Resume Toolkit for Blind and Low Vision Job Seekers | National Technical Assistance Center

What This Toolkit Will Help You Do

This resume toolkit is built for blind and low vision job seekers. It can help you create a resume that gets past the software and makes a strong impression on hiring managers.

You might be writing your first resume, updating an older version, revising one that has not been getting responses, or combining pieces from several versions. Wherever you are starting, this toolkit will help you focus on the choices that matter most.

Unlike generic resume advice, this toolkit is grounded in research on resumes from blind and low vision job seekers. It addresses the issues that most often get in the way, including content, language, layout, style, and formatting. It also covers topics that general resume guides often miss, such as how to check formatting when you cannot rely on visual review alone and how to think through disability disclosure on a resume.

Why Resume Quality Matters

Small resume problems can cost interviews, and they are more common than most people realize. In our study of 99 resumes from blind and low vision job seekers, only 11% were rated as acceptable based on content, language, layout, and style (Antonelli et al., 2025). Language issues appeared in 84% of the resumes, layout issues in 74%, and style issues in 63%. We also ran each resume through applicant tracking system (ATS) software, which companies use to scan resumes before people ever see them. Some formatting choices kept ATS software from reading key resume details correctly, including contact information and work history.

The good news is that the most common issues were practical, such as missing details, inconsistent formatting, and unclear wording. Many of these issues can be identified and corrected once you know what to look for. This toolkit shows you how.

How to Use This Toolkit

Each section of this toolkit is designed to stand on its own and begins with an overview of what it covers. You can work through the whole toolkit step-by-step from start to finish, skip around, or jump a specific section. Feel free to focus on the parts that best fit your needs.

Before You Start

This toolkit works best if you are comfortable using Word, Google Docs, or another word processor and with your preferred assistive technology, such as a screen reader, screen magnifier, or refreshable braille display. Many examples use Word because it is common and has built-in accessibility and proofreading tools, but the same principles apply to other programs.

If you use a screen reader and are new to creating and editing documents or want a refresher, Microsoft's guide to basic tasks using a screen reader with Word can be a helpful resource.

Related Resources

Resume Facts That Matter: Insights for Blind and Low Vision Job Seekers combines research findings with targeted tips for each section of your resume, making it a useful complement to this toolkit.

NSITE's Jobseeker's Toolkit offers free, self-paced modules and activities covering job search skills, resume writing, and interview preparation.

Reference

Antonelli, K., Cmar, J. L., & Dabbs, S. M. (2025). Resumes of job seekers with visual impairments: Characteristics and quality. The New RE:view, 3(2), 69–84. https://doi.org/10.56733/TNR.24.016

Section 1: Tell the Right Story

Before you start writing or revising your resume, take time to think about the story you want it to tell. This section helps you clarify what your resume should say, who it should speak to, and what you want employers to remember.

Start With the Job You Want

A resume is strongest when it is built for a specific job. Start by naming the role or a set of roles you are aiming for. Then, pull up several real job postings for those roles and read them closely. Look for the job responsibilities, skills, and qualifications that show up multiple times. Those repeated words and phrases tell you what employers are screening for and give you language to use in your resume. Keep a short list of the terms that fit your experience and use it as you build each section of your resume.

Decide What Story to Tell

Your resume should tell one clear story about you and your fit for the job. It does not need to list everything you have ever done. Decide which strengths, experiences, and skills belong front and center for the jobs you have identified. Two questions can help with those decisions:

What do I want this resume to say about me?
How can I connect my experience to the job I want?

Let the answers guide what you lead with, what you expand on, and what you leave out.

External support and tools such as AI can help you explore wording, compare your draft to a job posting, or edit a bullet point when you feel stuck. The story itself belongs to you: what is true, what matters most, and what you want to emphasize.

Know Your Starting Point

Each of us start resume building from a different place, and each starting point calls for a slightly different approach. For example, you may be starting from scratch, revising a resume that mostly works, or combining the strongest pieces from several older versions. If you are starting fresh, the work you just did on your target role and story gives you a foundation to build on. If you are revising, decide whether you need to change the content, the format, or both. Section 3 can help you choose a format.

