Call Center Employs 1000 Blind People in Moscow

Just recently I read an article about a call center in Moscow which employs 1000 blind and visually impaired people.

I am a proponent of fully integrating disabled people into regular environment, thus making them fully participate in society. However, this is not always an immediate possibility, so let's see what this story really has between the lines.

Throughout the history of employing people with disabilities, we can always see a pattern, though it maybe different in the future because of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The pattern is that first a country struggles employing people with disabilities altogether, and anybody who can break this rule is an exception. Later, with, legislation and social awareness, people with disabilities are employed, but in a very segregated environment, which finally evolves into full integration into society. The reasons might be numerous, but in any fields of life, a sudden paradigm change is hard to expect, let that be converting a country from communism to democracy, or from not caring about the environment to green policies. It is not any different when it comes employing people with disabilities, and the expected results will come with social investments and education.

So, what happened in Moscow, is in reality outstanding, and is a major breakthrough. Primarily, because unemployment is relatively high in Russia, and any job creation of such a large volume is a step forward. But more importantly, giving this opportunity at this volume to blind and visually impaired people is definitely going to increase social awareness. It also creates a precedence to similar companies even outside the country which are considering a similar investment.

Very often, the reason for not employing disabled people is because of the fear of how are they going to handle their responsibilities, and if they will be efficient enough to maintain the company's productivity. While it has been proven that with the right working environment it is absolutely not a concern, it is not necessarily obvious to many. But just imagine, all of a sudden you see one thousand more blind people walking to work in a city. This in itself creates some publicity. Then, these people have their circle of acquaintances, friends and family, who will know about it, who will be the living testimony to understand that it does work that people will actually contribute to society instead of sitting at home and being a financial responsibility.

Such an initiative will be able to change the mindset of at least tends of thousands, who will see this program work in practice.

Maybe these people did not all inspire to be working in a call center, they may have a different education, different imaginations for their lives. However, they also did not inspire to be unemployed, just like so many other blind people are. This job can easily be a stepping stone for them to obtain work experience, and either stay at the call center, or move on to other areas to create new positions for others.