ANAHEIM : Disabled Put in Touch With Jobs

At 17, Bryan Eisenhart says he already has made up his mind to be either a lawyer or a psychologist some day.

Even so, he still attended Career Day for the Disabled on Tuesday, as he has for the past three years with his visually handicapped class from Anaheim High School, to learn about new job opportunities.

“It was excellent this year,” said Eisenhart, who is partially blind. “There are a couple of things I didn’t know were out there.”

Like many of the other 4,000 high school and college-age students who attended the 11th annual Career Day at Anaheim Convention Center, Eisenhart soon will be looking for a job.

And these students need to know about training and employment opportunities, especially as employers become increasingly more willing to hire disabled people, said Caryl Miller, coordinator of special education for the county Department of Education.

So throughout the morning, students had a chance to hammer nails into 2-by-4s, feed and groom pets and chat with Internal Revenue Service employees about tax forms. More than 150 job exhibits could be viewed, and a variety of representatives were on hand to answer questions and help dispel job-hunting fears.

Inside another room, students participated in more than 20 workshops centering on work-related necessities such as dressing for success, interviewing techniques and building self-confidence. Many talks were given simultaneously in sign language.

“Just be yourself,” Sondra Meith, an image and wardrobe consultant, told the capacity group at the workshop entitled “Wardrobe Planning for Job Interviews.” “You can’t pretend to be anything you’re not.”

More than half of the students are learning-disabled, Miller said. “And that’s real difficult when they go to get a job and the employer expects them to act a certain way.”

Katie Musch, 15, joined seven students from her class for the severely handicapped from Tustin’s Currie Middle School at the convention. Musch said she would like to work with children but attended the conference to keep her options open.

“It’s helpful,” she said. “You can have a lot of good thoughts.”