[Tn-talk] When It Comes to Hiring, Blind Workers Face Bias

[Sheri Anderson]

When It Comes to Hiring, Blind Workers Face Bias
The Wall Street Journal

·        March 18, 2013, 10:27 AM
By Leslie Kwoh

When it comes to hiring blind employees, many employers remain skeptical.

Bosses often assume blind workers cost more and produce less,
according to a new study. They also believe blind workers are more
prone to workplace accidents and less reliable than other workers.
The study, scheduled to be released this week by the nonprofit
National Industries for the Blind, polled 400 human-resources and
hiring managers at a mix of large and small U.S.-based companies. The
group commissioned the survey, in part, to shed light on why roughly
70% of the 3.5 million people working-age Americans are not employed.
(Legally blind Americans are eligible for Social Security disability,
according to NIB.)

NIB president and chief executive Kevin Lynch described the survey
results as a "terrible surprise." With the exception of certain jobs
that require driving or steering, "there are very few jobs that a
person who's blind is not capable of doing," he says.

The findings reveal a disconnect between what employers say and what
they do. While the majority of executives claim they want to hire and
train disabled workers, many view blind workers as an inconvenience.

Hiring managers tended to be slightly more negative than
human-resources managers, but overall results were similar.

·        Among hiring managers, most respondents (54%) felt there were
few jobs at their company that blind employees could perform, and 45%
said accommodating such workers would require "considerable expense."

·        Forty-two percent of hiring managers believe blind employees
need someone to assist them on the job; 34% said blind workers are
more likely to have work-related accidents.

·        One-quarter of respondents said blind employees are "more
sensitive" than other employees; the same percentage said they were
"more difficult to supervise."

·        Twenty-three percent of hiring managers said blind employees
are not as productive as their colleagues, and 19% believe these
employees have a higher absentee rate.

Blindness is largely absent from corporate conversation about
employees with disabilities with the exception of sporadic lawsuits:
Last August, Hawaiian Electric Co. agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a
discrimination suit by a partially blind employee, the AP reported.
And in December, Bloomberg reported that a blind ex-banker at the
Royal Bank of Scotland Group lost a suit seeking disability benefits.

Rarer still is news about companies like apparel business SustainU,
based in West Virginia, which hires blind and visually impaired
employees to man its factory, according to the New York Times. The
company said there was no difference in the cost and quality of its
goods when compared to that of other U.S. manufacturers.

Companies may have to invest some money to provide "reasonable
accommodations" for a blind employee, as required by the Americans
with Disabilities Act. However,  says NIB's Lynch, many computers and
smartphones already have built-in features that enable users to change
font size and light intensity. Installing voice technology that allows
computers to "read" text to a blind employee costs just $1,500 to
$2,000, he says. The American Foundation for the Blind has estimated
that 88% of employee accommodations cost less than $1,000.

As for health insurance, company rates are determined by the number of
incidents among the entire group - not individual employees - no
evidence suggests that blind employees incur more costs than other
workers, Mr. Lynch says.

Blind employees may also be more loyal than most, he adds. A DePaul
University study from 2007 found that employees with disabilities were
likely to stay on the job four months longer, on average, than
employees without disabilities.