Decide If and How to Disclose

Whether to mention that you are blind or have low vision is your decision. No single answer fits every person or every job. These points can help you weigh the decision:

Career field: Employers in some fields and companies have more knowledge about disabilities and accommodations than others, which can affect how disclosure lands.
Visibility: If your blindness or low vision will likely be apparent during an interview, you may prefer to address it on your own terms.
Personal preference: Some people would rather be upfront. Others prefer to be evaluated on their qualifications first. Both are valid.
Timing: Disclosure is not all or nothing. You may decide to disclose in your resume, in a cover letter, after scheduling an interview, or once you have an offer.
Accommodation needs: You may choose to disclose if you need an accommodation for any part of the application or interview process.

If you decide to disclose in your resume, you can do it directly or indirectly. Direct disclosure names blindness or low vision specifically. Indirect disclosure signals it through details, such as listing screen reader proficiency (for example, JAWS, NVDA) under skills or including leadership in a consumer organization like the National Federation of the Blind or American Council of the Blind.

Examples of direct disclosure:

Assistive technology specialist with expertise in screen readers, refreshable braille displays, mobile accessibility features, and accessible document workflows. Brings lived experience with blindness to instruction and troubleshooting.
Blind community outreach professional with 6 years of experience coordinating accessible events, building relationships with partner organizations, and leading public awareness initiatives.

Examples of indirect disclosure:

Member, American Council of the Blind. Supported chapter communications, meeting coordination, and member outreach.
Volunteer peer mentor for adults with low vision learning assistive technology.

Disclosure can also be intentional or accidental. Intentional disclosure is a choice you make about whether, where, and how to share. Accidental disclosure happens when a detail like an organization, award, or skill reveals your blindness or low vision when you decided not to bring it up. Before you submit your resume, review each item and ask yourself: "Does this item disclose my blindness or low vision? If yes, do I want to keep, edit, or remove it?" The goal is to make the choice intentional.

For more detailed guidance about disclosure, check out these resources.

The Job Accommodation Network’s Disability Disclosure page includes detailed information about disclosure.

Who Needs to Know?: When and How to Disclose Vision Impairment from the NRTC covers disclosure considerations and strategies.

Use Blindness or Low Vision to Strengthen Your Story

Some experiences and skills related to blindness or low vision may strengthen your resume, whether or not you choose to disclose directly. Decide which ones reinforce the story you want to tell. For example, assistive technology skills, blindness-specific training, and involvement in consumer organizations can demonstrate strengths such as technical proficiency, initiative, and leadership. Include them when they support your target role. Use the same standard you would use for anything else on the resume. Because some of these details can signal blindness or low vision, the choice to include them connects back to your disclosure decision. Section 4 covers where specific items, such as assistive technology skills, fit best.

Section 2: Choose the Format That Fits

The format of your resume shapes how you organize your experience and how easily both software and people can follow it. This section helps you choose the format that fits your background and work history.

Know Your Format Options

Most resumes use one of three formats:

A chronological format lists your work history in reverse-chronological order (from most recent to oldest). It works well when your experience is steady and clearly related to the job you want.
A combination format pairs a short skills summary with a reverse-chronological work history. It works well when you want to lead with relevant skills while still showing a clear timeline.
A functional format organizes your resume around skills and downplays the timeline. People often use it to cover gaps or explain a non-linear work history, but it can make the timeline harder to follow and may not work well with screening software, as the next section will explain.

For most people, a chronological or combination resume is the stronger choice. Both formats give employers a clear timeline and hold up well when software reads them.

To learn more about resume formats, check out this short course on [insert link to resume course].

Consider How Format Affects ATS Screening

Many employers, especially larger companies, use applicant tracking system (ATS) software to scan resumes. The ATS software will read your resume before it ever reaches a person. The format of your resume can affect how well that goes.

