Hey everyone! I'm reaching out to the #Mastodon community for some advice and support. Here in South Africa, many blind individuals, including myself, face a significant barrier in the job market. Despite having the right qualifications and experience, many companies still hesitate to trust our capabilities. It's frustrating to see that a lot of companies still believe blind people can't use computers, even though we have tools like JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver at our disposal.
The most amazing thing is that even if you have the experience and qualifications to prove that you indeed qualify to work at this job or even at the company, they don’t care. The only thing they care about is the amount of sight you have at your disposal.
For example.
I have been contracted at the South African Broadcasting Corporation, our national public broadcaster (similar to the BBC in the UK or NBC in the United States). Although my contract officially ends at the end of March this year, I was told to stop working in May last year because they said there was “no further work” I could do. Recently, I received a letter confirming that my contract is now ending. Last year, when I returned to Cape Town due to my mother’s illness, I applied for a call centre position just to sustain myself. I passed the assessment test, but I was not hired because they said they did not have tools to accommodate me — even though I brought my own USB with NVDA to use as my screen reader. The real issue was not tools. It was trust.
The worst part of it all is that many blind people begin to believe the problem is their qualifications. So what do they do? They go back to school and complete another degree in a different field, thinking it will improve their chances of getting hired more quickly—only to face the very same barrier again. I know someone who holds four different degrees in completely separate fields, including Marketing, HR, and Social Science, just to name a few. Yet he is still unemployed.
So tell me, What can one do in situations like this, where qualifications, experience, and solutions are not enough because employers simply do not trust blind professionals?
I'm eager to hear your thoughts and any advice you might have on how we can better advocate for ourselves and change these outdated perceptions. Thanks in advance for your support! #Accessibility #Inclusion #BlindCommunity