It's either that, or they work for themselves. Even in today's much-discussed tight labor market, private businesses routinely deem the visually impaired as too problematic or expensive to hire. But they don't want to have to adapt their computers for me. There are state services set to help blind people and their employers acquire adaptive equipment, but the program has a Catch-22. Regulations prevent the Bureau of Blind Services from funding adaptive equipment until after the blind person has been hired.
Qualifications are strict and the required paperwork can take months to process.
Without an up-front guarantee that the equipment will be approved, most small business employers find the prospect of hiring a visually impaired person too daunting. The blind people in town who manage to get hired often do so by starting out, like Wessel, using adaptive equipment they've bought themselves. Even if jobs don't require a lot of adaptations, blind job seekers often find it difficult to convince employers to give them a try. Bryan MacMurray, blind since birth due to retinitis of prematurity, supervises the Sensory and Testing Accommodations department for the U of I's Division of Rehabilitation Services. He received a master's degree at the University of Texas in the 1980s to teach English as a second language.