A few years ago, eBay and PayPal embarked on a mission to make sure our websites and services were accessible to the visually impaired community.  However, during the process of making our site accessible, it came to our attention that about 70% of those within the visually impaired community are unemployed or underemployed.  As strong believers in the power of entrepreneurship, we decided that we could do more than just make our site accessible and, in addition, leverage the eBay and PayPal technologies to create new employment opportunities for the visually impaired.  So, over the past year we have been helping to educate and train folks within this community on how to use our platforms and launch their own online business.

With a couple of great success stories coming from this initiative, eBay and PayPal decided to take our message on accessibility to Capitol Hill last week.  eBay accessibility coordinator Jonas Klink and PayPal accessibility coordinator Cathy O’Connor joined one of our most successful graduates of our program, Mr. Rick Willison, in order to share with Members of Congress and their staff their stories and get the word out about the opportunities that eBay and PayPal are offering.

To learn more about our efforts on accessibility and to read Rick’s story for yourself, please visit http://www.ebayinc.com/page/accessibility .