The U.S. Labor Department recently reported that the unemployment rate dropped .3% last month to 4.6%; its lowest rate since August 2007. Additionally, the U.S. economy added 178,000 jobs in November. But, we can do even better.
These signs of employment prosperity bode well for many underemployed Americans anticipating fresh possibilities that will help them get back into the work stream. This includes the more than 200,000* unemployed Americans who don’t have the use of sight, either from birth or other detrimental accidents.
Years ago, employment for persons who were blind or with low vision was concentrated largely in occupations such as sewing, assembly, packaging and manufacturing, but these jobs have quickly moved offshore as globalization took hold. Now, with job openings slim for the approximately 60 percent* of blind people who are unemployed in the U.S., it’s important for employers across the country do their part in identifying opportunities suitable for those that have a visual impairment.
One industry with enormous potential in this area is the modern customer service contact center. While it might be difficult for some of us to imagine an employee with a visual-impairment thriving in a busy, fast-paced environment where customers expect quick answers to every question, this is already successfully happening, thanks to some new cutting-edge technology and targeted employee training.
Leading the way on this front is the Olmsted Center for Sight. Olmsted’s Statler Career Center provides career training for individuals with disabilities from across the US and around the world, with a focus on customer service and hospitality. The Center was quick to add contact center training to their curriculum of career training for those who were blind or visually impaired, but had always been restricted to teaching telephone customer service in concept because they didn’t have the telecommunications capabilities to actually put this into practice.
That was the case until recently at least, when Olmsted installed a full-featured contact center solution provided free-of-charge by Avaya, as part of our Corporate Responsibility program. The solution we provided includes specialized applications to enable access and interaction by persons who are blind or have a visual impairment. Similar to sighted agents, training on the system provides students with the real-world skills they need to function as an effective contact center employee, learning to use the phones and how to navigate various computer applications that are needed during a call. To explain just a small part of how it works for an agent who is blind, there’s one earpiece that feeds in audio from the caller, and another earpiece which feeds in a voice from the special screen-reading software. In addition, there’s a refreshable Braille display, a little bar at the base of a keyboard with pins that pop up to let the user know whatever’s highlighted on the screen, through Braille.
Thanks to the technology, Olmsted has now provided comprehensive training to more than 500 agents who were blind or had a visual impairment, while increasing the external job placement rate for graduates to an amazing 82 percent, an increase of 12 points. Additionally, as more and more students graduated with the sophisticated new contact center training, the Centre’s management team decided to go a step further; developing plans to provide additional employment opportunities for graduates within Olmsted by expanding and offering call center services themselves.
Olmsted’s first contract was with a local eye doctor group, simply confirming patient appointments. After handling that work with flying colors, the Center then tasked their agents, all of which were blind or had visual impairments, with making outbound calls for a commercial construction company, where they ultimately achieved an incredible 25 percent positive response rate.
With those and other successes under its belt, Olmsted then accomplished one of its most notable achievements to date— becoming the 2-1-1 service provider for western New York. 2-1-1 is one of the many N-1-1 services offered in the US. The most popular, of course is 9-1-1, however 2-1-1 is a number assigned to the United Way that provides a critical service to many citizens with no other place to turn for assistance.
Like any other RFP, Olmsted won this distinguished contract because it was able to demonstrate that the 2-1-1 service they could provide would generate significant savings by moving from a cloud-based system, which cost thousands of dollars in monthly fees and operational expenses, to their on premise Avaya system. Additionally, Olmstead’s contact center solution had vast reporting capabilities built in, allowing them to provide a wealth of data to clients— something that’s especially important to validate in public-funded projects.
Today, Olmsted has now won even more business opportunities, holding around 20 live contracts serving several commercial healthcare and industrial manufacturing companies, as well as public health and human services organizations. These include services for crisis lines and healthy parenting; making these services more affordable to the masses. In fact, Olmsted’s agents have become so comfortable with the contact center technologies that they’ve begun to assume a consultative and leadership role among other similar agencies throughout the US that are undertaking similar initiatives.
Olmsted’s success not only demonstrates that it is possible for employers to create opportunities for staff who are blind or have a visual-impairment, it provides a discernable proof-point to businesses that they can provide work for employees who are blind while still generating profit and driving results for their customers.
This isn’t just a cheery holiday story about students who are visually impaired embracing their work with enthusiasm and a “can-do” attitude. This is a story about what new technology has made possible, where it was impossible in the recent past. It’s a story that proves that anyone, sighted or blind can be every bit as productive as the rest of us when working with the right assistive technologies delivering functional equivalency to everyone.
Most of all, it demonstrates that customer service can be an ideal opportunity to find jobs for the millions of people who are blind, and without work.
A note from Mark Fletcher
I am proud to have participated on the FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee for the past two years. This is something Avaya takes great pride in contributing to, mainly because we can make a difference for millions of citizens worldwide. We have a unique opportunity to take the technology we have designed and built, and put it to the best use possible; whether that is saving lives in a 9-1-1 center, providing reliable direct access to 9-1-1 from a hotel room, or creating job opportunities for those who suffer from a disability that has affected their sight.
While I try to stay politically neutral, I will say to the new administration taking shape in Washington D.C. - focus on growing job opportunities for all U.S. citizens. This is also a stark reminder to all employers to not leave any group behind. Let’s use the assistive technology we have available to us to create new, exciting opportunities for our Deaf and Blind population across the country; it’s a wonderful reason to have to go to work each day.