[nfbmi-talk] Job Finding

[David Robinson]

Fred,

   I agree that successful employment is a goal for everyone including the 
blind.  I also agree that the path to that goal is good blindness skills and 
self confidence.  Skills can be gained from a variety of sources including 
interaction with skilled blind persons who have self confidence.  The 
question is more on how we in Michigan achieve that end goal.
   I remember when we established the national center and much discussion 
went on about how to best utilyzed the space at the center.  Some wanted to 
start a national training center and others did not.  As an organizsation we 
decided not to have a training center as it went away from our primary 
purpose as an organization and would drain to much of our resources which 
are needed in other areas of advocacy, education and legal assistance.  This 
then led to the opening of training centers in States by our affiliates who 
could afford to do so and had the leadership to make it happpen.  Each 
training center clearly defined as a separate organization and not the 
affiliate or part of the affiliate.
   So, I suppose if the Michigan affiliate had 26 million dollars given to 
us by the federal and state governments, we could control and direct a 
training component in Michigan. Since we do not. we must rely on the state 
agency that is paid to provide the training.  We all have our unique 
interest, but if we hope to gain good blindness skills and successful 
employment, we in Michigan must at some point be engaged with the agency. 
We fought for good services for blind persons when we had a Commission and 
we had three Federationists on the Commission board.  Should that effort not 
continue?  I believe that the greater gift we can give to blind persons is 
our encouragement and our belief in them to succeed.  We need to be the ones 
to open the doors of opportunity. We can encourage them to get the skills, 
get the good education and get the job they want, but we don't have the 
resources, as we determined on a national level, to provide that training or 
education.  Relationships to find employment are critical in opening up 
those doors of opportunity, but they also have led to others shutting the 
doors to the blind in Michigan.  We must continue to encourage and work with 
others to break down those barriers, barriers put up against the blind 
because of greed, mistrust, stupidity and hatefulness for the blind and the 
NFB.

Dave
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Wurtzel via nfbmi-talk" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
To: "NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 10:15 PM
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Job Finding


> Hello,
>
>
>
> This post may be better as a blog, however, I think finding jobs is 
> possibly
> the most important issue facing blind people.  Most of the other issues we
> discuss are subtexts of this topic.
>
>
>
> I have been thinking about job hunting.  A couple weeks ago, another 
> lister,
> whom I have deep respect for,  commented that the suggestion of using
> Richard N. Bolles ideas for job hunting is possibly obsolete.  Try as I
> might, I cannot find a major flaw in Bolles' ideas, though no system is
> perfect for every person or situation.
>
>
>
> A point that was made suggesting that Bolles approach is made less 
> effective
> by technology, is that automated screening systems have built-in biases
> toward minorities.  The example given was the driver's license requirement
> on the web-based application.  Clearly, lying is not an option and 
> answering
> truthfully is also doomed for a blind person.  So, what to do? I am
> encouraged to hear that some members are reaching out to Lieutenant 
> Governor
> Cally for a meeting about employment.  Presumably, the topic of biased
> applications will be a major topic in informing him of barriers to
> employment for blind persons.    I would suggest that this tactic is
> consistent with Bolles, since he builds his strategy on relationships.
> After all, the only way, ultimately, that most people get jobs is through
> relationships.  Sometimes, these relationships are  very short, being
> created in the brief window of an interview.  More often, these
> relationships are a longer term process.
>
>
>
> Skills of blindness are very important.  The ability to travel affords us 
> to
> venture into the community and meet others.  The possession of literacy
> affords us the ability of communicating our ideas, skills and 
> personalities
> to others in the community. Finally, and, arguably, the most important 
> skill
> of blindness is self-confidence and belief that blind people are capable 
> and
> entitled to an equal opportunity to compete for jobs.
>
>
>
> The NFB gives us the opportunity to work collectively to help one another 
> to
> acquire these skills.  Part of our function is to be a training experience
> for each other.  We share information, tools and techniques.  We observe 
> our
> colleagues succeeding in their goals.  This function of our organization 
> is
> possibly its greatest strength and benefit.  We certainly do influence
> various institutions to change, but, mostly, we influence each other to
> change and have a vision that blind people can achieve success in any 
> field
> we choose.  As the poet said, "no one is promised a rose garden."  There
> will be struggle and opposition borne of ignorance and sometimes malice.
> There is social inertia; it takes effort to change direction or speed or
> slow trends.  That is why we come together: to create a force which is
> greater than the inertia we face.
>
>
>
> So, as for Bolles, I am still convinced that his system of job finding is 
> as
> relevant as ever.  I also know that no job-finding system can succeed if 
> we,
> the job-seekers do not believe in ourselves as fully capable and entitled 
> to
> the same opportunities as our sighted peers and colleagues.
>
>
>
>
>
> Warmest Regards,
>
>
>
> Fred
>
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