You may well be right on the mark Jim.  And today I retired from my 
nine year position at a local Center for Independent Living.  Very 
very few of my consumers were employed, many tried and many more took 
the status quo of SSDI or SSI and complained that they didn't have 
anything.  Fell on deaf ears attached to my phone!!  As a totally 
blind guy I have worked for almost fifty years in several different 
areas of business.  I left my last job because I was rather burned 
out and tired of offering advice and expertise to people who really, 
;in many cases weren't ;interested in doing anything to better 
themselves.  And I will look for more work - just not sure what to 
look for next or where to look for it.
Pat, K9JAUAt 04:23 PM 9/30/2014, you wrote:
>Be aware, I might be blowing smoke here, as I have no data to support this,
>but here goes:
>
>I have for some time been concerned about all the special accommodation
>students receive these days.  They have these special student offices on
>campuses which handle all sorts of accommodations including providing
>readers and even attendants in some cases.
>I think of the people who've been to universities and
>seen those special student offices, and are then in a position to hire a
>blind person.  Do they say, "Oh yes, they can do the work.", or do they say,
>"Gosh, they needed a special office on campus, and our company isn't going
>to have that, so we'd best hire someone else."
>
>Whether we like it or not, the opinion of a lot of people, indeed probably
>most people, is that we're
>best suited for some sort of manual labor such as simple assembly line work,
>if we're suitable for any work at all.  We have to do our best to show that
>we can be independent and productive.  I was responsible, for example, for
>getting my own readers, while these days the handicapped student services
>usually provide the readers as I understand it.
>
>I remember a petition on change.org where this couple was saying that, after
>getting their degrees, the only work they could find was subminimum wage
>work at Good Will.  Of course, a lot of blind folks were upset at Good Will
>for paying subminimum wages, but I had other questions.  Did they try to get
>jobs in other locations?  What did they major in in college?  What were the
>GPAs?  I just didn't buy that two people, blind or not, with degrees
>couldn't find other work.  These folks were in Montana, and Yeh, you might
>have to move somewhere to get a good job.  If I had stayed in my home town
>in Iowa, I wouldn't have found much work either, unless I started a local
>business, which I didn't want to do.  So I got a job with the state of Iowa
>in data
>processing, although I'd graduated Magna Cum Lade with a degree in physics
>and math.  The vast majority of applications I sent out either went
>unanswered, or were rejected,  I got very few interviews.  After three years
>with the state, I got a job with IBM, where I worked for 30 years before
>retiring.
>
>But anyway, my concern is that we might be seen as needing too much help
>from special handicapped services, since there are so many accommodations
>being made.  However, I can't point to any case where this actually
>happened, although you'd need insider information to establish such a claim,
>since no one would admit to not hiring a blind person for this reason.
>--
>Jim, KE5AL
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Steve
>Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 3:18 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: employment
>
>Alan,
>
>It depends on who your friends are.  There isn't a big amount of statistical
>research done on this; but the last I knew, AFB research says it about 70
>percent unemployed or under-employed.
>
>And, if it weren't for Randolph-Shepherd and the Rehab industry, I dare say
>it would be more like ninety percent.
>
>I deliberately chose not to go into a "blindness-specific" occupation when I
>was younger.
>
>Unfortunately, a lot of positions that were open to the blind years ago are
>not real good career opportunities now.  Medical transcription is being
>outsourced overseas in a lot of instances, and with speech recognition, it
>will become even less available.  In my opinion, same thing with piano
>tuners, as a lot of people use digital keyboards which now have real
>piano-like feel.
>
>I will echo Colin's comment too about developing a resume that does not
>indicate age.  Even though age is not a Bona Fide Occupational Qualifier, a
>lot of employers implicitly avoid older applicants.
>
>In my view, the Americans With Disabilities Act also limited our
>possibilities more than they helped.  There was a small industry of
>consultnats helping employers design job descriptions listing the Essential
>Functions of their jobs.  Even though they're supposed to make reasonable
>accommodations, I think the result of that whole process was to really
>tighten up the screening process to where it has disadvantaged a lot of
>disabled applicants.
>
>Steve
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Alan R. Downing
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 12:16 PM
>Subject: Re: employment
>
>
>Howard, on the subject of employment, is the unemployment rate of the blind
>still in excess of 70% or more?  I am not affiliated with  the ACB or NFB,
>so don't read any of their publications on a regular basis.  I was always
>suspicious of such claims as all of my blind friends were gainfully
>employed.  I attended Perkins thru my freshman year and then transferred to
>my local public high school.  I still believe that had I stayed at Perkins,
>I would never have gotten into MIT, or any other science or engineering
>colleges or universities.  Naturally I had many friends from my Perkins
>days, and thru my adult life, they were all employed in their chosen fields;
>teachers, attorneys, accountants, piano tuners and the like.
>
>Alan
>
>
>Alan R. Downing
>Phoenix, AZ
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>On Behalf Of Howard Kaufman
>Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 7:52 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: employment
>
>Ron, I will trust your research.
>My data is subjective.  Again, my data is the most important data for me,
>because it is my job hunt.
>I also have two disabilities.
>I am beginning to think age is bigger than blindness.
>I always got a job before, and I was always blind.
>Since I passed 55, it has been much harder.  After 60, not even an
>interview.
>
>H T Kaufman MSW LCSW
>Adaptive Technology Instructor
>
>
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