Handicaps and how to Overcome Them
If you have a certain kind of disability, what is your chance in navy-yard occupations? Perhaps you have lost a leg or an arm or an eye; does this cut you out of any chance to work in a navy yard? It certainly does not. For example: if you have lost an arm, the number of jobs that you can do with one arm and an artificial arm are surprising; you can take training so that you can do almost any sort of clerical work or work in the drafting room. You can operate almost all machine tools in the machine shop. You can do shorthand or typewriting work.
If you have lost a leg you can learn to fill almost any position in a navy yard that does not require climbing or too much standing and walking. You can do almost any sort of clerical work as well as anybody else; you can operate almost all sorts of machine tools; you can do all sorts of assembling work, pattern making, and work in the drafting room.
If you have lost both legs, with artificial legs you can learn to fill almost any position where you can sit at your work. You can do this in the drafting room; in nearly all clerical positions; in many inspection jobs. There are many other jobs, such as work in the sail and rigging loft, in the tailor shop, and in the machine shop, where you can sit at the work.
If you have lost one leg and one arm you can still fill a number of positions; with an artificial arm and leg you can take training so that you can do about as well as a man with both legs and one arm. If you were right-handed and lost your right arm, you can be trained to use your left arm just as well. Even with one arm and both legs gone you can learn to fill almost all clerical positions, many jobs in the machine shop, many inspection jobs, and work in the drafting room.
The loss of an eye will not bother you at all; and if your hearing is partially or wholly destroyed, you can still learn to fill many positions in the shops where instructions come to you in the form of drawings.
Of course, the particular positions that you can fill depend on just the sort of an injury that you have sustained, and you should consult your vocational adviser about your own particular case; but if you are interested in navy-yard employment, you are not necessarily out of it on account of such injuries as are mentioned above.