1st Steps In The Hunt: Daily News For Job Hunters and Recruiters

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1st Steps In The Hunt: A Free Online Daily for Online Job Hunters

Enablers

June 24, 2002

Eventually, the Internet will be an integral part of our daily lives, allowing us to access information at light speed (like available Jobs and salary surveys) that will change the ways we communicate, live, and work.

Right now, however, the Net is only a harbinger of things to come.

This is especially true for people with disabilities.The Net offers incredible promise - the freedom to communicate and work unfettered by heretofore hard to overcome handicaps. Despite a relatively robust Economy and low unemployment rate, a large percentage of blind Americans that want Jobs are unable to find Employment.

The number of disabled people in this country is hard to pinpoint. The Census Bureau reports that 10% of the working age population is disabled to the point that their disability interferes with the performance of daily tasks. Other estimates of the number of disabled people in the US are as high as 50 million, or one out of every five Americans.

Less than a generation ago, blind workers could work in offices performing a wide range of Job functions, from phone receptionist to taking dictation, among other tasks. The computer revolution and the evolution of point and click technology made tasks easier for most of us, but forced blind people out of this Job market. Once email skills became an office skill prerequisite, the writing was on the wall for blind office workers.

But now software programs that offer speech recognition are approaching 100% accuracy, and typing (computer commands, emails, letters, or anything!) may become a task not unlike the tedious copying of documents that Monks spent their lives toiling at - it will be completely obsolete. For all the terrible typists out there, "Huzzah!" MossRehab ResourceNet serves both the recently disabled (and likely disoriented), and those that have accepted their new circumstances and are ready to make the best of their situation.

Nationally linked organizational sites provide a good starting point for those looking to access some of the available resources. The National Organization on Disability and the National Alliance of the Disabled, all fall into this category of comprehensive, fully linked sites.

Other useful sites include Justice for All E-Mail Network, Project Hired, Chamber of Commerce for Individuals with Disabilities and the Worlwide Virtual Community of the Disabled. If you know of someone who is disabled, pass along these leads so they can expand their access to a network of like-minded individuals with information, support, and Jobs.

-Mark Poppen