Accommodating the Applicant or Employee

American Foundation for the Blind
M.C. Migel Library & Information Center
11 Penn Plaza, Suite 300
New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212.502.7661
TDD: 212.502.7662
E-mail: afbinfo@afb.org
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             Accommodating the Applicant or Employee
                Who is Blind or Visually Impaired

(April 1997)

By AFB Employment Team

This fact sheet provides basic information about reasonable
accommodations (as defined in the Americans with Disabilities
Act), responsibilities of employees and employers, and how to go
about making accommodations.

Employees need varying work tools and environments to do their
jobs effectively, and sometimes two people doing the same job
may use entirely different tools and work in very different
settings. For example, one attorney may choose to dictate all
written materials for transcription by a secretary while another
attorney may choose to enter her own materials on a computer
terminal. Blind or visually impaired employees sometimes
accomplish their job tasks by using some non-traditional tools
or by working in a modified environment. These modifications to
the job or job site are refereed to in the Americans with
Disabilities Act as "reasonable accommodations."

An accommodation is "any modification or adjustment that allows
qualified applicants or employees with disabilities to
participate in the application process or to perform the job's
essential functions."

There is no set list of accommodations as each situation
differs. Some examples of accommodations for blind or visually
impaired employees include: alternative formats (braille, large
print or audio-tape) for printed materials, labeling files in
braille, speech output for computers, braille embossers, and
reading machines that translate print into speech or electronic
format. Accommodations need not be costly, and sometimes the
simplest and least costly modifications to the work environment
make a blind employee much more productive. For example, putting
braille markings on the controls on a facsimile machine may
enable the blind employee to use the machine as fast and
effectively as a sighted employee.

Whose responsibility is it to introduce the need for a
reasonable accommodation? The applicant or employee must do so.
Am employer may not generally inquire about a disability;
however, the employer may ask the applicant or employee to
describe or demonstrate how he or she will perform essential
duties of the job with or without accommodation.

This document is intended to help you as an applicant, employee,
or employer take a practical approach to defining appropriate
accommodations. In most cases, such accommodations are the
result of common-sense thinking and frank discussion between the
applicant/employee and the employer.

The following are some basic conditions that are thought to be
particularly helpful in making successful accommodations:

  * Workers who are blind or visually impaired need to be
    involved in their own accommodation process.
  * Top managers e.g. President, Chief Executive Officer, need
    to openly express their commitment to accommodating
    employees who are blind.
  * Larger organizations may find it helpful to assign a
    specialist to coordinate accommodations and to provide that
    individual with adequate training and resources.
  * The centralization of recruiting, intake, and hiring
    decisions often helps to ensure that all applicants are
    appropriately accommodated in the selection process.
  * It is sometimes helpful for the employee, supervisor, and
    co-workers to participate in basic training or orientation
    about accommodations, particularly if the organization has
    never before employed a blind person. For example if several
    employees will need to format word processing documents for
    use with a speech output or braille translation, a training
    session will help everyone to "do the job right the first
    time."
  * It is often helpful to find out how other companies and
    organizations with blind and visually impaired employees in
    similar positions have made accommodations. AFB's Careers
    and Technology Information Bank can often direct one to
    resources for such information.
  * Continuous re-evaluation of accommodations is a "must." When
    computer hardware and software are upgraded or office
    locations change, it is far more cost-effective and
    efficient to build the accommodations into the initial
    package rather than to try to "retrofit" what was done with
    no consideration for the employee who is blind.

Note: In keeping with AFB's mission to achieve equality of
access to information for people who are blind or visually
impaired, this document is available, upon request, in one or
more of the following formats: electronic file, braille, large
print and audio recording