[stylist] More on article showing what parents and kids are facing

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Donna,

The missing factor is that of that reported 70% unemployed, it includes
children too young for employment and retired seniors not to memention
people who are blind plus some other disability making it less simple to
work. So when you actually just look at blind people who are of working
age and able to work, it is less than 70%. So yes, to a degree, we are
exaggerating, but as you mention, it's still too high a number, and I
also might add, how many are working regular jobs, for lack of a better
term, and how many are working sheltered workshop jobs or something
similar. Many states boast high employment rates among blind graduates
of training centers, but often, many are employed by sheltered workshops
or something akin to a sheltered workshop. Work is work, but we also
have to consider how many blind people are being encouraged and expected
to achieve their full potential, and how many are just deemed well off
because they are working regardless that employers like this expect very
little giving blind employees menial jobs and paying even less. Sorry,
someone had to say it.

Bridgit
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2013 22:07:56 -0500
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] more on : Article showing what	parents & kids
	arefacing
Message-ID: <4ECC685BBD634B04962D293E130064BB at OwnerHP>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Robert,
I'm confused. Shouldn't we be using the Dept. of Labor's formula for
figuring unemployment? If that's what they use for everyone, and they're
getting a much lower unemployment rate than we've been led to believe
... Well, it doesn't sound right. I mean, 38% is still terrible and way
worse than the general unemployment numbers, but we've been telling
people it's 70%. If we're using a non-standard method of calculating it,
aren't we opening ourselves up to the criticism that we're exaggerating
the problem? What am I missing here? Donna