Since 1993, the downtown offices previously known as American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) West, have housed the leadership of AFB's initiatives to reduce unemployment and under-employment among people who are blind or visually impaired. Currently, over 50% of working-age visually impaired people are not employed. National Employment Center will:
Seek to educate and influence employers and human resources executives as to the capabilities of blind or visually impaired employees
Provide on-going support to the blindness field through "train-the-trainer" seminars that teach new skills to rehabilitation and counseling personnel
Serve blind or visually impaired people through CareerConnect, a national database of over 1,000 professionals who are blind or visually impaired and available to answer questions about the technology they use on the job, and share their experience and advice with job-seekers. The day-to-day maintenance of the database is supervised from AFB's Technology and Employment Center in Huntington, WV. The mission of the American Foundation for the Blind is to eliminate the inequities faced by the ten million Americans who are blind or visually impaired. AFB fulfills this mission by addressing the four most critical issues facing this growing population:
Independent living
Access to technology
Literacy
Employment Headquartered in New York City, AFB maintains offices in
Chicago
Dallas
National Literacy Center in Atlanta
National Employment Center in San Francisco
Governmental relations office in Washington, DC,
Technology and Employment Center in Huntington, WV.
