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 DISABLED JOINING HIGH-TECH FIRMS IN GREATER NUMBERS
   By Vikas Bajaj
   Dallas Morning News
   September 11, 2000

   After Allen Beers was blinded in a gun accident as a teenager, he
   realized he could wallow in self-pity or accept the challenge and move
   on.

   "It was rough for the first six months," Beers said. "Then I decided I
   wanted to get on with life."

   Several jobs and a few decades later, Beers, now 47, has found his
   calling--computer programming.

   He started a programming job in spring at TXU Electric after
   graduating from an eight-month El Centro College program for people
   with disabilities who are interested in high-tech jobs.

   Beers is one of a growing number of workers with physical or mental
   disabilities working in high-tech industries, disability experts say.

   The number of disabled workers in tech, however, remains low. The U.S.
   Commerce Department estimates that they make up about 5.8 percent of
   the science and engineering labor force, even though 20 percent of the
   American population has some sort of physical, mental or emotional
   disability.

   The Center for Computer Assistance to the Disabled in Dallas trains
   workers on computer hardware and software that can help them in their
   job hunts. Andrew Gibson, the center's managing director, says
   businesses are slowly changing their ways.

   "The tightness of the job market has helped make employers entertain
   the very able clients we deal with," he said. "But it's still more
   difficult than it needs to be."

   It's illegal for employers to discriminate against people with
   disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is now
   10 years old.

   TXU, which employs Beers and two other disabled programmers, says its
   experience proves that workers with disabilities are a benefit to
   companies.

   Most programmers have difficulty reading encrypted programming code,
   but Beers streams right through it, with the of screen-reading
   software, said Glenn Loveless, TXU's manager of customer systems
   application development.

   High-tech companies are better at hiring workers with disabilities
   than most employers, said Scott Hudson, a vocational rehabilitation
   counselor for the Texas Commission for the Blind in Ft. Worth.

   "Maybe they are just more open-minded because they are dealing with
   abstract results," Hudson said. "They are looking at what they can do
   more so than others."


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