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May 16, 2007
Let’s Help Theater By The Blind Extend its Reach
Please join your fellow eSight members for another self-help opportunity this week.
I believe Theater By The Blind (TBTB) has developed a very interesting (and effective) strategic and tactical approach to fight the stereotypes and misconceptions associated with blindness in the U.S. culture.
See "Theater By The Blind: Changing Misconceptions About Blindness," eSight's interview with George Ashiotis, Theater By the Blind's Co-Artistic Director.
You can help yourself (and TBTB) by passing this special edition of eSight's NetWork News on to your network of contacts.
Here, at eSight, we're doing the same by distributing a media release about George's interview (and this week's discussion) to our extensive list individuals who are interested in public perceptions and how they impact disability employment issues.
These are two questions I have been asking myself: Are public perceptions of disability changing -- for the better? In 2007, could we be at the culmination of a build-up of small changes in the public perceptions about disability that will soon bring a big change in disability employment?
In his eSight interview, George Ashiotis gives us some indication of how he would answer those questions.
Here are some thoughts to consider about this topic from Mireya Navarro's New York Times 05/13/07 article, "Clearly, Frankly, Unabashedly Disabled:"
- "What we're seeing is less 'overcoming' and more 'just being,' " said Lawrence Carter-Long, the director of advocacy for the Disabilities Network of New York City, which last year started a film series, "disTHIS: Disability Through a Whole New Lens," celebrating unconventional portrayals of the disabled.
"More people are saying, 'This is who I am. If you have a problem with it, that's your problem,' " he said.
- Because the entertainment media often function as a bellwether of changing attitudes, the drive to expand beyond the stereotypes is particularly visible on television. The heart-wrenching movie of the week and fund-raising telethons striving for cures have given way to amputees rock climbing on reality shows like "The Amazing Race" and doing the jive on "Dancing With the Stars."
- Sitcoms and crime shows have jumped onto the bandwagon, too: an actor who is a paraplegic, for instance, depicts a member of the casino surveillance team on "Las Vegas."
- The public image of the disabled is increasingly "informed by actual experience of disability rather than an imagined understanding of it," said David T. Mitchell, an associate professor of disability studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Mr. Mitchell, who is also a filmmaker, uses a wheelchair because of a neuromuscular condition. His 1995 documentary, "Vital Signs: Crip Culture Talks Back," focuses on the concept of a cultural identity.
But, he cautioned: "We shouldn't go too congratulatory yet. Our progress is largely a measure of the fact that we were so regressive for so long."
This week’s discussion on the eSight Networking
Forum is this:
How far do you think we are from the tipping point
where big changes in public perceptions about
disability result in significant increases in employment
levels among people with disabilities?
Posted by Jim Hasse at 12:00 PM | Comments (6)
May 08, 2007
What Advice Do You Have for Tasha
eSight recently received a query from Tasha. It
dovetails with last week's discussion on the eSight
Networking Forum about how to translate what you
learned in school into skills and attributes needed in
today's job market.
Here's how Tasha describes her situation:
"My name is Tasha Chemel, and I am totally blind. I am about to graduate from Brown University with a bachelor's degree in psychology.
"I hope to one day pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with the ultimate goal of working as a therapist with either adolescents, writers, people with disabilities, or a combination of the three.
"Currently, I am trying to find a job that will make me a stronger candidate for grad school. I am interested in teaching and working with adolescents at a residential facility or working as a research assistant.
"The problem is that both of these kinds of jobs seem to be at least somewhat dependent on being able to see.
"For example, the residential teaching jobs often require that I be able to restrain a student who is out of control or be able to transport students in a car. The people at these facilities who I have talked to seem worried that I would be putting myself and other staff members at risk.
"The research assistant jobs look slightly more promising, but there are also obstacles. For example, many of them require the use of SPSS, which, even with the use of scripts, is only somewhat accessible with JAWS. They also require being able to handle handwritten materials and make sure that research subjects have completed forms correctly. Others involve being able to administer assessments with visual elements.
"In your experience, how have you handled performing these kinds of tasks?
"What are some suggestions of psychology-related jobs that are less visual?
"Do you have any tips or tricks for finding research assistant jobs that require more interviewing and online research skills and less handling of paperwork?
