William Mattern uses an illuminated magnifier to work on a math problem at the Blind Center of Nevada. Photo by Ralph Fountain. Mathematics instructor Elizabeth White leads a class Feb. 5 at the Blind Center of Nevada. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

The task of staffing Las Vegas' ever-expanding casinos is getting help from a new source -- the Blind Center of Nevada.

The blind center has worked for three years to persuade the National Statler Center for Careers in Hospitality Service, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based nonprofit group preparing visually impaired and other physically disabled students for hospitality jobs, to start a program in Las Vegas.

The casinos could probably use the help, Blind Center of Nevada President and Chief Executive Officer Ronnie Wilson suggested.

"The labor pool here is very limited," Wilson said. "I think the unemployment rate that we have here means the casinos are having a hard time filling hospitality jobs. I think the estimated turnover rate is 120 percent."

The blind and visually impaired could probably also use the work, data suggest. Although the local unemployment rate in the general population for December was 4.2 percent, the national unemployment rate for working-age people who are blind or visually impaired is 72 percent, statistics from the nonprofit American Foundation for the Blind show.

Wilson, a former Aladdin CEO with 25 years of hospitality experience, said that although Nevada doesn't track unemployment for the visually impaired, 88 percent of people who seek services at the Blind Center live below the poverty level.

Bob Waldorf, the blind center's vice president of operations, said it makes sense to bring the Statler center's program to an area built on hospitality.

The 12 students in the local program, selected from 20 applicants, range from their early 20s to 60. Ten students are visually impaired; two have cerebral palsy.

The students are held to the same standard as any student attending a college class. Program applicants must have a high school diploma or an equivalency degree, type 20 words per minute, have a letter of recommendation and go through interviews. Once in the program, students need to stay with it; missing class or showing up late will lead to dismissal.

Instructors from the Statler center, who came in from Buffalo, are administering the 10-week program, which began Jan. 22. Instruction will include in-depth sessions in computer training, written and oral communication and business math. The program includes workshops in job seeking and hospitality sales. The program's last two weeks will focus on internships in which students work in the field.

The local program has already drawn the attention of many casinos and hospitality-oriented businesses. Representatives from MGM Mirage, Station Casinos, Hard Rock Hotel, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Pink Jeep Tours have visited the center to give presentations and discuss career opportunities with the students.

"We find that people who are disadvantaged sometimes have obstacles put in their way before they even get in the door for an interview," said Valerie Murzl, vice president of human resources for Station Casinos. "I find that to be quite annoying."

Murzl added that the company hired approximately 100 people with disabilities last year and is committed to working with any agency that focuses on helping disabled people enter the work force.

"People need to look beyond the disability and recognize these individuals for their skills," Murzl said. "We are recognizing that you may have a disability, but we have over 200 different types of jobs. There must be something you can do for us."

She added that a visually impaired graduate from Statler center's November class in Buffalo now works in Red Rock Resort's phone reservation center.

The Red Rock Resort employee is the program's first graduate from Nevada.

The Statler center's Web site says 110 students have completed the program, with a job-placement rate of 83 percent.

All the students in the program's first Las Vegas class are local residents. But Waldorf said he hopes to see the program grow to draw students from surrounding communities and states.