Category: Let's talk
To make a long story short I'm having a debate with a libertarian on another forum. He argues that the Americans with Disibilities act is holding down disabled people like an abusive parrent by forcing the law to cator to them. He used the following link which I think is a crock of shit.
http://tinyurl.com/yaw6bc
I'm wondering what you all think of this, especially older people who were members of the work force in the 60' 70's and 80's? I have no frame of refference since I was 4 when the ADA was passed, and am curious to here from those of you who were around before it.
Boy, you really rang my bell with this topic.
I was in the work force prior to the passage of the ADA, and things were a lot different then.
The primary situation that ADA played a role in my employment was during the hiring process. Prior to the ADA, interviews were fast and furious. I, for one, enjoyed it, because it gave me an opportunity to sing the praises of blindness (well maybe not the praises, but the abilities of blind people). I had people tell me straight out in interviews that they didn't think a blind person could program a computer. My best experience in that regard was with the owner of a small business who said he couldn't imagine programming as a blind person, but if I was crazy enough to try it he would hire me. I would work for him for three months at the salary he wanted to pay. If it worked out, then he'd hire me on permanently at the salary I was asking. It was a great deal for me, because I really didn't know whether I could program his computer since I had never worked on one like that, and I had never used the assembly language for that particular computer. It worked out fine for both of us.
Had ADA existed, he and I could never have had the conversation that lead to my hiring.
However, ADA has given us entré into places we would never gotten into before ADA. Prior to ADA, I occasionally would show up to an interview without telling them I was blind. That is a tricky proposition at best, as it puts the employer on the defensive from the beginning. I've had people tell me not to bother with the paperwork, since I wouldn't be considered for the job anyway. That couldn't happen today.
All in all, I'm glad ADA is here, because it gives people the chance to talk to prospective employers they may never have had before. However, it restricts what can be said during the interview, and what an employer can do once you are hired.
Thanks for asking the question. It's a great one.
Bob
Ok, so let me ask you this. I have only had one interview in my life and the person interviewing me knew i was blind going in since my hi school principal was the one who arranged the interview. On my resume i make sure to put some indication that I'm blind on my resume like professicienty and teaching the jaws screen reading software to blind individuals, or some blind award I got for athletics. Is this wrong? I figure it lets me weed out the people who wouldn't be reseptave reguardless of the law, while giving people who will be reseptive an idea so I don't blind side them with my blindness.
What I did was to not include the blindness on the resumé, but to have a cover letter that covered it with a mention that I attended the school for the blind, was president of the blind students' association in college, etc. thus making the prospective employer aware without rubbing his/her nose in it.
A couple of times, however, there were jobs I wanted to be considered for, so sent out a different cover letter, one that neglected to mention the blindness. I must say, though, I was never hired using this approach. It was kind of a tact of desperation.
Bob
I'd imaginee the ADA is a bit of a mixed blessing.
On one hand I think it may make it marginally more difficult, perhaps, to get a job. However, on the other hand, companies might be wanting to appear like they abide by the ADA and embrace diversity, in which case they would be eager to hire a few disabled individual, if only to show, if those individuals then prove good employees that will further advance the course, so to speak.
I thinkk also the ADA might biased disabled employees and make it hard to impossible for a company to fire a disabled employee. Of course it's nice in a way for us but I also think it's not exactly fair. It seems too easy to plead discrimination if one got fired (not that I've ever had to, but I've just been thinking about it in relation to a law paper I'm writing).
The ADA might be forcing web pages to be accessible (see the Traget law suit), which I think is a good thing.
Then again I wish the blindness related organizations would concentrate on other important issue such as forcing GMAT and GRE test centers to offer something accessible to the blind community, so far I've been fighting for this and have seen no rsults dispite numerous emails.