"Would pursuing a master's in counseling at Boston College strengthen my Ph.D. candidacy as much as a research assistant position in the event that I am unable to find a job?
"Thanks.
Tasha"
This week's discussion question on eSight's
Networking Forum is:
What would you do if you were in Tasha's situation?
Posted by Jim Hasse at 05:12 PM | Comments (8)
May 01, 2007
How to Turn a Degree Into a Job
May is graduation month on many college campuses -- a good time to consider the steps you, as a new college graduate, need to take to turn your degree into a job.
In 1965, the job market was good. I had just earned a degree in journalism and knew communication theory. I knew a job was my ticket to leading an independent life despite my cerebral palsy. But I had no idea what to do, other than keep taking state civil service exams with the hope of landing a “safe” state government job as a copywriter (the one concrete piece of advice my college advisor gave me).
At asktheheadhunter.com, Nick Corcodilos provides insight about how to turn a degree into a job, knowledge I wish I had when I received my diploma 42 years ago.
In “Liberal Arts Is Slang for Job Skills” on Nick’s site, Michele Menegay Marion writes:
“It seems that many Americans, fresh out of college, naturally expect that the degree they just paid thousands of dollars for will have immediate and obvious value in the job market.
“It isn't the specific degree or even the discipline you studied that will pay off during the development of your career: It's all the underlying skills you acquired. And with a liberal arts degree, those skills are considerable. The real challenge isn't just finding a job; it's deciding how to apply these very fundamental skills to the line of work you choose for yourself. But take note: Employers aren't going to figure it out for you. You have to figure it out for yourself.”
In “Making the Liberal Arts Degree Pay Off,” Nick further explains the challenge of applying the skills you learned in college to the job market:
“…Your advantage is that, with a liberal arts degree, you possess many fundamental skills and attributes that your competition may lack. (Those skills include defining problems and tasks; planning and executing research; organizing ideas and solutions; and writing and communicating.)
“And, perhaps most important, (you have) a well-honed ability to learn what you need to (learn) in order to accomplish a task.”
In addition to those skills, Nick says, liberal arts graduates tend to have these attributes: an open mind to new ideas and approaches, disciplined work habits and a critical eye and ear.
“These fundamentals can be applied to business,” Nick notes. “In fact, they're important advantages in the business world; however, they're useless unless you know what to do with them.”
As an about-to-graduate college student, I didn’t have an accurate picture of the skills required in the job market, I didn’t know how to ask for help from professors and career services and I didn’t know the right questions to ask them. I didn’t know how to make the right connections and how to follow up on those connections. I didn’t realize I had to do the work of finding a job myself.
As an about-to-graduate college student with a disability, I didn’t know to get past my perceived limitations in the minds of interviewers. I didn’t realize that job descriptions are usually just general guidelines which are often changed to accommodate a new hire’s strengths and weaknesses. I had not developed a “good answer” to this question in the minds of hiring managers: Given your limitations, how can you possibly do this job and become an asset instead of a liability to my team?
I was not prepared to discuss my situation with contacts in a way that made me seem confident and curious … and not like a supplicant.
Having worked so hard at school and finally getting to the finish line, I was expecting a celebration only to find that now I had to start the struggle all over again.
I thought about staying in school where I knew how to succeed and going for my master’s in journalism, but that would have put me on the teaching/research track, which I knew was not for me. It would have just delayed the struggles in the job market that I needed to tackle -- where I would gain my “real” education for knowing how to live independently despite my disabilities.
So I began the long process of translating what I had learned in school into skills and attributes needed in rural Wisconsin’s dairy industry (which attracted few college graduates at that time and which was outside the disability community).
Year after year, I identified what I needed to learn to become more valuable to my immediate supervisor and the company as a whole. That meant workshops in business communications, negotiating, supervision, strategic planning, visioning, project management, photography, budgeting, speechwriting, teambuilding etc. -- a whole new direction that I had not envisioned as a college student.
For a little more detail about my career path, see “You Can Make a Difference.”
Looking back, my learning after college was probably the best educational opportunity I’ve had.
Have you gone through a similar transformation? That’s our discussion topic for this week.
As a person with a disability, how have you transferred the skills and attributes you developed in school into qualities that are valuable to you as a job candidate?
Posted by Jim Hasse at 05:23 PM | Comments (2)