[NFBSea] financial assistance for NFB national convention

Tue Apr 26 15:43:04 UTC 2022

Hello Humberto,

This is what happened in my situation. A staffing company called me and interviewed me for the Technical Recruiter for a 4 month contract position. They sent my resume over to the company Paccar. In one day they called and set up a phone call with the director of HR   to interview me for the position, it only took one day and they called me back to let me know that they liked me and wanted to offer me the job.  At this time I did not disclose that I was blind. Once they sent me the offer letter and the start date then I let them know I was blind and that I use a screen reader to do my job, and they seemed fine with that. The staffing company gave me the email of the it department and I contacted him and sent my jaws activation code over to him and he installed it onto my work laptop. They gave me a starting date of April 14, and I was supposed to have a two week training and then the position was going to be two days in the office and three days remote. They gave me an agenda with a schedule of who I was going to meet in the two weeks. I I only met with one guy who helped me start to learn their applicant tracking system that they use for recruiting. I was supposed to shadow one of the recruiters and she didn’t know what to do with me, and I was supposed to meet with  the hiring managers but that didn’t happen either.  I received a phone call from the staffing agency telling me that they cancelled my contract due to a performance issue. I was shocked hearing this since I don’t know how they can say performance when I only got two days of training. I think it was because they didn’t know how to work with someone who is blind, but could not say that of course. I do feel I have been discriminated against.

Keri

From: NFBSea <nfbsea-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Humberto Avila via NFBSea
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2022 9:20 PM
To: NFB of Washington State, Greater Seattle Chapter List <nfbsea at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Humberto Avila <humberto_avila.it104 at outlook.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBSea] financial assistance for NFB national convention

Hello, Kary,  

Thanks for reaching out and posing your dilemma to this list. And no, I'm not Marci, and I'm hoping I don't get nudged out of this list for lurking too much in here. I should have unsubscribed a long time ago because I no longer live in the beautiful city of Seattle, sadly, but oh well. 

Anyways, if I can't necessarily answer your question, I'm just trying to reflect on what has happened to you given how you've written the below email, but I'm just wondering. Did they just call because they have an issue with your performance? Did you ask why, exactly? Did they give you an opportunity to at least ask further questions of your contract and this employer? Did you even get a chance to fully outline your accommodations and alternative techniques of Blindness that you use to do the essential functions of the job? Did they give you some sort of feedback while in your employee training or thereafter? Was the applicant tracking software at least, partially accessible with any AT you used there? Or, did they at least give you some kind of outline of steps that you needed to improve in your performance? Did they at least, for gracious goodness's sake, say “goodbye” to you and wished you farewell and good luck in your job search when they talked on the phone? 

If they didn't do any or all those things, and just told you “We had a performance issue with you” and cited that as reason to dismiss you from the job, in my opinion, I'd consider this discrimination. They may have not cited your Blindness to you in any way perhaps because it may be they are scared that you would tackle and heckle them in court. But I feel that this definitely is plain old, cold, ruthless, disheartening and disempowering piece of discrimination being thrown at you. At least I would feel that way if I were in your shoes right now. No reason to fire me other than some vague and inexplicable performance issue even in the first two weeks of the job... hmmm... and even how your person in charge of your training ghosted you is kind of suspicious in my mind... Yes, this is very awful discrimination. 

I have been hearing more and more of this kind of thing very recently — from Blind people and others — and frankly I am getting rather tired and fed up with hearing about how we are constantly being left out and discriminated because of how we're being perceived by employers and by their lack of education and awareness. And I fear this isn't just a Blindness issue. Being a man of color short, and some other things may rain into the mix of perceptions. 

Hearing a story like you have described to us in this list, Kary, quite honestly makes me afraid to tackle my job search. It makes me rethink how I need to approach these people every time I have an interview or go through an app to fill out. It makes me raise my blood pressure every time I show up with my trustful, amazing Long White Cane for the blind on an in-person interview and perhaps, every time that my eyes do not look squarely into my interviewers eyes to show that I care, for a virtual interview. And no, it's not that I choose not to make eye contact with these people, as they all want me to do. It's that I really cannot do it simply because my eyes move subconciously and I do not have the oculomotor skills to make them move and precisely do the eye contact thing very efficiently and effectively as a fully sighted person can,  because I'm congenitally Blind. It makes me rethink, how many jobs will I ever be rejected for even though I may have the skills. And how many employers will ultimately lose out on a wonderful candidate or candidates who have just as much skill, tenacity and quallifications to do these jobs just as any member who can peal their eyes wide to look at beautiful mountains from a very far distance can? 

