Blind Advocates Educate Employers, Attempt to Reduce Employment Discrimination

A recent Associated Press article that appeared in the Portland Press Herald focuses on the obstacles to employment for blind and low-vision people in the United States. Titled "Employers Still Wary of Blind Jobseekers," the article follows a Boston-area woman to a job fair for blind and disabled people. Having turned down a blind man for a job when she was sighted and working in human resources, she understands the problem of the gross underemployment of blind people -- only 24 percent of blind people had full-time employment in 2011 -- from both sides.

This is a relatively in-depth and unusually honest piece about ableist employment discrimination, the particular advantages of hiring blind workers (who are unusually loyal to their employers and hardworking, according to the article), and the efforts blind advocates are making in turning the tide.

Read the article, "Employers still wary of blind jobseekers" in the Portland Press Herald.