The following is an article taken from the March 22 issue of the Careers
insert of Computerworld magazine.  I was given the opportuntiy to provide
some dialog included in this article.  It can be found at:
http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/9903229786

It provides some interesting points about the IT field and the opportunities
it holds for people with disabilities.

BEGIN OF TEXT:

No Limits

For disabled students who choose IT careers, job opportunities are better t

By Leslie Goff


 03/22/99 Back in the 1970s, when he wasa computer programmer, Neil Jacobson
called the computer room for a status check on one of his programs.
Jacobson, whose speech is severely impaired by cerebral palsy, was taken
aback by the response: The computer operator who answered the phone mocked
his slurred question and hung up on him. Jacobson called back twice, and got
the same response.


The finesse with which he handled the situation demonstrates the management
skills that earned him his current position. Jacobson is vice president in
charge of computer systems architecture for the retail bank division at
Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco.


He asked a co-worker to call the computer room and get the name of the man
who answered the phone. Then he went down there in his powered wheelchair.


"I chatted with some of the operators for about five minutes," he recalls.
"Then I asked who the operator was. They pointed him out. We stared at each
other. His face turned red. I simply asked him for the status of my job
request. That problem never recurred!"


Jacobson, who is vice chairman of the President's Committee on Employment
for People with Disabilities and chairman of the board of the World
Institute on Disability, says he has found people like the computer operator
to be the exception rather than the rule. And yet combating the fears of
workers and managers without disabilities is the No. 1 obstacle that people
with disabilities face in landing competitive employment.


About 70% of people with disabilities are unemployed -- a far higher
percentage than the national rate -- according to the President's
Committee's statistics. But because of the high demand for information
technology professionals and the value placed on diversity in the IT
workplace, dismantling those fears may be easiest for those students with
disabilities who choose IT careers.


"The scarcity of resources has opened doors that wouldn't have been open
before," says Joyce Bender, founder and president of Bender Consulting
Services (BCS) in Pittsburgh, the first for-profit firm formed specifically
to help people with disabilities find work.


Many of BCS's clients, for example, had never thought of recruiting among
professionals with disabilities, Bender says. They have overlooked disabled
candidates not out of maliciousness, but out of ignorance. In addition to
the surge in demand for IT professionals, several other factors have
converged to make companies more receptive to IT professionals with
disabilities. The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) raised the profile
of hiring employees with disabilities by educating employers and workers
alike. Access to offices is increasingly less of an issue. And assistive
technologies are better and cheaper.


The result: This is one of the best times ever for students with
disabilities to find competitive employment in IT careers such as computer
programming, systems analysis, Web-site design and network administration.
And IT pros with disabilities say the field provides a rewarding and
stimulating career path.


"I think this business is well-suited to someone with my disability because
it isn't a physical job or one that requires a lot of mobility," says Tim
McKinley, a software engineer working on a year 2000 conversion of legacy
financial applications at Bell Atlantic Corp. in Boston. McKinley is a
quadriplegic who has the use only of his hands. "Time and again, it's
gratifying to me that I'm asked to step up to the plate and hit the home
runs. I have proven that they can count on me, and having done that, no one
has ever given me a job or taken one away based on my disability."


Sometimes McKinley's boss calls him in on 24-hour emergency shifts or asks
him to work overtime, which McKinley says is satisfying because it indicates
that Bell Atlantic sees him as an employee who happens to be disabled rather
than as a quadriplegic who happens to be an employee. "You might think they
would say, 'Oh, give him a break,' but they don't," he explains. "If I'm the
one they need, I'm the one they call. And it's very gratifying to know that
they are judging you based on your ability."


But mobility has been an issue for McKinley a few times -- when he was asked
to fly to New York for meetings. "I don't enjoy traveling, especially air
travel," he says, conceding that it might have impeded his advancement not
to go. But now Lotus Notes and videoconferencing have ended that hindrance.


It's up to disabled employees to let employers know about special needs,
such as a preference not to travel or assistive technologies that they
require. McKinley, for example, doesn't require assistive technologies, but
he has requested some flexibility to allow telecommuting. He drives a
converted van to and from the office, but when a big northeaster blows
across Massachusetts, "the last thing I need is to get stranded on the
highway," he says.


"You have to be proactive about communicating your needs," says Mike
Gravitt, 23, an SAP analyst and an employee at BCS. In his current
assignment, Gravitt, who is visually impaired, is working at Bayer Corp. in
Pittsburgh. "Don't expect an employer to be in tune with the issues related
to your specific disability," he says.


Gravitt, who has 20/400 vision (what the average person can see at 400 feet,
he can see at 20 feet), uses Zoomtext Xtra screen enlargement software to
magnify on-screen text, a 21-in. monitor and a text-enlarging projection
device for reading books and documents. The state Department of
Rehabilitation in Virginia, his home state, provided him with the initial
products he needed. Additions will be the responsibility of BCS -- with
Gravitt's input.


Employers "will look to you to educate them and help them find solutions,"
agrees Scott Hooker, a project planning analyst at the Atlanta-based
customer service division of Federal Express Corp., who is blind. "It's
important to have a network of colleagues who have the same disability and
have been through some of the same technical issues -- I get a lot of help
from E-mail discussion lists that I'm on -- or else you may be climbing the
walls trying to find a solution that someone else has already figured out."


When to bring up such issues or the fact that you're disabled at all is a
subject of much debate; in the end, it's really up to the individual, IT
professionals who are disabled say. Gravitt, for example, says he never
explicitly told a prospective employer that he was visually impaired, but it
was implicit in his resume by the activities he listed: He was on the
Virginia Board for People With Disabilities and head of a student chapter of
the American Council of the Blind.


Gravitt says the interview is as much an opportunity for the candidate to
learn about the employer as it is for the employer to get to know the
candidate. Ask whether the company has other employees with disabilities,
what kind of positions they have held, what kind of accommodations have been
made for them and how familiar the employer is with the ADA.


"Get a feel for the education level of the managers," he advises, "because
even though co-workers may exhibit some ignorance about disability issues,
if management and human resources are more up on the issues, then the
employee can expect a reasonable amount of comfort and the ability to get
what they need."


Once an offer is on the table, it's appropriate to discuss specific
assistive technologies and other accommodations, Bender says. The
ADAprohibits prospective employers from asking questions about your
disability, anyway. But Jacobson suggests that disabled job candidates be
frank about their disabilities throughout the interview process.


"In any interview, it's critical to get across the idea that you know who
you are, you feel good about who you are and that you are proud of who you
are," he says. "Since disability is usually an integral part of who you are,
I encourage people to discuss it naturally, positively and proudly, just as
they would their educational and professional backgrounds."


Despite the shortages in IT labor, the ADA and the rise in access and
assistive technologies, Hooker notes that some people will still have a
difficult time finding competitive employment. "People with disabilities
have a hard row to hoe in this society, in general, because of people's
attitudes; they don't know what we can accomplish." But he, Gravitt,
McKinley, Bender and Jacobson all agree that IT work is creating ample
opportunity to help change perceptions.


"Sure, I and/or my disability intimidate some people," says Jacobson, who
describes his disability as "quite significant." (He answered questions for
this article via E-mail.) "Over the years, several of my bosses have
received calls from people that I intimidated. Focus on the task at hand.
Focus on the business. Proving that you are a team player and that you know
your stuff is the best way to dissipate disability-related fears."


Goff is a freelance writer in New York. Contact her at [log in to unmask]


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