Readers respond to "Breaking the Sound Barrier"

by Gerry Crispin

December 11, 2000 —

We received nearly 50 responses from last month's article, href="http://www.itworld.com/Career/1862/ITW1823/">Breaking the
Sound Barrier, which described our trip to the National Technology Institute for
the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology

Here's a typical response, which came from a person we'll call T.: "I'm a very
recent graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. I majored in information
technology. I'm one of those fortunate students who have acquired a job. The
interesting thing? They didn't know I was deaf when they made the offer. It is
something to ponder whether or not they would have 'hired me' if they had known about
my hearing impairment."

We wrote back, asking, "How did they find out you were deaf?"

T. answered: "I acquired this job by posting my resume online. I was
contacted by approximately a hundred employers and was phone
interviewed about four times, including an hour and a half interview with
a company that did not extend an offer. (Nearly every state offers free "relay"
services, which allow a hearing person to talk to a deaf person via the phone through a
third party who uses a TTY device and "relays" the responses.) "All dialogue with (the
company that extended the offer) took place through email as you suspected and, in
order to be hired, I took a company-administered test in which the interested
candidates built an online project. I just sent them an email informing them (after
they had made the offer) that I was hearing impaired. They responded relating to a
different issue -- not mentioning anything about the hearing impairment. Tomorrow, I'm
set to show up at work to say hello to everyone in their offices." We plan to keep in
touch with T. and report back on his progress.

T. voices the concern of all the professionals and students with disabilities we
spoke with who wrestle with the dilemma of when to inform a potential employer about
their disability. If they reveal it too early, they risk a loss of interest; if they
reveal it too late, the surprise might become a problem if the company is willing to
accommodate but is simply unprepared.

Unfortunately, on the other side of the coin are the recruiters who are pressured to
increase their new hire numbers and consciously skip disabled candidates so they won't
jeopardize their quota. "No time," they say. There are prominent consulting firms and
staffing agencies whose hiring managers don't want to impose additional problems on
their clients and instead pose real obstacles to recruiters who may be trying to push
the envelope -- not to mention the problems they cause for the candidates.

For every bright and hopeful anecdote describing the pioneering efforts of companies
like IBM, Microsoft, and many others, there are still a few dark alleys. Fortunately,
technology continues to solve most of the physical and communication obstacles. The
bright spots are growing brighter as knowledge resources for both employers and job
seekers become easier to find and access on the Web.

The Presidents Committee on Employment of
People with Disabilities (PCEPD) lists hundreds of companies in 33 states that
encourage people with disabilities to apply for jobs. The PCEPD also supports business
leadership networks in each state. The California
Business Leaders Network is one of these state networks and was mentioned by
several of our respondents. Its Website is a treasure trove of content for employers,
containing lists of participating companies, local events, best practices, and other
resources. We quickly followed one link to a free email to braille service, another to
a registry of interpreters for the deaf, and a third to an article from an outplacement
company offering advice on how to interview people with any one of half a dozen
disabilities.

Job boards focusing on the disabled are growing in both number and sophistication.
For years, Careers On-Line at the
University of Minnesota was the most notable. More recently, publishers, career hubs,
and nonprofit organizations have developed employment connections with sites like:

Additional resources that employers should become familiar with include:

On a final note, an article recently published in the Washington Post, " href=http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6542-2000Aug22.html>Agencies Act To
Ease Internet Use by the Disabled," provides another excellent incentive for
employers to make use of the untapped and underutilized talent pool represented by
people with disabilities. Post staff writer Joan Carrie reports on the Web
design standards recently issued to accommodate people with disabilities and a growing
militancy aimed at companies that don't comply.

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