In the study behind this toolkit, ATS software read about 88% of the content in chronological and combination resumes correctly, compared with only 55% in functional resumes (Antonelli et al., 2025). When ATS software misreads a resume, it can lose or reorder important information before anyone sees it. If you have a complex work history and prefer a functional format, be sure to weigh that tradeoff.

Match the Format to Your Situation

Use this quick guide to narrow your choice:

Chronological: Choose this format if you have a steady work history that ties clearly to your target job.
Combination: Choose this format if you want to highlight skills or strengths and show a clear timeline of your work history.
Functional: Proceed with caution, given the ATS findings described in the previous section. If an employment gap is your main reason for considering this format, the next section offers better options.

Address Employment Gaps

You may have gaps in your work history for various reasons, including caregiving, health, education, training, or a career change after vision loss. You can address most gaps with a chronological or combination resume. Relevant training, volunteer work, certifications, freelance jobs, contract projects, and other meaningful activities can fill the timeline and show what you were doing. List these items the way you would list a job, with dates and a short description of what you accomplished. If you are considering a functional format mainly to hide a gap, weigh that against the screening tradeoff above. When a gap needs an explanation the resume itself cannot hold, a cover letter can provide that context, which Section 7 covers.

Evaluate Templates Before You Use One

A template can save time, but only if ATS software can read it and you can edit it with your own tools.

Templates work best when they are simple: standard headings, a single column, clear sections, and no decorative graphics. Heavily designed templates, especially those that rely on tables, text boxes, or multiple columns, often confuse ATS software and can be hard to navigate or edit with a screen reader or magnifier. Before you commit to a template, check two things: whether it keeps your information in a clean, ATS-readable structure, and whether you can edit and review it comfortably with your assistive technology.

For more information about how template form fields work with JAWS and NVDA, check out Microsoft's screen reader guide for working with Word templates.

Decide Whether to Start Fresh or Revise

Sometimes the fastest path to a stronger resume is a new structure.

If you already have a resume, review it carefully. If the writing is solid but the structure does not highlight your skills and present your experience clearly, switching formats may help more than line edits. If the structure works but the content is thin or outdated, you can revise without changing the structure. If you are combining information from several versions, watch for inconsistent dates, formatting, and verb tenses as you merge them. Starting from scratch may be the best option if you have an old resume that no longer reflects the direction you set in Section 2.

Reference

Antonelli, K., Cmar, J. L., & Dabbs, S. M. (2025). Resumes of job seekers with visual impairments: Characteristics and quality. The New RE:view, 3(2), 69–84. https://doi.org/10.56733/TNR.24.016

Section 3: Strengthen Each Section

This section covers the major sections of a resume and the content that belongs in each one. Formatting, layout, and style are covered in Section 5.

As you work through each part, keep your target role and your story from Section 2 in mind. Strong content will support the case you are building.

Contact Information

Your contact information tells employers who you are and how to reach you, so it should be complete, easy to find, and readable by software.

Include your name, a phone number with area code, and a professional email address. A full street address is no longer expected. Your city and state are enough, and you can leave out your location entirely if you prefer. A LinkedIn profile is also optional but worth adding if its content aligns with the story your resume tells. Few resumes in our study included a LinkedIn profile, and the ATS did not detect one profile that used the short URL format (/in/name) without a hyperlink (Antonelli et al., 2025). If you include your LinkedIn profile, use the full URL or a hyperlink, for example: linkedin.com/in/yourname.

Place your contact information at the top of the page, in the body of the document. Do not put your contact information in the header or footer. Screening software often skips headers and footers, which means your contact details may not reach the hiring team.

Professional Summary

A professional summary is a short opening that tells the employer what you offer before they read the details. This section is not required, but it can help to strengthen your story if used wisely.

Use two or three lines to highlight your most relevant skills, experience, and certifications. If you are applying for a specific job, use the exact job title from the posting. If you are applying broadly, use a general phrase such as "operations management" that fits openings at different levels.

If you include a professional summary, make it specific. Vague objectives and summaries take up space without giving the employer any meaningful information.

Before: Seeking an exciting position with a growing company where I can use my skills.
After: Operations coordinator with 6 years of experience managing scheduling, vendor contracts, and reporting for a 40-person team.

