The unemployment rate for blind and visually impaired Americans hovers near 70 percent. That number has remained stubbornly high for decades, and it points to a gap that skills training alone cannot close.
Rehabilitation programs for blind adults have long excelled at teaching independence. The nonvisual techniques that make daily life manageable and meaningful: Braille, cane travel, assistive technology, cooking, home management. These are not small things. Mastering them is genuinely life-changing, and reclaiming that autonomy is a profound achievement in its own right.
But independence is also, for most people, a means to an end. It makes possible the life a person wants to live, and for the majority of adults, that life includes work. Gainful employment is how people support themselves, build financial stability, contribute to their communities, and define their place in the world. Teaching someone to live independently without preparing them to enter the workforce leaves the most consequential question unanswered: now what?
That question is exactly what BISM’s Work Readiness Assessment Program (WRAP) is designed to address.
WRAP is a component of BISM’s CORE program, the Comprehensive Orientation, Rehabilitation, and Empowerment program. A residential training program for blind adults aged 18 to 55. Rather than leaving students to figure out the workforce on their own once their time at BISM is up, WRAP integrates job readiness into the program itself, meeting students where they are, while they’re here.
At the heart of WRAP are monthly Job Readiness Seminars. These are free, in-person and virtual sessions open to blind individuals working toward employment. Topics span the full scope of what professional life demands: self-advocacy, requesting workplace accommodations, resume and cover letter writing, interview preparation, networking, financial literacy, digital literacy, workplace etiquette, and professional growth. Each session brings in guest speakers, incorporates interactive discussion, and includes hands-on activities and assignments so participants can apply what they learn between sessions.
The results speak for themselves. In WRAP’s first year of operation, from 2019 to 2020, every single participant who completed the program went on to earn competitive integrated employment. Overall, 62 percent of all WRAP completers have had their DORS cases successfully closed due to employment. These outcomes are a meaningful measure of the program’s ability to surface real barriers, build genuine readiness, and support participants in moving toward careers that last.
For more information about WRAP or the CORE program, contact Matt Yannuzzi, Director of Independence Training and Rehabilitation, at myannuzzi@bism.org or (410) 737-2600.
