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September 22, 2009
Addressing Employer Concerns About Your Disability
This summer we have been looking at ways to use social media as a job search tool. We have also discussed ways to use it as a marketing tool for those of us interested in self-employment.
We are approaching National Disability Employment Awareness Month (October) and now have an opportunity to use social media as a tool to educate employers about the benefits of hiring individuals who happen to have a disability.
Disability Mentoring Day, which this year will take place on Wednesday, October 21, 2009, is yet another way we help employers to change their perception when they open their doors for participants to explore career paths, learn interviewing skills and job shadow for a day.
Here are two eSight resources worth revisiting to help
us prepare for October:
"Addressing Concerns About Your Disability in A Job Interview" by eSight’s Nan Hawthorne.
Let's share our thoughts for helping employers become
more aware of their unwarranted disability concerns by
replying to this week's discussion question:
How do you help prospective employers see past your visual impairment so they can focus on your abilities, skills and knowledge?
Then in October we will use Social media to share your
ideas and together begin to engage employers and
hiring managers in meaningful discussion.
Add your comments to this posting
Posted by Jim Hasse at September 22, 2009 01:18 PM
Comments
Thus far in my job search, I've not mentioned my vision impairment in my resume or other written documentation. I figure that's "first contact" information and needs to focus on where I add value to the company - experience, skills, training and the like which can help them do what they do. To my mind, there's no point in tossing in something potentially negative before I get my foot in the door.
When I do meet with them, I make a point, sometime in the conversation, to refer to my vision impairment in some way. I then let them know I already own most of the adaptive equipment I'd need to do the job and, for those I don't have, I'm working with the state Commission for the Blind (in other states, that's probably the Braille Institute) to get whatever else may be needed. I also carry a tool with me that gives a normally-sighted person an idea as to what I see. I usually end by telling them the vision issue has had a positive effect on my attention to detail. I've always been unusually observant, noticing things others don't; with limited visual acuity, I pay even more conscious attention to what I see.
The point of this process is to let them know I'm comfortable with my impairment, have taken accommodation into consideration with an eye to making it easy for them, and let them know that I CAN see, even if it's differently than they do. So far, it seems to deal with any concerns they may have had; my rejections have had more to do with the normal mix and match of preferences (the "beauty contest" aspect mentioned in one of the articles) than with my visual limitations.
Posted by: Jeff Smith at September 24, 2009 02:47 PM