[Nfbf-l] When It Comes to Hiring, Blind Workers Face Bias
Alan Dicey
adicey at bellsouth.net
Tue Mar 19 21:04:53 UTC 2013
When It Comes to Hiring, Blind Workers Face Bias
When It Comes to Hiring, Blind Workers Face Bias
By Leslie Kwoh
Associated Press
A new survey finds that hiring managers are reluctant to hire blind workers.
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.
list of 4 items 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 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
RBS.LN -0.71% lost a suit 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. 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 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 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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