The city of Louisville, Kentucky is backpeddeling and reversing positions
after the local blind community objected to the city's position that one
needed "sufficient vision" to read a video display monitor and access
written information for the position of ADA Compliance Officer.
Apparently accessing computers with speech synthesis and scanning
documents or reading them with a magnifier was not good enough, until of
course it was made a political issue. The Louisville Currier Journal
tells more.
kelly
The Courier-Journal
Wednesday, July 28, 1999
Louisville, KY
Job notice angers visually impaired
By THOMAS NORD, The Courier-Journal
Louisville is reviewing the way it advertises job openings after
visually impaired people angrily complained of discrimination.
Stoking their outrage was a job posted at City Hall and on the
Internet seeking candidates with "sufficient vision," a term many
advocates for the visually disabled consider ignorant, insensitive and a
possible violation of federal law.
That the job involves coordinating the city's efforts to comply with
the Americans With Disabilities Act added insult to injury, they said.
Late yesterday, Mayor Dave Armstrong ordered the city Personnel
Department to rewrite the job posting and to review all job postings
with the assistance of the Law Department. "We appreciate the community
bringing this to our attention," said Alicia Sells, the mayor's press
secretary.
Enacted by Congress in 1990, the law bans discrimination against the
disabled and requires employers, businesses and institutions to
accommodate them.
That, according to Betty Nicely, president of the National Federation
of the Blind of Kentucky, seems to run counter to the job posting, which
states, "Sufficient vision is needed to obtain information from written
material and video display units."
"The blind community is irate," Nicely said. "I was appalled. The
first time I was told about it, I thought it had to be a mistake."
In fact, more than a half-dozen jobs advertised on the city's
Internet site include similar language, seeking candidates with
sufficient hearing, speech and vision for jobs ranging from librarian to
park worker.
The act requires employers to make reasonable efforts to ensure
disabled people who are otherwise qualified for jobs can perform them.
The term "sufficient vision" was included in the city's posting to
tip off applicants who might have impairments that they must inform
officials of the need for accommodations, said Nesa Hall, assistant city
personnel director. It did not mean to imply their impairments would be
viewed unfavorably or that city officials would not make efforts to
accommodate them, Hall said.
The act, advocates said, makes it illegal for the disabled to be
denied jobs simply because an employer doesn't want to provide special
equipment or modify work spaces. Exceptions include some jobs involving
safety, such as airline pilots.
Louisville attorney Herbert Segal, an expert in disability law, said
the language in some of the city's postings sends the signal that the
jobs are not open to everyone, which he says is against the law.
"The term 'sufficient vision' should not be in there," Segal said.
"This runs very close to the line."
Sells could not say who wrote the job posting. In addition to
"sufficient vision," the job -- which has an annual salary of $25,937 --
also requires an associate's degree in management, business
administration or a related field; two years of experience in the field
of equal opportunity or affirmative action compliance; and residency in
Jefferson County.
"Whoever wrote it seems not to have an understanding about the plight
of impaired people, whether it's visual or whatever," said County
Commissioner Russ Maple.
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