Verizon Customer Service Center Values Its Six Visually Impaired Employees
By Rory McClannahan
Journal Staff Writer
Juan Sosa says he figures he's been turned down for a lot of jobs because he's blind. But since going to work at the Verizon Wireless customer service center on the West Side in July, he said he's found an employer that values his ability instead of frets about his disability.
"At some other places, I would sometimes be told that I would be called once they got the equipment I needed and then never hear from them again," Sosa said with a shrug.
Verizon's center employs six people who are visually impaired or blind, company spokeswoman Jenny Weaver said. Each of those employees has special needs, but Weaver said the cost to the company is minimal compared to the value of the employees. Verizon, she said, goes out of its way to find qualified candidates for its center without any hesitancy over disabilities.
The company has even set up a program to help integrate visually impaired and blind employees into the work force.
D.J. Leckwold, an associate director for customer service at the center, said the visually impaired and blind employees are put on teams during training with trainers who have experience in working with disabled employees.
Whether an employee is blind or not, he still has to go through 18 weeks of training before going solo, Leckwold said. Disabled employees also use that training time to learn how to use equipment.
Sosa, for instance, has a special braille keyboard and voice software. While he says he has spent time learning to use the system, the only challenge has been because of a language barrier.
"Sometimes, I'll get a customer speaking Spanish, the computer is speaking English and I have to distinguish between the two," Sosa says, laughing. "It can be confusing sometimes."
Verizon Wireless is a company that participates in the National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Weaver said, by highlighting their own employees as an example to other corporations.
"The situation is a real win for Verizon, because we are able to hire people who want to work," Weaver said.
National Disability Employment Awareness Month was created in 1988 by an act of Congress.
Sosa said he is making the most out of his job. Each night after work, he studies company manuals to better familiarize himself with the Verizon products he will help people use.
"I like to work," he said. "Everyone wants to feel like they are an important part of society."
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