In all, 60 candidates came out to meet with about 30 potential employers. They found that most of the recruiters were concentrated in the health sector or from social justice organizations or the government. Companies representing Boston’s high-flying biotech industry or its much celebrated startups were not in sight.
One of the job fair organizers, Charles Curti, had reached out to as many as 40 employers in one day with 85% having nothing to offer. Curti is human resources director at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, which hosted the fair.
“They treated me like a job seeker they didn’t want to talk to: We’ll get back to you, we’ll look at it for next year, we’ll see about following up,” he says. “Sometimes it’s like speaking into the wind.” The employment rate for visually impaired individuals was 42% in 2015. That compares to 78% for working adults.