I am hoping I'm not venting too much. It's that I have been an active job seeker now for the past (almost?) one year and have yielded too little results. At a DSB job seeking seminar I recently attended, I was advised that if an employer tries to kick a Blind or low vision person out of their new work, without further say dew and while or after disclosing their Blindness as part of advocating for their accommodations, said person can take matters into the complex and ruthless spiderwebs of the legal system or at least notify a Blindness consumer or advocacy group such as the NFB and go from there. Now having said all of this and ranting a bit about the state of this scary, maddening and unfair world as we live in, and finally answer your one question, I know the email address of the person in charged of the legal programs at the NFB's national headquarters office. Her name is Valery Yinggling, and her email is: vYinggling at nfb.org <mailto:vYinggling at nfb.org>  

I don't have a phone number though I suppose you can call the NFB national office and ask for her. But I'm hoping that this contact information proves useful to you and / or you can successfully reach out to Marci Carpenter about this so you can talk more about specifics, as she is the NFB State Affiliate for Washington and she may know what to do first. 

Thanks for reading. Have a great day. 

Best, 

Humberto  

“Be kind; for everyone you meet is fighting a really hard battle.” — πλατο 

On Apr 25, 2022, at 5:58 PM, Keri Brent via NFBSea <nfbsea at nfbnet.org <mailto:nfbsea at nfbnet.org> > wrote:

Hi Marci,

I need to speak to you, I think I just was discriminated against. I started a new position at Paccar. They told me that I would have two weeks a training, and the one who was traing me was out three days of my training, and I was starting to learn their applicant tracking system. Today Monday, I was helping them with closing out APPLICANTS that were in their system and it was working fine. I just got a call when I got home  from the staffing company that they are ending my contract and I haven’t even finished my last week of training. I think that they didn’t know what to do with me, they are saying that it was do to performance. Who can I speak to at the legal team at NFB?

Thanks

Keri Brent

From: NFBSea <nfbsea-bounces at nfbnet.org <mailto:nfbsea-bounces at nfbnet.org> > On Behalf Of Marci Carpenter via NFBSea
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2022 11:54 AM
To: Clark County Chapter, NFB of Washington List <cccnfbw at nfbnet.org <mailto:cccnfbw at nfbnet.org> >; nfbsea at nfbnet.org <mailto:nfbsea at nfbnet.org> ; nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org <mailto:nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org> ; nfbwa-students at nfbnet.org <mailto:nfbwa-students at nfbnet.org> 
Cc: Marci Carpenter <mjc59 at comcast.net <mailto:mjc59 at comcast.net> >
Subject: Re: [NFBSea] financial assistance for NFB national convention

There is still time to apply.

On Apr 18, 2022, at 9:42 AM, Marci Carpenter <mjc59 at comcast.net <mailto:mjc59 at comcast.net> > wrote:

Greetings,

Do you plan to attend the NFB national convention July 5-10 in New Orleans?

Do you need financial assistance to help with convention costs in order to attend?

We are very excited about going to our first in-person NFB national convention since 2019 and we want to help as many members as possible have this amazing experience. The NFB of Washington has some funding available to assist members with the cost of convention. We are not able to provide full grants to cover all costs but we can provide partial funding. For example, we can pay for up to one half the cost for your hotel stay which is estimated at $389 for six nights. If you would like to apply for assistance from NFBW please email President Carpenter at mjc59 at comcast.net <mailto:mjc59 at comcast.net>  by 10:00 PM Pacific onTuesday, April 26. You must answer all of the questions below. This is an investment we make in the future of our organization. All members are expected to contribute financially toward the cost of convention, will be required to work at our affiliate fundraising table and are expected to attend the entire convention. An award committee will review all applications. If you have questions about the application or need help filling it out please contact President Carpenter at 206-604-5507 or your local chapter President.

Please provide the following information:

Name 

Email 

Phone where you can be reached before and during convention 

Home address (including city, state and zip code)

Chapter where you are active

What chapter, state and national activities have you participated in in the past two years? 

Indicate the assistance you need and the estimated amount needed:

Transportation

Hotel 

Registration

Banquet

What will be your financial contribution? Will you be receiving assistance from other sources such as your local chapter or DSB?

Which convention sessions/activities are you likely to participate in and how will you use the ideas/knowledge you will gain to help build and strengthen the NFB locally, statewide and nationally?

By typing your name at the end of the application you agree to the following:

1. Must abide by the NFB Code of Conduct https://nfb.org/about-us/history-and-governance/code-conduct

2. Must attend the entire NFB national convention and must notify the NFBW President immediately if your plans change and you are either unable to attend or must shorten the duration of your attendance

3. Must work any assigned jobs, shifts or tasks at the convention that are assigned to you

4. Must return any awarded funds if you do not attend the event and/or return the portion determined to be appropriate by NFBW if you shorten the

duration of your attendance

5. You understand that you are responsible for finding your own roommate(s) 

6. If you violate any of these requirements the NFBW will cancel your financial assistance, require you to repay NFBW grants already spent and that you will not be eligible to receive future financial assistance from NFBW

Again, if you have any questions or need help filing your application please contact President Mardi Carpenter or your chapter President.

Marci Carpenter, President

National Federation of the Blind of Washington

206-604-5507

mjc59 at comcast.net <mailto:mjc59 at comcast.net> 

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