Are Job Fairs Real for Job Seekers With Disabilities?
But Can Blind People Really Do the Work?
Enabling Effective Communication
How to Talk to A Blind Person
Making Your Printed Materials Accessible
After the Job Fair
Related Links
Are Job Fairs Real for Job Seekers With Disabilities?
Most people know that much of what happens at any job fair is information gathering. A job fair is not necessarily a place where actual hiring gets done. An organization may attend to assess the current availability, skills and salary expectations of job seekers in general. A job seeker may attend to see what prospects he'll have before he leaves his current job or to gather data for the salary-negotiation phase of finding a new job. But hiring does happen. Sometimes it happens right at the fair.
When the job fair has been specifically planned for disabled job candidates, however, the veneer is somewhat thicker. It's likely some companies are there for public relations purposes only. "See how inclusive we are!" Or the more sinister: "Hey, we tried to hire disabled people, but none of them were qualified."
One subscriber to the BlindJob e-mail discussion group aired her skepticism about the "reality" of job fairs for disabled job seekers. "I have some vision, so sometimes I stand to the side of the booth and listen to the venders speak to job seekers," she says, "and I notice that they speak differently to blind people."
She goes on, "I have attended the President's Committee job fair three times here in Washington, D.C., and blind people are never hired from the fair. "
Although she knows it would violate the law, she says she almost wishes the recruiters would come right out and say they don't intend to hire her. "I have been to job fairs," she continues, "but, for the most part, companies just talk enough to you to pacify you and to hurry you off. They always tell you they aren't looking to fill the position you're seeking, or (they) give you their information and hurry you away. I would rather hear the truth. I am not a stupid person, and neither is anyone else I know."
The more optimistic answer is that these job fairs are as "for real" -- as any other job fair. So some people will be hired. It is up to the organizations involved and their recruiters to make sure their recruiting at these fairs is not a waste of time for everyone involved. With a little knowledge and forethought, a job fair can be a winner for both potential employers and potential employees.
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But Can Blind People Really Do the Work?
You may be thinking, "But, c'mon. Blind people can't do the work! They're, well, blind!"
Blind and partially sighted people have always been in the workforce. More recently, advances in adaptive technology have opened up all but a small selection of career paths for them. This technology may be as complex as a "talking" calipers in a machinist shop or as simple as a magnifying lens on a computer screen. Remember: You probably are unaware of many of the new advances in adaptive technology that now make it possible for a blind or visually impaired person to do almost any task.
You will also want to keep in mind that a visual disability does not affect intellectual ability, work ethic or general strength of character. Yet, many of the blind candidates you meet will likely be better educated and more motivated than sighted ones. To paraphrase an old expression, "A disabled job candidate must be twice as good to be regarded as half as good as a non-disabled one."
In fact, as employees, people with disabilities have great track records. According to studies dating back to the 1950s at DuPont, "Employees with disabilities equal or exceed co-workers without disabilities in job performance, attendance and attention to safety."
In addition to a considerable commitment and enthusiasm for work, disabled people generally have superior experience in one vital area of any job: problem solving. This is why some use the term "challenged" to describe a person with a disability. People with disabilities face and overcome challenges on a daily basis. They have a lifetime of practice doing just what your best employees do to help your organization thrive in a highly competitive marketplace.
The disabled job fair itself is a great opportunity to learn how visually impaired people use adaptations to perform at the same standard as sighted employees. Often companies or agencies that provide training, adaptive technology and career services for disabled people have booths alongside your own. Talk to them, try out their equipment and ask for advice. Ask visually impaired attendees who use the products to show you how they work.
Don't miss a chance to interview visually impaired job seekers during and after a job fair. The candidates themselves are a great resource for learning about adaptive techniques they use to live independent lives. Ask: "How do you do this? How do you overcome that?" in relation to job tasks. You will learn the myriad of ways these problem-solvers have adapted tasks so they can do them without sight. One candidate may use a simple scanner and text-to-speech software to access printed materials. Another may have a special magnifying device such as closed-circuit television (CCTV), consisting of a camera and a monitor.
You'll also learn more about the level of the candidate's confidence as he describes how he works. You'll get a feel for his resourcefulness and creativity during your conversation with him.
Yes, people who are blind or visually impaired can do the work. Give them an opportunity to show you how they can contribute to your organization's success.
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Enabling Effective Communication
In Making The Most Of Job Fairs I include some of the access concerns blind and visually impaired people must address when they attend a job fair. Effective communication, of course, is critical at any job fair, but, when you are designing your booth and developing your approach to attract any and all qualified job candidates (including those with visual impairments), effective communication becomes more than just speech. Here are some pointers.
