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Hardships Facing The Working Aged Blindness Community

Hello everyone. Karate here and I wanted to create this little thread here to help to teach you, my sighted counterparts why it is so hard and next to impossible for the totally blind to find gainful employment. The hard truth of the matter is that quite frankly, for what ever reason, sighted employers seem to think that just because we're blind for some reason that should make us less mentally capable than our sighted counterparts. This is just not true at all. We can be just as productive as our sighted counterparts if only we had the right training and equipment. The problem is so bad that there are actually employers out there who can obtain something that is called a special wage certificate. This document will allow an employer to legally pay his blind or other disabled workers less than the federal minimum wage, as little as 0 cents per hour. Yes, you read that right, as little as 0 cents per hour. You can google a special wage certificate. This has been going on since 1938 and we're making good headway in having these kinds of laws abolished and done away with. When I first heard about this disgraceful practice, it made me sick to my stomach not to mention the fact that 70-80 percent of all working age blind people simply do not work because noone will hire them. I found myself in just this type of situation and only recently after 15 years of hunting tirelessly did I find very happy gainful employment working from home. I could not love my work more and I get to work entirely from home. Have a wonderful day to you all and I look forward to hearing your feedback on this topic.

Community Blindness Aged Working Facing Hardships

I feel for the blind as it is very hard to get employment in a world of seeing people. The fact that many people view the world with sight they do not understand or feel for those that have no sight,. Knowing that just because a person is blind does not take away from a lot of their qualifications is a big hurdle for many employers to come to terms with. I would hope that many in our government gets rid of the special wage certificate as it is not right to discriminate against any willing abled working person. Everyone should get the same pay for the same work done.

Hardships Facing The Working Aged Blindness Community UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

I thank you for those words KNdoran and I quite agree with you which is why I would like to take this opportunity to speak here a little about what kinds of jobs the blind are able to do which in a short version is most anything that our sighted counterparts are able to do, yes right down to even being a doctor. You've of course heard of blind people becoming piano tuners and chair caners and shoe repair men and women but we can do so much more. I for example work completely from home as a tester. I test web sites, software solutions as well as apps for the smart devices to see how usable they are with a screen reader. Once I've finished with a particular section of a project, I will then answer a questionnaire that allows me to give my feedback on what kinds of improvements if any, need to be made and then these questionnairs are collectively compiled into a report that is then sent back to my company's client who is requesting the information and input. I've only started with this company early this year but I absolutely love the work that I do with them and do my very best to get the word about them. I chose to work completely from home for a couple of reasons. First of all my mom worked from home for a bit when I was a small boy and I always saw how happy she was and how we enjoyed our lives together and that inspired me to want to do the same. Second and most importantly, in some parts of the country and world, transportation for the blind isn't the easiest of tasks, in fact it can be downright impossible in some circumstances. But blind people can and do get jobs with such big name companies as google and cisco just to name a few. So I hope this gives you some more of a glimpse into our world and helps you understand how we live just a little bit more. I've said it once and I'll say it again. If you have any questions at all as to how blind people do things, please feel very free to ask me. If I can answer the question I most certainly will and if it's something I'll have to research a bit farther then I'll do that and put it up on my thread here. Have a wonderful day to you all and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Community Blindness Aged Working Facing Hardships

Replying to: Karate I personally am not sure about any job. For example, if one had to do Electrical Engineering or being a Fireman/woman I imagine that would be sort of hard for a blind person to do. I hope to get a job as a programmer and I graduate in one year so I am totally stressed out about it. I fear that I may also have to start making my own employment. I will try getting a job somewhere else first though.

Community Blindness Aged Working Facing Hardships

Hammer, I cannot pretend to know the struggles you have as a blind person, but I can say that its just amazing to know that you can program and yet not 'see' the code. Also, do not be afraid about being your own boss it might be that you come up with something revolutionary that can help other blind people like a new kind of screen reader.