Open Letter to Agency Directors and Managers

Open Letter to Agency Directors and Managers

The Braille Monitor

February,

2004

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Open Letter to Agency

Directors and Managers

Hiring Competent Blind People

by

Mike Bullis

Mike

Bullis

From the Editor: Last

month Mike Bullis offered some sound advice to blind job seekers. This month

he has turned his attention to those who hire blind staff members in agencies

providing services to blind people. As always he is honest and straight-talking.

And he always speaks from his own experience. This is what he says:

One often hears conversations

in the field of work with the blind about the perceived need to have more blind

teachers and managers. It is fair to say that the goal of hiring competent,

qualified blind people eludes many program directors. So how, when they start

with the best of intentions, do agency management staff often end up with few

or no blind people in management and supervisory positions or as teachers? How

is it that so many agencies recognize the need for competent blind role models

as essential, yet large numbers of programs fall demonstrably short of the mark?

The

answer is not simple, and the cure will not be easy. As with most pervasive

problems, weeding out the underlying negative behaviors will take much thought

and time. Rather than looking at the leaves on the tree, we need to look at

the roots to understand why things are the way they are.

The

unfortunate fact is that many professionals in the field of work with the blind

became interested because of their desire to help others. This desire to help

was tinged with a sense that blind people need a great deal of assistance from

the sighted, and these professionals wanted to be a part of that indispensable

support network. Underlying their involvement with blind people was a sense

that they, the able-bodied, wanted to help the disabled. One side of the equation

is able, and the other side isn't. The unfortunate truth is that, as long as

this underlying attitude prevails, society in general will not come to see blind

people as equals. At an emotional level they remain the people to be helped,

and the professional is the helper.

With

few exceptions, university programs make little or no effort to cull out people

with this attitude. They fear that, if they did, not enough students would be

left to fill the programs and populate the field. "Besides," they

might respond, "what's wrong with training people for the field who want

to help those less able than themselves? Can't people be educated over time

to understand that blind people are their equals? Can't this underlying caring

be converted into useful energy to help blind people matriculate into all levels

of society?"

My

answer is: usually not. It is very difficult to change what, for lack of a better

phrase, I shall call primary motivations. If a person's initial attraction to

the blindness field was to help the less fortunate, it is likely to require

passing through the dark night of the soul for that person to come to see blind

people as normal folks who happen to be blind and as colleagues on the road

to adult self-realization. If deep in the person's heart is a need to help the

blind, it will be difficult to work with satisfaction in the field without fulfilling

that underlying need. Unless he or she comes to a true recognition of these

motives and develops the willingness to reshape them, little progress will be

possible, and the status quo will be perpetuated.

This

problem is seldom expressed openly; in fact, most agencies cling to the assumption

that we professionals have been trained and understand that blind people are

our equals. Agency personnel yearn to believe that we are all singing from the

same hymnal when in fact we are not. Attempts to hire competent blind people

seem always to run into road blocks. Managers just can't seem to find any blind

people who they believe are good enough. There always seems to be some reason

why a particular blind person just doesn't measure up. Somehow no blind people

are ever available when the agency needs them. And there is never time to focus

on the problem.

So

sighted people or blind people with poor skills are hired and promoted for what

seem like perfectly rational and logical reasons, and the existing problems

and behaviors are perpetuated and reinforced. Every time an organization hires

an incompetent person, human nature requires some rationalization for the action,

and it thus becomes more likely that the next time things will happen the same

way. I will make one final observation before moving on. All this usually happens

with the best of intentions and complete good will. Nobody sets out to harm

blind people, limit their involvement, or keep them underemployed--exactly the

opposite is true. Though the results may not be positive, the intentions are

truly laudable.

In

discussions among agency managers one hears a sense of real frustration. "We

hired this blind guy to manage our program, and, though he talked a good game,

it turned out that he didn't have good skills of blindness and wasn't able to

travel on his own or accomplish tasks in a timely manner. Now we have to keep

him because he is our only blind manager, and how would it look if we fired

him?" This kind of hiring is usually the result of a very narrow search.