Place the summary just below your contact information.

Experience

Your experience section is where most employers spend the most time, so it should show what you accomplished, not just what you were assigned.

For each entry, include your job title, the company name, the location, and the dates you worked there (typically the month and year). List jobs in reverse-chronological order, most recent first, and focus on your most recent and most relevant roles. You can usually leave off jobs from more than 10 to 15 years ago unless they are extremely relevant, show key skills or accomplishments, or provide important information about your career path. Relevant volunteer work, internships, and part-time jobs belong in this section, too.

When describing your accomplishments, use bullet points rather than paragraphs. Employers scan resumes quickly, and bullets make your accomplishments easier to find. Some people recommend including more bullet points and details for recent jobs and fewer bullet points for older jobs. Others recommend a similar number of bullet points for all jobs for consistency. When making that decision, consider your relevant experience and what you want to highlight.

Start each bullet with a past-tense action verb such as managed, developed, organized, or implemented, and quantify results when you can back them up.

Before: Handled the company's social media.
After: Increased social media engagement by 75% over 12 months.

Do not list minor duties or write negatively about past employers. If your work history has gaps or a non-linear path, Section 3 covers how relevant training, volunteer work, and projects can fill the gaps.

The location of this section depends on the format of your resume and how much experience you have. This section will typically go near the top of your resume, below your contact information, professional summary, or education.

Education

Your education section lists your formal training, degrees, and credentials.

For each entry, include the school name, location, degree type, major, and graduation year. List your education in reverse-chronological order, most recent first. If you are a student or recent graduate, you can add your GPA if it is strong, along with academic awards, scholarships, or relevant coursework. Include high school only if it is your most recent education.

In the study behind this toolkit, ATS software missed some education sections that had unclear formatting, used tables, had two-column layouts, or were merged with other sections. Put education in its own section with a clear "Education" heading, clear formatting, and a simple layout so it's easy for both employers and ATS software to find and read.

Where you place this section depends on your experience. If you are early in your career, education can go near the top. If you have substantial work experience, education usually belongs below your experience section.

Optional Sections

Optional sections let you strengthen your case with skills, accomplishments, and activities that your main sections do not capture. Use them to add relevant details, not to fill space.

Consider a separate section for skills, awards, licenses, certifications, professional organizations, or community activities that relate to the job. A standalone skills section also helps with screening software. Emphasize any leadership roles you held. Do not include references unless the position requires them, and do not include the line "references available upon request."

If you include any optional sections, consider whether any of your skills and experiences related to blindness or low vision can strengthen them. Examples include assistive technology skills, accessible document review, peer mentoring, consumer organization leadership, or disability-related advocacy. Treat this information like any other resume content. Include it when it shows skills the employer needs, such as technology proficiency, communication, leadership, or problem-solving. Because these details may disclose that you are blind or have low vision, consider your disclosure strategy when deciding.

For example, you might list assistive technology skills if they relate to the job. Screen reader proficiency may be directly relevant to jobs such as accessibility tester, assistive technology instructor, software engineer, or customer support specialist. For jobs where these skills are not essential, you might choose not to include them unless they support your disclosure strategy.

CareerOneStop’s Resume Writing Guide provides additional tips and information about each section.

Reference

Antonelli, K., Cmar, J. L., & Dabbs, S. M. (2025). Resumes of job seekers with visual impairments: Characteristics and quality. The New RE:view, 3(2), 69–84. https://doi.org/10.56733/TNR.24.016

Section 4: Fix Language, Layout, Style, and ATS Issues

Section 3 covered what your resume should say. This section covers how it should look and read. Language, layout, and style issues are the most common reasons strong content falls flat. These issues were widespread in our study: 84% of resumes had language issues, 74% had layout issues, and 63% had style issues (Antonelli et al., 2025). In this section, you will find suggestions for addressing each of these issues and avoiding ATS pitfalls.

Address Language Issues

Language problems were the single most common issue in our study, and many employers penalize them heavily. Grammar issues, spelling errors, and wordy phrasing all weaken an otherwise strong resume.

