobs. They found disabled
> applicants were 26% less likely to get a call back. Of particular interest
> are some of the comments.
>
> "Given two candidates of roughly equal qualifications the rational decision
> would be to hire the one without disabilities. It's going to be less
> expensive, on average . [...] So statistically, a disabled job applicant
> would need to be sufficiently better qualified for the job to overcome the
> disability to be the 'correct' choice."
>
> Long time readers of this list will know I've speculated about this effect
> for years. My guess is that this factor is much greater for blind applicants
> than it is for the types of disabilities in the study. A blind person does,
> in fact, have greater challenges to over come. But I suspect that even worse
> is the lack of understanding about just how much a blind technologist can
> do. A perspective employer once flatly refused to interview me when she saw
> that I was blind. She essentially accused me of faking my resume and simply
> would not believe a blind person could use a computer.
>
>
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-- 
--
John G. Heim; jheim at math.wisc.edu; sip://jheim@sip.linphone.org