To Practice What is Preached

To Practice What is Preached

Braille MonitorMay-June 1986
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To Practice What is Preached
by Carol Clark
(Entitled
"Blind Spot," this article
originally appeared in the February,
1986, issue of the Blind Missourian, the
official newsletter of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri.)
As a current client of the Bureau for
the Blind, I was referred to the Rehabilitation Institute for services in job
placement. According to my counselor,
the Bureau contracted with the Rehabilitation
Institute to provide me with
services in aiding me in locating employment.
One of the areas we covered
was a Job Seeking Skills Class in which
each member of the group did a role play
with the leader of the group to determine
our strengths and weaknesses in
interviewing, I dare say that something
of this nature can be most helpful,
especially if it is videotaped and you
can observe what occurred in the interview.
This process appeared to be a
good thing, and I participated in it
wholeheartedly.
One of the things that I noticed about
the Rehabilitation Institute's staff
was, to me, crucial. No blind people
were employed by the Institute as office
personnel or in a professional status.
The Institute has programs for various
disability groups. In the Program for
the Blind there appear to be no blind
people either in teaching or counseling
capacities. How, then, I wondered,
could the Rehabilitation Institute help
me in locating employment if they did
not have any notion about blindness, or
better still, have no one on staff representing
the blind community? I realize
that the Job Placement Program at
the Rehabilitation Institute is new in
that they have not served many blind
clients in finding employment, but why
does the Bureau for the Blind contract
with such a service provider knowing
full well that blind people are not
employed there? This is a step backward.
There
are questions which need to be
answered and services which need to be
provided if the Institute is to assist
blind persons to become integrated and
employed in competent and competitive
circumstances. A remark was made to me:
"Blindness is not unique. It is like
any other disability," What poor judgement!
I
am told that along with Job Skills
Training at the Rehabilitation Institute,
the Bureau for the Blind will
attempt to set up a Job Skills program
to be used exclusively at the Bureau for
the Blind. Why duplicate? Why not
improve those services already available?
What a waste of effort, time, and
taxpayer dollars.
I challenge the Bureau to be innovative,
use some initiative, and gather
consumer input. Why not train and encourage
employment of qualified blind
people to fill positions where it can
really count. After all, those of us in
the Federation truly believe that it is
respectable to be blind. We want to be
taxpayers and not tax recipients. I
challenge the Bureau for the Blind to
think twice about contracting with an
agency which does not respect blind
people enough to hire them.(back)(contents)(next)