Check spelling, grammar, and punctuation on every line. Remove passive and filler phrases such as "was responsible for," "able to," and "in order to." Avoid first-person pronouns like "I," "me," and "my." Write in a consistent voice, and describe accomplishments rather than duties, as Section 4 shows. Section 6 covers proofreading tools and how to get useful feedback.

Check the Layout

Layout is how your content is arranged on the page. It affects how quickly employers can find information and how accurately software reads your resume. A disorganized layout or content packed closely together makes it hard for both employers and software to follow.

Ideal resume length can vary by experience and field. General recommendations are one page if you have fewer than 5 years of experience and two pages if you have 5 or more years of experience. Some fields or types of jobs (e.g., academic, government) have different conventions, so be sure to check current guidelines.

To make your resume easier to read, add white space between sections. White space is the blank area between sections, headings, and lines that separates content visually. You can create white space with word processing software by adjusting spacing and using bulleted lists. Use paragraph spacing settings instead of pressing Enter multiple times to make spacing more consistent and precise. These settings also reduce blank lines when software reads the file.

Make the document structure clear and consistent. Use size, font style, and position to show which elements are most important and to make them stand out. For example, your name should be the most visually prominent element, followed by section headings, then standard body text. Your name should typically be larger and bolder than the rest of the text to make it easy to identify first. Use consistent heading styles for major sections and make sure job entries follow the same order each time.

Check for line breaks and page breaks that land in awkward places, such as a job title separated from the role below it or a page break that creates too much blank space on a page.

Align headings, dates, titles, and details neatly and consistently so similar items start in the same position. For example, you may decide to center all section headings or align all dates along the right side of the page.

Use a Consistent Style

Style is the consistency of your formatting choices. Small inconsistencies can signal carelessness to employers even when your content is strong.

Use one standard font throughout, such as Arial, Calibri, Aptos, or Helvetica. Use a readable font size of no smaller than 10 pt, with 11 to 12 pt recommended for body text. Keep fonts, capitalization, bullet shapes, bullet sizes, and spacing consistent from top to bottom.

Use consistent formatting like bold font to make section headings stand out. Use color sparingly, if at all. If you do not have a reliable way to confirm color contrast, black text is a safe choice that works well in most fields. Avoid the opposite trap as well. A resume with little or no formatting can also be hard to read.

Microsoft's Screen Reader Support for Word page provides links to articles about using a screen reader to perform various tasks in Word.

Avoid ATS Pitfalls

Many companies use ATS software to extract information from your resume before a person reads it. Certain formatting choices can disrupt that process and conceal important details such as your contact information, education, and experience.

To make your resume readable by ATS software:

Put contact information in the body of the document, never in the header or footer.
Use standard section headings such as "Experience" and "Education," not creative labels.
Include a separate "Skills" section.
Avoid tables, text boxes, and columns, which can scramble the reading order.
Avoid logos, photos, images, and special characters.
Use standard round or square bullets.
Format all dates consistently.
Incorporate the exact job title and keywords from the posting in a natural way.
Use the file format the posting requests. When it does not specify a format, a Word (.docx) file is usually a safe default. A text-based PDF preserves layout and works in most current systems, but some systems may handle PDFs differently. Avoid scanned or image-based PDFs because software may not read them correctly.

Some job seekers use online ATS checkers to check how they extract content from their resumes. If you decide to use an ATS checker, make sure the tool is accessible with your technology and review its privacy terms before you upload personal information. Another option is to save a copy of your resume in plain text and review it to ensure your contact information, job titles, dates, and education appear in the correct order. These checks can show you how ATS software will likely read your resume, so you can catch potential problems before you apply. For more information about ATS-friendly formatting, MIT's Career Advising & Professional Development website offers guidance and resources.

Check Formatting and Visual Presentation

Visual formatting can affect hiring decisions, so checking it is worth the effort. The goal is to develop a reliable routine that does not depend on guesswork.

These three practices can work together:

First, choose a simple layout. A single column, standard headings, generous spacing, and no decorative graphics reduce the number of visual elements that can go wrong while keeping your resume readable by software.

