Preparing Blind People for the Rest of Reality

Joe Orozco, blog
There’s never been a better time to be blind, or so I’ve heard. And I have to ask: How low have we dropped the bar? I was recently chatting with a friend. I forget exactly how the subject came up, but we found ourselves discussing blind people and entry level jobs. I expressed frustration at the blindness consumer groups for not doing a better job of partnering with national chains to employ blind people. If the unemployment rate among the blind persists deep into double digits, why would we not fight to change the landscape? The number of jobs that ask for a high school education or jobs that do not require formal education to fulfill are growing at the slowest rate compared to other trends. Blind people should be prepared for the inevitability of automation, but in the meantime, it does not seem reasonable that blind people should be kept out of the jobs in retail, hospitality, and recreation so common to Americans as early as adolescence.