[stylist] more on the question of the 70% thing - : Article showing what parents & kids are facing

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Donna and others 

To answer you --- I am not in a position to do so. And I really do not want
to speculate to far on this. I am not afraid to do some speculation, but for
sure I must say up front that I have not been privy to a discussion that
explains this recording of facts. (One weird outcome resulting from this
number that has been used for decades, is that some of the really good rehab
services find it more difficult in presenting their need for funding, yet
alone increased moneys to do their work. After all --- the congress hears
that that over the decades of spending on rehab, there has been no
improvement of the status of employment of the blind, so why throw good
money after bad?) The dramatization of the high percentage of unemployment
is indeed a eye catcher! (You know what --- I swear that the first wording
of this 70 plus percent of blind people being unemployed was once presented
as - "70% of the blind are either unemployed or under-employed." I
personally like this combo of un and under, because I think it actually more
correctly outlines the employment blight of the blind - I mean, just think
of the workshop people and those of us who hit that glass-blind ceiling of
promotion or initial trust to be taken into a professional job and have to
start and get stuck in a lesser position! (I know more of these last types
of employed blind guys than I know those who are doing equal jobs with
equally trained and smart sighted counterparts. 


(Guys, too many state rehab  services in this country are operating under a
philosophy of low expectations of the blind.)

 (I invite anyone more knowledgeable in the 70% stats that we use to please
help us understand this issue.)