Appendix B
About eSight Careers Network

AS THE GLOBAL, CROSS-DISABILITY ONLINE COMMUNITY addressing disability employment issues, eSight Careers Network (www.esight.org) is a service of Lighthouse International.

Founded in 1905, Lighthouse International is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting vision loss through prevention, treatment, and empowerment. It achieves this through clinical and rehabilitation services, education, research, and advocacy.

Lighthouse International’s website, www.lighthouse.org, offers information for employers, job seekers, and small businesses as well as a range of information on vision health, special venues, and other material for people who are visually impaired as well as their friends and families.

The purpose of the interactivity through eSight is to build knowledge about what works best in managing a career from a disability perspective. eSight is working to extend that dialogue to include key leaders within disability-friendly companies.

Examples of that eSight dialogue are summarized in four “Swimming in the Mainstream” (SiM) articles (made possible by a grant from the American Express Foundation):

1. “Breaking Accessibility Barriers” (http://www.esight.org/View.cfm?x=1751)

2. “Creating a Level Recruiting Field” (http://www.esight.org/View.cfm?x=1777)

3. “Telltale Signs of Inclusion” (http://www.esight.org/View.cfm?x=1761)

4. “Unique Confidence-Building Experiences” (http://www.esight.org/View.cfm?x=1770)

Each article includes snippets of member comments from eSight’s SiM blog. Participants discussed one disability employment issue each month, and eSight staff writers summarized each month’s discussion into a concise article for employers.

Blog participants quoted in the articles were linked to another eSight gathering place where they can post their “offering” statements (how they can help an employer in a particular job sector) for prospective employers to browse.

In 1998, eSight was first conceived as one of several services (including computer training, disability awareness training, and residential housing) The Associated Blind, Inc. offered to individuals with visual impairments in New York City.

An initial business plan for the site was prepared in 1999, and content development began in 2000 with a team of freelance, part-time writers under the direction of a content developer. The full-time staff for the site also included a technical director, a webmaster, and a membership services director.

An in-house team of international student interns created the site’s infrastructure, and a team of individuals who are blind developed the design specifications so every detail on eSight is accessible for users of speech (screen-reading) software.

The site development team created editorial applications so content could be created and published from anywhere in the world.

eSight was officially launched in October 2000, using Cold Fusion and a relational database to create dynamic, customized pages.

There have been five phases in the development of eSight since 2000:

1. Content Development. Between 2000 and 2002, five part-time freelancers generated content, which now includes more than 1,300 extensively researched feature articles.

2. Interactive Functionality. In 2002 and 2003, eSight began offering members the opportunity to share ideas through dialogue boards; post replies to articles; and use a send-this-article-to-a-friend tool as well as real-time, private text chat and real-time idea sharing with an exclusive “Blindstorming” tool. In 2003, eSight began offering toll-free eSight Phone Conferences in which participants can listen to as well as question guest speakers.

3. Syndicated Content. In July 2004, eSight launched the eSight Disability Employment Web, a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) service for providing other websites a link to eSight content that rotates each day seven days a week.

4. Online Training. During 2005, eSight developed an accessible instructional platform, and, in 2006, started offering its first online course, “Online Networking as a Job Search Tool,” through the eSight eLearning Center.

5. Book Publishing. In October 2010, AMACOM published Perfectly Able: How to Attract and Hire Talented People with Disabilities, which features dozens of personal experience observations in submissions from more than fifty individuals with disabilities who participated in eSight discussions focused on dignity from a disability employment perspective.

In 2003, The Associated Blind, Inc. refocused all of its resources on eSight Careers Network. In 2008, The Associated Blind, Inc. became a part of Lighthouse International, a leading nonprofit organization that fights vision loss through prevention, treatment, and empowerment.

In addition to the extensively researched articles written by individuals with a disability and with real-world employment experience, eSight provided phone conferences, online professional development seminars, job postings, an eSight newsletter, step-by-step Career Management Guides, 100 interactive forums, profiles of disability-friendly companies, book reviews, scholarship notices, and internship information.

Here are comments from four individuals about how they use eSight:

“As an eSight eLearner, I’ve been supported in various ways:

I was helped to improve and develop knowledge and experience of job searching and online networking;

I was helped to acquire practical skills in facilitating and participating in online discussions;

Finally, I was helped to expand the list of professional contacts and strengthened my own position as a job seeker with disability.”

—Vladimir

“I am a blind information technology professional and owner of a new small business. I have found eSight extremely valuable in the success of my career, both in the quality of the articles and the exchanges between blind people like myself.”

—D.S.

“[I am] an instructor [and] eSight has been invaluable in our weekly Job Readiness classes. The audio files have been especially useful in stimulating discussion and brainstorming sessions. Thank you for the information, ideas, and variety!”

—S.C.

“You provide me with an opportunity to voice my opinion and see those of others. … Through your articles, job coaching tips, and career advice, you have pushed me to ultimately making that step and start the search for a more suitable job.”

—Kerry

eSight Careers Network is a service of Lighthouse International. For more information about eSight, go to www.esight.org. For more information about Lighthouse International, go to www.lighthouse.org.