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

[Lynda Lambert]

I am not "out and about" in the blind mileau at all, so I only know things 
from my own contacts, which have been minimal. I observed a few things when 
I was in that rehab place for 15 weeks though, which really made me get some 
insight about this.

First, there are people who are blind that seem to circle about from one 
place to another, doing "rehab" at various places in the country. It was 
fairly clear to me that these folks were really in no way ever going to be 
seriously working.  I mean, if you have been blind since birth, or have been 
blind for a lot of years, why would you still be in technology classes and 
doing personal adjustment to blindness programs for years and years?

Some had such bad table manners and lack of social skills they would be 
unemployable anywhere. You would not even want to sit at the same table at 
lunch with some of them.

Then, I met  one woman in her mid-40s who told me " I am here for a 
vacation." She was going through the motions as though she really wanted to 
get a job, but behind the faces of  the rehab people, she openly joked about 
her vacation there and how she was enjoying it and had no intention of going 
to school or working - she was a housewife and that is all she wanted to be, 
yet to get her "vacation" she had to pretend to want something more. I told 
her one day, "I really do know what a vacation is, and this is not it."

On the positive side, though, I was there when the high school seniors came 
in for their program and they were all college bound. I stayed on to help 
with them a little, and did some classes with them to help them understand 
what going to college would be like. Those students were so sharp and 
winsome, and it was very clear to me that they would be doing anything they 
would ever want to do - they had the drive to do it.  Someone was doing 
something absolutely right with those young students and I know their life 
will be great.




Lynda




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bridgit Pollpeter" <bpollpeter at hotmail.com>
To: <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2013 11:05 PM
Subject: [stylist] More on article showing what parents and kids are facing


> 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
>
>
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