AGRA CONVENTION 2014

Blind Stars Beyond Facebook Bridging The Gap

7th to 9th November, 2014

Session 6
Workshop with Hr experts to make them understand the abilities and productivity of a visually challenged candidate:

This session was conducted for Human Resource experts from various fields by Miss Neha Agarwal, a visually challenged Project Manager in IBM. Miss Neha Agarwal lost her vision at the age of 19. She struggled and overcame all the odds and is today nothing less than an inspiration to others.

The purpose of this session was to demonstrate to the HR experts how a visually impaired person would not be a liability but an asset if they choose to recruit him/her. The workshop was attended by the likes of – Mr. Atul Gupta, Chairperson of National Chamber of Commerce and Mr. Pradeep Oberoi, HR head at Clark’s Shiraz hotel. Miss Neha Agarwal shared her own story for this purpose:-

Miss Neha Agarwal is an accomplished professional who performs her job equally well as her sighted colleagues.
Her job profile involves extensive use of tools like Microsoft Excel, dealing with vast amounts of data.
Apart from being a professional herself, she also helps other visually impaired people better their skills.
According to her, her employers provided her with the environment where she could realize her full potential. Her employers understood that her needs and her way of working are different but that does not mean that she is any less than her sighted employees.
She put forward her strengths, limitations and needs clearly in front of her employers and they invested in her in the form of their confidence, a friendly environment and patience.
This helped her feel like a ‘part of the team’ and this also sensitized her team towards her.
‘Client delivery excellence award’ and ‘Manager’s choice’ award are some of the accolades conferred on her for her achievements.
Her employers and team members found out ways together with her to break down day to day barriers faced by her.
The suitable environment provided by her employers included providing her with the infrastructure that she would require to perform her job like the screen reader software JAWS.
She shattered myths regarding safety concerns about hiring a visually impaired candidate. She commutes to her office all by herself daily.
In the end, Miss Neha demonstrated how she works on Microsoft Excel, which is the main tool used by her to perform her job, with the help of the screen reader software JAWS.
Hence, she left no question answered about how visually impaired people, when given a chance, prove themselves to be productive and sincere employees and become an asset to the organization.