Yee Gods things must be different in the states if your even thinking of this.

It took Over here, 80 percent of Vi people are unemployed, ---- and I'd be willing to bet that at least half of the other 20 percent are employed by Vi only organizations.

It took my brother 8 years to get a job with a degree in law and legal practice course (the requirements for becoming a Lawyer), and he only managed that by working voluntarily for a law firm for 6 months, ---- and empressing them enough so that when a position came up he could take it.

I'd mostly suggest you ask around your parents or adult friends and neighbers to see if they will pay you for performing some sort of task which you could do such as car washing, general cleaning or pet sitting, ---- possibly baby sitting if you get on with kids.

As to anything official, over here it's hard enough to get a job when you leave university,  ----- let alone something part time and unqualified while your stil at school, but as I said, I'm fairly certain things are different in the states.

Connor,

Dark's ideas about pet sitting and cleaning are good. But don't overlook how his brother leveraged volunteer work into a non "teenage" job.

My first jobs were baby sitter, busboy, dishwasher, and cook in restaurants, library clerk at University. My little brother unloaded trucks. A niece worked in a bakery. A nephew stocked auto parts. But we're all sighted.

That being said, regardless of sightedness, the keys to getting a job are:

1. Already have a job
2. Have some experience
3. Network
4. Never give up

Even if you are not employed, you can work at what you want to do. Some computer programmers (like me) work on their own projects while looking for work.

Especially when you are just starting out, you can work for no pay but to get the experience, and references. Companies and even small businesses can be convinced to hire Interns. Basically, figure out what you might want to do and get someone to let you do it for them. As hiring managers, my colleagues and I value experience and being employed, even for no pay, a lot.

As for BVI jobs when you are young: contact every BVI person you know and ask what jobs they have or have had. Then ask them how they started out.

We had an excellent programmer at US Department of Transportation many years ago who was totally blind. He used a custom-made Braille output device. The guy who ran the D.O.T. newsstand was blind, too. At Kurzweil, we had a customer service person who was blind. He's still doing work for NFB. Another blind colleague runs our Massachusetts Council for the Blind. Perkins School has a bunch of blind teachers and other professionals. Another blind colleague runs IT at Carroll Center.  Another friend did sales for National Braille Press. Another teaches daycare. Another has his own Braille printing business.

The point is that those guys had to start somewhere. Find a job that a blind adult has or has had, figure out what the Apprentice, Helper, or Intern equivalent is and bug everyone who can't run away until they take you on for little or no pay. Use that experience to get a paying job.

If I were blind and starting out, especially in the US, I'd get experience and references that way.

Network. Keep a list of everyone you contact in your chosen field. Keep them aware that you exist. Be useful to them. While you are looking for work, you often learn stuff about companies (like job needs that aren't right for yourself, whether they are expanding, contacts that someone else might find useful.) Being helpful to others in your chosen field is not only a nice thing to do, but sometimes comes back to help you. Email, forums, and blogs are wonderful things.

Never give up. You are never defeated until you give up. There's a long record of really successful people who failed for years but finally won because they simply refused to give up.

John Bannick
Chief Technical Officer
7-128 Software

Good luck with that Cj, let us know how tings go.

As I said, I think atitudes are slightly better in the Us. One of the most serious imployment problems that happens in the Uk, (and something I'm writing about in my thesis), is that because you can't legally say that you'd rather not imploy someone with a disability, this also means you can't open up a dialogue with a potentially disabled employee about how they'd do the job, what sort of ways around things they have etc.

My brother and others have been given amazingly bad and obviously spurious excuses about why they've been refused jobs or even interviews, ----- such as the several occasions my brother (with a degree and legal practice course), applied for jobs which required only basic A-levels (the qualification you do when you finish school), and was refused on grounds of being under qualified.

while the law is obviously a good thing, it does mean people don't share their fears reguarding disabled people, and just make up other excuses, ----- which is decidedly unhelpful.

I'm afraid personally I'm a quinticential bumb. I just want to write, both academic articals and fiction. If someone will pay me to do that, ---- well that would be incredibly nice, but if they won't I'm not going to panic about it.