By Stefano Esposito Staff Reporter; Chicago Sun-Times; November 5, 2013
Taking calls from irate motorists or working in the mail room might sound like jobs to dread.
For Marcin Okreglak, who is visually impaired, the latter has proved to be “a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Okreglak, 26, spent 2 1/2 years looking for work — before finally getting hired at the Illinois Tollway’s new customer service call center on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, which had its official unveiling Tuesday.
“To those who might not want to be in here, I say that after you’ve been unemployed for a long while and you feel the pain of that, you would be grateful to take any job you can get,” said Okreglak, who lives in Chicago Ridge.
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill) was among the digitaries on hand at the unveiling of the 22,000-square-foot facility, the result of a partnership between the tollway, UIC and The Chicago Lighthouse, the 107-year-old social service agency that assists the blind and visually impaired.
“It’s historic,” said the Lighthouse’s president and executive director, Janet Szlyk, noting the Chicago area’s approximate 70-percent unemployment rate among the blind and visually impaired.
The call center, built on the site of an old indoor swimming pool and recreation center, is about twice the size of the tollway’s old facility, which was located in a leased facility in west suburban Lisle, officials said.
The call center features — among other things — extra-large computer screens, wheelchair accessible work stations and software that allows visually impaired employees to magnify the size of the images and text on their screens.
The Lighthouse has employed approximately 200 people — both full- and part-time — to run the call center and officials expect to have close to double that amount within one year.
For Megan Craig of Calumet City, a recent UIC graduate, taking calls from often-angry tollway users is helping her prepare for a future career in family law.
“Today is a good day, unlike yesterday,” said Craig, 24, who was born with glaucoma and has limited vision. “It seemed like people had attitudes.”
In trying to find work in the past, Craig said she’s encountered ignorance about the needs of the visually impaired rather than prejudice.
That hasn’t been the case for Okreglak.
“Every time I told them what kind of accommodations I would have needed or how I would get to work, I’ve never gotten a call,” he said. “It motivates me to try harder to show them — even though I might need certain accommodations — I can do the job just as well and work just as hard.”
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