Monster Bringing Site To The Blind
Looking for jobs is hard enough. But the visually impaired are at a particular disadvantage, which shows in their high unemployment rates. Monster.com has modified its website so the blind can browse audio job listings.
There are many job search websites out there. Just type "job search" into your favorite search engine.
But Monster.com — with headquarters in Maynard — recently attained a unique status. Monster will be the first job-search website fully accessible to those who are blind.
Struggle Finding Work
Unemployment is a significant issue in the blind community, according to state Attorney General Martha Coakley's office. More than 35,000 Bay State residents who are blind, but only about one-third of that group has a job. And many are underemployed.
Coakley was looking for a way to connect the blind and visually impaired with available jobs.
So her office, in partnership with representatives from the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), reached out to Monster officials about a year ago and asked to meet. The group came up with several ideas to reduce barriers to browsing job listings for those who cannot see.
Throwing Open The Doors
Monster officials said they were more than happy to sit down and hammer out ideas for options to give blind job seekers the same access as sighted job seekers.
"Although portions of our site were already accessible, we all agreed we could do more," Mark Conway, chief information officer with Monster Worldwide, said in an email.
The team from the AG's office, Monster and the NFB met regularly to come up with an agreement and a game plan, which includes implementing so-called "screen access" software, which can transform website text into Braille or audio speech, essentially reading job postings to the user.
"We are hopeful that with the ability to access written information ... these users will now have access to jobs, and better jobs, than ever before," Coakley said in a statement.
"The importance of these enhancements cannot be understated," said Conway. But there are more enhancements on the way, he said.
Next Steps
With a promise from the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind to promote internship opportunities through Monster.com, plans are underway to further expand access. Monster said it will donate $50,000 to the internship program.
Within the next six months, job-posting templates on Monster should be fully accessible. Monster, in addition to having its desktop and mobile websites fully accessible to the blind and visually impaired, is working on getting its mobile applications accessible as well — a project expected to take two years to complete.
Monster will also train its support employees to assist blind users of the website and set up a standing committee to deal with any problems the blind population encounters when using the site.
Looking ahead, the NFB will also be working with Monster to get colleges and universities to include more accessible design and assistive technology into their curricula in an effort to make accessible sites more mainstream. Being the only job-search website accessible to the blind is nice, but it's a title Monster hopes it doesn't hold for long.
"Monster has led the way for other online job search and recruitment web sites to follow suit," Conway said.
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