- Don't even have a booth at a job fair geared toward disabled job seekers if your organization is not serious about hiring people with disabilities. But you, as a recruiter, could attend anyway. It's your opportunity to find out how wide and deep the pool of disabled candidates is.
- Include your organization's web site address in all marketing materials about your participation in the job fair. This tip came from a BlindJob e-mail list subscriber, who pointed out that access to a company's web site gives visually impaired candidates the chance to research your organization and your job offerings before they attend the job fair. This helps them be more prepared, and it saves you time discussing basic information with people who turn out not to be interested in your available jobs.
- Make sure the organization hosting the job fair promotes it not only to disabled organizations but to the community at large. There is no "Disabled Central" where you can reach all disabled people. We are in the same work sites, stores, clubs, community meetings, places of worship, schools, movie theaters and other community gathering places as everyone else. We don't "flock together."
- Be prepared. Learn about disabilities etiquette, put your materials in an accessible form (see below) and talk to disabled employees already in your company. Banish your personal beliefs, most often misconceptions, about what it is like to be blind. Then you can meet the candidates on a level playing field.
- Include a disabled person, if that person is a member of your recruiting team. But it is not a good idea to assume that every disabled person is knowledgeable about disabilities. I met a visually impaired recruiter for a medical research center at a job fair who proceeded to tell me that there were no jobs suitable for visually impaired people there. She was ill informed not only about the law against discrimination and how blind people use adaptive technology to get work done but also about the range of jobs at the center.
- Design your booth with visually impaired candidates in mind. Keep the front of your booth free of obstacles. Play a video about your organization (so long as it does not interfere with conversation). That can help a blind person identify who you are.
- Encourage the sponsor of the fair to recruit volunteers to act as guides. For those who read Braille, a Braille map of the fair is extremely helpful. For others, a simple large print or audio list of companies and their booth locations may suffice. At your own booth, have staff on hand to help job seekers fill out forms and so forth.
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How to Talk to A Blind Person
Some advice about visiting with blind people is useful in any setting. For instance, you don't need to shout unless the person is also hearing impaired. You need not avoid words like "see" or "look" Talk directly to the visually impaired person -- not to a sighted companion. Avoid being sweeter and more condescending to someone just because they are blind. Says one woman, "I don't know which offends me more -- people being rude or people being extra, extra nice."
While speaking to a visually impaired person when there are many others about, use his name. Most job fairs give participants name tags. If you turn your attention elsewhere or walk away, let him know so he does not keep talking to the air. See Related Links for more information.
There are other guidelines that specifically apply to the job fair setting. For instance, avoid starting a conversation with arguments about why the person to whom you are talking can't do the job. One blind person talking to a corporate recruiter was greeted with doubts about whether she could handle the travel involved. Although she was highly qualified and had more than 20 years of experience in the positions currently open, she was instantly told that, in her words, she "would have to travel sometimes every week, and that possibly my family wouldn't want me to be gone for long periods of time -- that maybe going to unfamiliar towns, airports and hotels could be bothersome for me."
When her efforts to counter the recruiter's objections were met only with frustration, she says she "walked around the booth and waited for somebody to visit him. He was completely different with a sighted candidate. He told her that the travel was minimal." The recruiter's own assumptions created barriers where there were none. He could have described the travel requirements and waited for her to state any concerns she might have had.
Of course, you will not want to ask personal questions of a blind person -- any more than you would of a sighted candidate. Avoid asking how the person became blind or whether there's a cure for that person's blindness. Treat the person like any other job seeker in this regard.
Try not to be put off by the adaptive devices some blind job seekers may use. For example, I use a forehead-mounted camera at events where signs may be posted or information might be on whiteboards or behind a booth. It provides a clear and focused magnified image on attached "glasses." When I wear that device, I look like something out of science fiction, but, except in appearance, it's basically the same as corrective lenses for people with correctable sight problems. And a pair of wire-rim spectacles would not phase you.
Let other visually impaired people waiting to talk to you know you see them and will get to them as soon as you are finished talking to the person in front of them. If you can, ascertain what medium (see below) they use to read and invite them to look over your recruitment materials while they wait.
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Making Your Printed Materials Accessible
Yes, providing materials in Braille is a good idea. But there are two very important things to know about Braille. Only a small percentage of blind and visually impaired people use Braille. Your emphasis should be on large-print materials, audio recordings and CD-ROMs. The CD-ROMs will allow candidates to use their own computers to read the material however they prefer: Braille output, screen magnification or speech output.