The agency looks through the list of the blind people it knows best--its past

clients. They hire somebody, hoping against hope that things will work out,

but they usually do not. Again the agency manager could say, "Something

must be wrong with my methods," but unfortunately (and more likely) the

manager will conclude, "There just aren't many competent blind folks out

there."

So

how is it that some programs have high numbers of competent blind staff at all

levels? How do they manage to have a large cadre of blind people waiting for

the opportunity to work in their programs?

The

simple truth is that successful leadership teams are doing many things right,

and those that are not achieving success are doing many things wrong. Here are

some dos and don'ts to help programs build a competent blind workforce. These

have been gleaned from my thirty years of work in and observation of public

and private agency rehabilitation programs and industries for the blind.

1.

Successful recruitment is an ongoing process which begins before the need for

employees arises. The time to recruit is not when you need someone. The odds

that a qualified blind person will be available and will apply for your job

are not good. Competent managers should be developing lists of prospective qualified

employees far in advance of their need. Attendance at conventions and college

training programs and tours of other rehabilitation programs should be used

as opportunities to identify those who are competent and to establish ongoing

communication with them.

2.

Good managers steal employees. It is always best to buy a known quantity. Look

at people who are doing work at other programs, and get to know them. Almost

everyone is looking for a job if given the right incentives. Figure out what

those incentives are and lure new employees to your organization.

3.

Associate with blind people. Hang around enough folks, and you will spot the

ones who have the skills you need or who can be trained to meet those needs.

4.

Avoid hiring past clients of your rehabilitation program as management staff

or instructors until they have gone out into the working world and proven to

themselves that they can be successful. Sometime during training every blind

person considers becoming a teacher of the blind. This is natural. But, until

they have been out there and learned for themselves that they really can be

successful in the rough and tumble of the workplace, you don't want them serving

as blind role models.

5.

Get to know blind people outside the field of blindness rehabilitation. Thousands

of folks working in every walk of life might be persuaded to move into the blindness

field. The nice thing about hiring a blind personnel manager away from the local

bank is that he or she is unlikely to be accepting your job solely to help the

blind. And you probably won't have to begin by eradicating lots of past bad

work habits or attitudes about blindness before you can develop a proper perspective

in them.

6.

Hire blind people who seem a little cocky to you. I don't mean people who are

downright difficult to get along with. Successful blind people have usually

learned that, if they had listened to what others thought they could or should

do, they would never have done much. The result is that they are just a little

cocky, occasionally breaking rules, and they have an underlying independent

streak that most organizations say they want in managers. If you find such people

a bit abrasive and therefore you tend to shy away from them, ask yourself if

perhaps you are actually looking for managers who are yes-people and your preference

for the easygoing is merely a symptom. Also consider the possibility that you

prefer passive blind people because that's the way you are used to having them

behave.

7.

Your goal as a director should be to reach a critical mass of competent blind

people. One or two blind people with good skills in an organization can be written

off as amazing individuals. Eight or ten, on the other hand, become the norm,

and their behavior becomes the standard for future employees. Reaching a critical

mass is essential if training programs are to be successful. When most blind

people come to agencies for training, they have a very limited concept of what

is possible for them. If they are shown enough competent blind staff, they will

come to believe that competence is the norm. For the blind as well as the sighted,

seeing is believing. Your goal should be to have enough competent blind people

on staff that students will say, "If that person can do it, so can I."

This realization usually comes only through consistent exposure to competent

blind people over a long period of time.

8.

Another value gained from hiring competent blind staff is that they will spot

others and help you lure them into the organization. Their testimony will be

far better than yours because the truth is that they are blind and you are not.

As

directors and managers you have a role in charting the course of work with the

blind for the next generation. As the baby-boomers retire and new employees

come into the field, they will represent your legacy. In the human services

arena you can make no more valuable contribution than to hire the best. Agency

policy can and does change; funding goes up and down. However, the people you

are hiring now will in all likelihood be around for the next twenty-five years.

Basing our hiring decisions

on sound principles and demanding excellence will help make major change in

our field, and you will be proud to have truly helped change what it means to

be blind.

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