New York Daily News, November 4, 2013, Monday

New York Daily News

November 4, 2013, Monday

New York Daily News (full article)

Many employers still reluctant to hire blind workers

Yet blind people remain largely unwanted in the U.S. workplace, despite technological advances that dramatically boost their capabilities. Only about 24 percent of working-age Americans with visual disabilities had full-time jobs as of 2011, according to Cornell University's Employment and Disability Institute...

"We need to make sure blind people don't think, 'Society doesn't want me,' and stop trying," he said. "If a person gives up hope of finding a suitable job, it's a terrible waste of human resources. It's terrible for people to live in poverty simply because of public misunderstanding." About 31 percent of working-age people with visual impairments live below the poverty line, roughly double the overall national rate, according to Cornell's Employment and Disability Institute.