For the items you do provide in Braille, don't assume you can just use Braille translation software to convert your existing documents. This software is only the first step in Braille transcription. Braille does not substitute letter for letter but is far more complex with rules that need human interpretation. Have your materials prepared by a certified Braille transcriptionist. Check your local library for information and see Related Links below.
Ask each visually impaired person who requests your printed materials what medium he prefers. By demonstrating your awareness of the various accessible formats, you communicate your company's interest in hiring disabled workers and you put the individual at ease.
Depending on the person's level of vision, he may reach out and take the materials you offer or need you to put them right into his hands. Tell him what the items are as you hand them over. You can also use the clock face to tell him where an item is: "The company brochure in large print is at 2 o'clock to you."
Be sure you have Braille and large print business cards, too. And make sure any other information you offer to send or make available to him -- web sites can be great for this --- are also already available in accessible formats.
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After the Job Fair
Let me repeat that it is up to the employer and the employer's recruitment team to make sure the job fair for disabled job seekers doesn't end once the materials are gathered up and stored for the next event. Disabled job seekers (and their resume should be put through the same regimen you follow for other candidates. You need be just as prepared to do some serious hiring.
As a job recruiter, you need to be the one who is blind (i.e. blind to everything but the individual job candidate's qualifications for positions at your company). It is not only the law (in many countries), but it is the smart thing to do. The little extra effort put into hiring a disabled person, including those who are visually impaired or blind., is more than offset by the benefits to the company in terms of productivity, morale, leadership and community relations.
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Related Links:
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Audio Materials, Access2Go.uk.
eSight's Site Accessibility Review
By: Robert Brown
Usefulness: Four stars
Accessibility: Four stars
Navigation: Four stars
This UK site features brief guidelines about how companies may transmit their information to the blind community at career fairs. Such information is valuable to organizations which wish to expand their outreach programs to include the portion of the disabled community that has visual impairments.
The guidelines are accessible. Though brief, these guidelines are a succinct description of the ways in which organizations may ensure that their message does reach the blind community. Navigation around this relatively small site should pose little or no problem for screen reader users.
BlindJob E-mail List, maelstrom.stjohns.edu.
eSight's Site Accessibility Review
By: Robert Brown
Usefulness: Five stars
Accessibility: Four stars
Navigation: Four stars
Providing an extensive background about listservs that cater to the needs of the blind community, this site contains a large archive of BlindJob messages that dates back to 1996. This is a membership community, which offers numerous services (including archival materials) available only to members.
This site is relatively accessible. When entering the site through the archives link, users will find it most valuable to follow the links that lead to the home page, which contains material about listservs and services for BlindJob members. Keyboard navigation is somewhat confusing for those entering the site from some of its subsidiary pages, but everything is carefully and fully explained on the home page.
Insights into the Blind Experience, vcu.edu.
eSight's Site Accessibility Review
By: Robert Brown
Usefulness: Five stars
Accessibility: Four stars
Navigation: Four stars
Tips about etiquette in interacting with blind people. An understanding about the "why" behind these rules. That's what this site offers. It's one of the valuable resources for dispelling some of the myths held by the sighted world about blind people -- especially for those whose exposure to the blind community has been limited.
The site, with its misconceptions and useful guidelines for addressing those misconceptions, is fully accessible. Like topics are covered in a logical framework, making it easy to find suggestions for a variety of interpersonal settings. Navigating through the site is as straightforward as reading any standard Internet document. There are no annoying graphical stumbling blocks to confound the person using a screen reader.
Making the Most of Job Fairs, www.eSightCareers.net.
eSight's Site Accessibility Review
By: Robert Brown
Usefulness: Five stars
Accessibility: Five stars
Navigation: Five stars
This article on eSight Careers Network offers recruiters insights about how a resourceful blind job seeker can be expected to work with them in making a job fair a mutual success. These guidelines are beautifully designed to lead the job seeker through the most effective means of preparing for (and following up on) a job fair. Anyone planning to attend a job fair will find these practical recommendations helpful.
The article is fully accessible. The five recommendations are segmented logically, and they are well written. There are links, but they lead to information right there on the opening page. Consequently, the links function as the easiest means for rapidly getting to sections within the article. Keyboard navigation of any site is simplified when all of the links refer to sections on the same page and they clearly define (as they do here) what each sub-section will cover. This is an unusually well-designed web site.
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