Second, use your word processor's built-in styles for headings, lists, and structure rather than formatting each line by hand. Built-in styles do double duty. They provide consistent visual output and allow screen reader software to navigate the document by heading.

Third, use a visual review as a quality check. Ask someone to check the layout, ideally a person with resume expertise, to confirm that the spacing, alignment, and overall appearance look clean.

Here's sample language you could use or modify:

Could you review my resume for visual formatting? I do not need wording or content edits right now. Please check whether the spacing is consistent, section headings stand out, dates and job titles line up cleanly, page breaks are in the right places, and the overall document looks professional and uncluttered.

Reference

Antonelli, K., Cmar, J. L., & Dabbs, S. M. (2025). Resumes of job seekers with visual impairments: Characteristics and quality. The New RE:view, 3(2), 69–84. https://doi.org/10.56733/TNR.24.016

Section 5: Use Technology and Feedback Wisely

This section covers several tools that can help you review and revise your resume: AI, your assistive technology, proofreading tools, and human feedback. These tools can strengthen your resume, but each one works best when you stay in control of the decisions.

Use AI Without Outsourcing Your Judgment

AI tools can help you write a stronger resume, but only when you control the content. AI tools cannot decide what is true about you, what matters most, or how to present your experience strategically. Those decisions are yours.

AI also has its own traps. It can produce generic wording that could describe anyone, inflate your accomplishments beyond what you can support, or generate text that sounds polished but has no substance. It can even invent details that are not accurate.

Before uploading your resume or other personal documents to an AI tool, review the information you are sharing. Consider removing details such as your phone number, location, and disability-related information to protect your privacy.

Here are some ways AI can speed up parts of the resume writing process:

Use AI to brainstorm wording, action verbs, and ways to phrase an accomplishment.
Ask AI to compare your resume with a job posting and identify missing keywords.
Use AI to tighten a bullet that feels clunky or wordy.

If you use AI for help with phrasing, check the results against these questions:

Is it true?
Is it specific to me?
Does the tone fit?
Does it still sound like me?

Keep what passes, and rewrite what does not.

Check the Structure With Assistive Technology

Your assistive technology can help you confirm that your resume is built correctly, not just that it reads well. Section 5 covers using your word processor's built-in styles to verify visual output. The same structured styles also make your document easier to navigate and review with a screen reader.

Here are a few useful checks. Run your word processor's built-in accessibility checker to identify structural problems. Review your headings and lists with your screen reader or magnifier to confirm that your sections are labeled and ordered the way you intended. Use screen reader heading navigation or the Navigation pane (might be called Document Outline) to confirm each major section is formatted as a real heading. Use list navigation or arrow through bullets to confirm every bullet is part of the same list style. Together, these steps help you confirm that the visual structure matches the structure you built.

Proofread With the Tools You Have

Catching errors before an employer does is one of the highest-value steps you can take, since language mistakes are both common and heavily penalized, as Section 5 explains.

Built-in proofreading tools, such as your word processor's spelling and grammar checker, catch many common errors. Run them on every version of your resume. They will not catch everything, so pair them with a careful review of your own and a second review by another person.

If you use a refreshable braille display, do a braille proofreading pass. Speech output is useful for flow and wording, but braille can help you catch punctuation issues, incorrect capitalization, extra spaces, and spelling errors. If you use a screen reader, you can also use it to proofread for these types of errors, though doing so may take some time. If you use magnification, do a review at your preferred magnification level, then zoom out enough to check page breaks and spacing if possible. If you use speech input, check carefully for missing punctuation, incorrect words, and words that sound the same but have different meanings or spellings.

Get Useful Human Feedback

Another person can catch issues that tools and your own review may miss, but who you ask matters as much as what you ask.

The most useful reviewers have relevant expertise. For example, you might ask a resume expert, a vocational rehabilitation counselor, or a career counselor. Friends and family can be encouraging, but they may not know what employers in your field expect, so do not rely on them alone.

