Wired to Work: An Analysis of the Reported Crisis in Access Technology Training for People with Visual Impairments

A Technical Brief prepared by the
American Foundation for the Blind
Employment and Technology Groups

March 2001

Gil Johnson, Director, National Employment Group
Karen Wolffe, National Program Associate in Employment
Anthony R. Candela, National Program Associate in Employment
Jay Stiteley, Director, National Technology Group

In This Brief...

Introduction

Surveys of State and Private Agencies

What People Said

• JLTLI 2000 Work Groups
• "Focus On Access Technology" Work Groups
• Consumers' Focus Groups
• Access Technology Specialists' Focus Groups

Consumer Training

• The Hadley School for the Blind

Train-the-Trainer Programs

• Florida Division of Blind Services Rehabilitation Center
• CSUN
• Northern Illinois University
• Lions World Services
• Colorado Center for the Blind
• North Central Technical College

Vendor Training

• Freedom Scientific
• Microsoft

Certification Initiatives

• RNIB Accreditation

Introduction

This brief details information collected by AFB's employment team related to a key barrier faced by blind and visually impaired people who want to work -- inadequate employment preparation caused in part by insufficient numbers of qualified access technology specialists. It is written to stimulate discussion among vision rehabilitation professionals and the blind and visually impaired community. It is hoped that feedback from professionals and consumers will assist AFB to help increase the number of qualified access technology specialists in the United States and, therefore, to level the playing field for blind and visually impaired people who wish to compete in the labor market.

Remarkable changes have occurred to our society in the last 20 years. With the advent of microcomputer technology, we have entered the information age. The latter part of the twentieth and the early part of the twenty-first centuries have witnessed similar changes to what it means to be blind or visually impaired. Prospects for equal employment opportunity and living life on a level playing field with the rest of society have never been better. Unfortunately, as has been the case throughout history, the dream has not been fully realized. People with visual disabilities still face inequities in many aspects of everyday living; most important among them are employment preparation and job acquisition.

The critical shortage of professionals who are qualified to provide specialized computer skills training to blind and visually impaired people significantly effects their viability in today's job market. Hardly a work environment exists in this country that does not utilize the enormous power of microcomputer technology in one or more key elements of its production scheme. Unlike the "good old days," when manual labor predominated, most jobs held by people with visual disabilities today require them to use computer-based tools to ply their trade. Without adequate and timely training, employment inequities will persist. These inequities, so serious in scope that blind and visually impaired people face an unemployment rate 15 times higher than the general population, are exacerbated by long waiting lists for technology training, truncated training regimens, and continued fostering of dependency on an already strained service delivery system.

Although the importance of increased numbers of qualified access technology trainers cannot be overemphasized, also badly needed are methods to increase efficiency in the use of our present resources. What follows represents direct input from large numbers of consumers, professionals, and the leaders in the field of blindness. We hope that this brief will stimulate the vision rehabilitation community to help develop consensus on the best ways to alleviate some of the critical problems that continue to suppress the efforts of people with visual disabilities not only to prepare for and find employment, but to thrive in their careers.

Contained in the following pages are several summaries of information gathered from a wide variety of sources. Although no attempt to draw conclusions is made here, some effort has been made to place each information summary into context and to state at least a few implications about what was revealed. Finally, it has become clear as we have spoken with people around the country and overseas, that an immense amount of work is being done around the world and little is codified and summarized for publication. This brief, by no means all inclusive, is an attempt to gather and compress a diverse yet related body of information. The AFB employment and technology teams will continue to gather data from around the globe, to stimulate communications, and to publicize the good work being performed by so many of our colleagues.