[rehab] Fighting Discrimination in the VR Application Process

[Justin Salisbury]

Aloha everyone,

I want to ask a few questions about racial/place of origin discrimination in the VR application process by giving a scenario.

A blind applicant for VR services sat down with a VR counselor to do an intake meeting, where the VR counselor acted as the scribe for the application form. After the intake meeting, the applicant was denied VR services, and the simple decision form said that the person had no impediment to employment. When the applicant and counselor met again to discuss the decision, the counselor, flustered, said that people from the applicant's ethnic background always feel like they are entitled, when they are not. She added that blind people, more broadly, always think they are entitled to receive VR services, which they are not. After meeting with local legislators and the super-agency administrator, the applicant was able to be found eligible due to his SSI recipient status, which was recorded incorrectly by the counselor/scribe on the form. Since the applicant learned that parts of the intake form were filled out incorrectly, he requested a copy of the intake form in order to check it. One of the errors is that the racial identity section was not filled out at all. This applicant may or may not have been properly qualified to receive VR services, but there appears to have been discrimination. What can this applicant do to overcome the discrimination? The applicant has complained and, after determination of eligibility, been transferred to another counselor, but progress has not occurred. The agency director, counseling supervisor, and all counselors that the applicant has met are all members of the local ethnic majority (Japanese) and are recalcitrant at best. Even if the applicant can get what they need in this one scenario, which is far from true at this point, it might be a good idea to file formal discrimination complaints so that it is on record if any further retaliation or instances of discrimination are viewed as a continuation instead of a new incident.

What do you think? What can or should this applicant do?

Mahalo and aloha,

Justin

Justin M. Salisbury, MA, NOMC, NCRTB, NCUEB
Legislative Committee Chair
Honolulu Chapter
National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii
Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu<mailto:President at Alumni.ECU.edu>
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-salisbury

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

William Butler Yeats