Persons with disabilities – An untapped resource

 ILO Blog, Nov. 9, 2020

We need to change perceptions and invest in persons with disabilities, says Mike Hess, Executive Director and founder of the Blind Institute of Technology (BIT) in the United States.

We are truly the greatest untapped resource on the planet. In fact, when I talk about people with disabilities, I prefer the term ‘corporate ready individuals’.

For me, it all starts with changing the perceptions of potential employers. That’s what I am trying to do through my organization, the Blind Institute of Technology (BIT), where we are committed to reducing the high unemployment rate among skilled blind and visually impaired IT and tech professionals.

I have been legally blind since first grade. I owe a lot of who I am to my mother. Instead of placing me in a school for the blind, she was determined to keep me in the public school system. I learned how to use the low-vision technologies available at the time, and I learned how to walk with a cane and read braille.

In full: https://iloblog.org/2020/11/09/persons-with-disabilities-an-untapped-resource/