Hi everyone,
I am a fourth year veterinary student with a congenital malformation in my retina that gives me uncorrectable low vision with a side of horrendous color blindness. Getting into veterinary school with this impairment was kinda hard, convincing said veterinary school to give me the tools to stay was even harder, and navigating the job market and starting a professional career is already promising to be a shitstorm. My school is super progressive and most people here support what I’m doing, but when I have a problem they often do not have the knowledge or resources to help me solve it. I end up doing a lot of my own research, and last week, when I was trying to figure out how to disclose a visual impairment to a potential employer, I stumbled across an entire community of deaf medical professionals that network and advocate for themselves. It’s called AMPHL and it’s awesome. Google it.
We should have something like that. There are blind and low vision people working in all fields of medicine - veterinarians, people doctors, nurses, technicians, receptionists, therapists. We are here despite the fact that the culture in medicine is REALLY not blind-friendly because we love what we do and we’re good at it. We should organize and advocate for ourselves and work to make medicine a more inclusive place.
So I guess what I’m saying is, if you’re blind or visually impaired, you work in the medical field, and you want to see a more inclusive working environment, we should talk. Shoot me a message. (OR if you know anyone who fits that description you should encourage them to shoot me a message) (OR if you know of anyone who is already trying to do this, please point me in their direction)
Thanks so much!