<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Thanks to FRED'S HEAD via A P H for passing this on. </div><div><h1 class="title" style="-webkit-hyphens: manual; "><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When It Comes to Hiring, Blind Workers Face Bias. </span></font></h1><h3><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By Leslie Kwoh. </span></font></h3><div><dl class="float right" style="margin: 8px 0px 8px 20px; -webkit-hyphens: manual; float: right; width: 262px; "><dt><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img src="http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-WQ600_031113_D_20130311152748.jpg" alt="" width="262" height="174" style="float: none; margin-right: 12px; max-width: 100%; height: auto; "></span></dt><dd><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Associated Press</span></dd><dd><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A new survey finds that hiring managers are reluctant to hire blind workers.</span></dd></dl></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When it comes to hiring blind employees, many employers remain skeptical.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.<br>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.)</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hiring managers tended to be slightly more negative than human-resources managers, but overall results were similar.</span></p><ul><li><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.”</span></li><li><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></li><li><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One-quarter of respondents said blind employees are “more sensitive” than other employees; the same percentage said they were “more difficult to supervise.”</span></li><li><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></li></ul><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Blindness is largely absent from corporate conversation about employees with disabilities with the exception of sporadic lawsuits: Last August, Hawaiian Electric Co. <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hawaiian-electric-settle-discrimination-lawsuit-140923965.html" style="text-decoration: none; ">agreed</a> 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 <a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=RBS.LN" style="text-decoration: none; ">Royal Bank of Scotland Group</a> <span data-widget="dj.ticker" data-ticker-name="RBS.LN" data-pc="297.300" data-ticker="RBS" data-company-name="Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC" data-price="293.6" data-volume="9752542.00" data-datetime="Mar. 19, 2013 4:35 PM" data-offset="0" data-iso="£" data-change="-3.7" data-changepercent="-1.2445341405987218" data-country="UK" data-exchange-iso="XLON"><a target="" href="file:///public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=RBS.LN?mod=inlineTicker" style="text-decoration: none; ">RBS.LN -1.24%</a></span><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-12-11/blind-banker-loses-rbs-discrimination-lawsuit-at-u-dot-k-dot-tribunal" style="text-decoration: none; ">lost a suit</a> seeking disability benefits.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/business/sustainu-an-apparel-maker-turns-to-blind-workers.html?_r=0" style="text-decoration: none; ">New York Times</a>. The company said there was no difference in the cost and quality of its goods when compared to that of other U.S. manufacturers.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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<a href="http://www.afb.org/section.aspx?FolderID=2&SectionID=7&TopicID=116&SubTopicID=70&DocumentID=2887" style="text-decoration: none; ">estimated</a> that 88% of employee accommodations cost less than $1,000.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Blind employees may also be more loyal than most, he adds. A DePaul University <a href="http://www.disabilityworks.org/downloads/disabilityworksDePaulStudyComprehensiveResults.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; ">study</a> from 2007 found that employees with disabilities were likely to stay on the job four months longer, on average, than employees without disabilities.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p></div></body></html>