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Hiring a Person with Vision Impairments

If your company has decided to hire persons with visual impairments, you need to be commended for this enlightened step. Though it certainly means that persons with disabilities are afforded a fair and equitable opportunity at your workplace, there are some measures that you need to think about.

Preparing for the Interview

• Make sure your company's employment offices and your interviewing location(s) are accessible to applicants with visual difficulties.
• Be willing to make appropriate and reasonable accommodations to enable a job applicant with a disability to present himself or herself in the best possible light. When setting up the interview explain what the hiring process involves and ask the individual if he or she will need any accommodations for any part of the interview process. For example, a person who is blind might need help filling out forms.
• Make sure that all questions asked during the interview are job-related. Speak to the essential job functions regarding the position for which the applicant is applying, as well as why, how, where, when and by whom each task or operation is performed.

Conducting the Interview

• Relax and make the applicant feel relaxed. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. At the same time, remember that candidates (particularly those applying for professional positions) are expected to assume an equal share of the responsibility for making your interaction with them successful.
• Do not speculate or try to imagine how you would perform a specific job if you had the applicant's disability. The person with a disability has mastered alternate techniques and skills of living and working with his or her particular disability. It is alright to ask an applicant to describe how he or she would perform a certain job function if it is an essential part of the job. In addition, the employer may ask the individual if he or she needs reasonable accommodations and if so what type of accommodation. Remember, all questions should be job-related and asked in an open-ended format.
• Concentrate on the applicant's technical and professional knowledge, skills, abilities, experiences and interests, not on the disability.
• If testing is part of the interview process, inform the applicant before the interview that a test will be part of the interview process. The applicant can then request an accommodation such as a different format for written tests.
• If you are not prepared to make a commitment to hire her or him immediately, the usual reasons given to applicants who are not hired at the close of the interview apply: "Thank you for coming in, we will notify you in a few days of our decision," and so on.

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Eyeway intends building a community where people can share and learn from each other. If you would like to share your experiences about employment, please send us your write-up at inspiration@eyeway.org. We shall include it as part of our website.

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