«
»

To A Blind And Sad Job Seeker

I was moved by a blind woman in an Internet chat room, who had just interviewed for a switchboard operator position at a prominant bank.  However, though she felt that the interview went well, they declined to hire her.   So I attempted to reassure her as follows:

Tired of the mainstream keeping you out, are you? Well, sadly, that’s part of the being-blind saga that most of us who do not see well face daily. But if it helps at all, it’s not just a matter of people despising you because you’re blind.  The truth is that when they built mainstream culture, the needs of the vision-impaired were largely not considered. In fact, most fully functioning people don’t even know a blind person, much less how to treat them respectfully.

This sort of discrimination is institutional and systemic therefore, and oft time people don’t even realize that they’re dong it since it’s so deeply ingrained in their thoughts. Unfortunately though, if you want to work in mainstream America outside of a sheltered workshop, you’ll likely encounter this much the time – people underestimating your abilities, overestimating your abilities, not trusting you to get the job done well, refusing you the help you need, excluding you, and leaving you alone in the lunch cafeteria while they enjoy fellowship with their “normal” buddies. It’s a brutal world out there for the blind, the short, the very tall, the heavy, and for anyone else who is different in fact. If you do work, you’ll likely feel the weight of this cross on your shoulders nearly every day you spend at the office. Indeed, what you’re feeling now is but a taste of what you’re likely in for if you secure a full-time job.

Now I don’t mean to discourage you from trying, and admire your willingness to put yourself out there and ask to be included in the workings of mainstream culture. But if you’re going to work, be prepared to constantly be reminded in negative ways, of the fact that you’re different. So you’ll need to develop a thick skin in order to deal with these issues such that they won’t hurt you so much. It may help too to remember that in this weak economy, lots of people, blind and sighted alike, are being turned away from jobs.  So it’s likely that your handicap is not the only reason you’re being rejected.  Be careful not to take a rejection too personally therefore.

Good luck, and keep up the fight.

Related Posts

Tags:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 at 7:04 am and is filed under Advice, Disability, Gripes, Rejection, Vision Impairment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “To A Blind And Sad Job Seeker”

  1. Tom Hesley Says:
    February 19th, 2011 at 7:26 am

    So far unfortunately, this woman has not found a job.

  2. Toms Views - Darwinism -- Bad News For Blind Lovers Says:
    May 31st, 2011 at 8:53 am

    [...] To A Blind And Sad Job Seeker [...]

  3. Toms Views - Against NFB Self-Sufficiency Philosophy Says:
    April 30th, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    [...] To A Blind And Sad Job Seeker [...]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.