You could ask different reviewers for feedback on different aspects of your resume. A vocational rehabilitation or career counselor can check content and job fit. A resume expert can check format and wording. A sighted reviewer can check spacing and visual layout. An assistive technology specialist can help troubleshoot document structure and styles.

When you ask for feedback, be specific about what you need. You get more useful feedback when you ask specific questions instead of "What do you think?" The [insert link to Get Better Resume Feedback document] provides suggested questions to ask.

Develop a Workflow

Create a resume review workflow that uses the tools that work best for you. Use more than one pass instead of trying to catch everything at once. Here’s an example:

Structure pass: Navigate by headings and lists to confirm that sections and bullets are in the right order.
Content pass: Read each section to make sure it includes the right information. Get feedback on job fit, clarity, language, and tone.
Bullet pass: Review each bullet line by line. Make sure each one starts with a strong action verb and describes an accomplishment, result, or relevant skill.
Proofreading pass: Use a spelling and grammar checker. Then, review spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and spacing on your own.
Plain-text or ATS pass: Convert the resume to plain text or use an ATS checker to assess compatibility with screening software.
Visual pass: Ask a trusted reviewer to check spacing, alignment, page breaks, and overall appearance.

Section 6: Tailor It and Apply

A strong resume is a starting point, not a finished product you send everywhere. This section covers how to tailor your resume for each application, how to use a cover letter strategically, and how to keep improving as you go.

Tailor Your Resume to Each Job

The resume you built is your master version. For each application, adjust it to match the specific posting.

Tailoring is usually quick once you have a strong master resume. Review the job posting carefully. Then, adjust your professional summary to fit the role, move your most relevant skills and experience to the top, reorder bullets so your strongest evidence comes first, and include the exact keywords and job title from the posting. Remove content that does not relate to the position. Keep track of which version you used for each application, so you can follow up accurately and reuse your best tailoring next time. It can be helpful to use a spreadsheet to track your applications, resume versions, and related details, but use the method that works best for you.

Use a Cover Letter to Add Value

A cover letter can be a strategic companion to your resume, but it is not required for every job. It earns its place when it adds something the resume cannot address on its own.

For example, a cover letter can explain a career change, connect your background to a role that is not an obvious match, or briefly address a gap in your work history. When writing a cover letter, keep it short, tie your experience directly to the employer's needs, and proofread it as carefully as you proofread your resume.

Address Gaps and Disclosure in a Cover Letter

A cover letter can be used to address employment gaps and disclosure better than a resume because it gives you space to add brief context in your own words.

If you explain an employment gap in a cover letter, stick to the facts and make it brief, then move quickly to what you can contribute now. A cover letter is not the place for a medical narrative. If you choose to disclose before an interview, a cover letter may give you more space than a resume to share the relevant information and connect it to your qualifications. Deciding whether, when, and how to disclose is covered in Section 2.

APH ConnectCenter CareerConnect offers cover letter guidance tailored to blind and low vision job seekers, including how to address gaps and frame disclosure, a useful resource.

Consider Federal Jobs

Schedule A is one possible federal hiring path for eligible people with disabilities. It gives federal agencies a way to consider qualified applicants with disabilities through a non-competitive process, but it does not guarantee a job. Using Schedule A requires disability documentation, but the documentation does not need to include diagnosis, medical history, or accommodation needs. Federal hiring rules can change, so confirm that Schedule A and its requirements have not changed if you plan to use it.

If you apply this way, USAJOBS recommends including your Schedule A eligibility on your resume or cover letter. Federal resumes may follow different length and content rules than the resumes in this toolkit, so check the requirements before you apply.

Stay Current

Your resume should grow with you, not sit unchanged between job searches.

Save each version you tailor, track where you applied, and note which changes seemed to improve your results. Over time, you will build a set of strong, reusable pieces and learn what works for your field and career stage. The resources included in this toolkit can help you keep your resume current as hiring tools and practices change.

We Can Help!

The contents of this toolkit were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NIDILRR grant 90RTEM0007. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Health and Human Services and should not indicate endorsement by the Federal Government.