ABSTRACT

Introduction .........................................................................................................388 Employment Really? ........................................................................................... 390

The Law? ......................................................................................................... 390 Technology for What? ......................................................................................... 390

Ready? .............................................................................................................. 391 How It Was ...................................................................................................... 391 Expectations .................................................................................................... 391 Policy Changes ............................................................................................... 392 Hard Sell? ........................................................................................................ 392 Changing the Brand ....................................................................................... 393 Blindness OK................................................................................................... 393 Amazing But ................................................................................................... 394 The System ...................................................................................................... 394

Adapting the Job: Adapting the Method ......................................................... 395 Managing the Print Barrier ........................................................................... 395 Human Reader ................................................................................................ 396 What Else? ....................................................................................................... 396 Solutions, But Who Pays? ............................................................................. 396 Doing the Job .................................................................................................. 397 Fitting in........................................................................................................... 397 What Else? ....................................................................................................... 398

Blind People Can and Do Work ........................................................................ 398 Impossible, Really?......................................................................................... 398 When You Are the Boss ................................................................................. 399

Unemployment, Too High! ................................................................................400 Are the Jobs the Blind People Get Special or Ordinary? ..........................400 Raw Data ......................................................................................................... 401 What Do the Mentors Say? ...........................................................................402

References .............................................................................................................403

Ever since blind people have sought real employment the question has been: What can they do? Ever since there has been a civil rights for people with disabilities mentality in America where a remedy is in place to combat discrimination against people who cannot see or cannnot see well, a Rehabilitation agency has been active that includes blind people. So blind people wish to live independently in “real” working and middle class positions, and society has marshaled resources to bring employment about. What is missing? We ask that question, because unemployment among blind people is very high. Possession of marketable skills by blind people must be strengthened, and everyone must accept the idea and embrace it that vision, while certainly here to stay, is not the only way to vocational fulfillment, let alone getting the bills paid.