You can do whatever you set your mind to! :) I'm a legally blind graphic designer and have worked in fast food and a warehouse, prove everyone wrong and do what you wanna do :)
Try using assistive tech whenever possible or come up with a system so you know where each perscription is

How serious is your vision impairment? Can you, with a magnifier, read the letters on medication like asprin and Aleve? If so, there should be no issue.

There also will always be jobs other than counting meds, such as checking for interactions, calling doctors offices to request a correction or other needed information,verifying controlled substance subscriptions, checking that the bottle and the printed slip match, making sure that the correct warning labels and medication information are included, explaining risk to people, discussing health issues that they haven't brought to a doctor for whatever reason, etc.

If you can also learn a second language, whatever's particularly popular in your area, that could help you get that job much easier, and open up other avenues. In my area, knowing spanish or a few middle eastern languages is very helpful and makes you look like a much better candidate than those that are monolingual.

Also, you will never be the only person to check a medication in a good pharmacy.

I have some experience working in a pharmacy, and as someone who is low-vision, I'll admit there are challenges sometimes, but they're not insurmountable. If it would help, show your mom this post. $1

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I'm legally blind, and while my reading vision is okay, I basically have severe tunnel vision that makes finding things on counters difficult, especially if it gets moved or if it's small. That being said, I get by just fine with a few extra tools like a magnifying glass, a larger screen for the computer I use, and a tray like you might find at a cafeteria to keep pills from rolling away if one tries to escape.

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If you're counting pills to fill prescription bottles, you should know that some pills are going to be super tiny. For instance, I was on one cholesterol med for a while where each pill was like the size of a single grain of rice. If it would help, see if your employer would be willing to provide or let you bring in a large magnifier with a light to help with tiny pills like that. This can be compounded by having to wear rubber gloves which can reduce your tactile feedback a bit, but it isn't an insurmountable obstacle.

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As for other stuff like reading labels or using the computer to process prescriptions, I'm fairly certain that's something you could do with the right combination of assistive tech suited for your vision. Whether it's one of those cameras hooked up to a TTS program so you can snap a pic of the bottle and have it read to you, or just a CCTV magnifier or whatever works best for your particular eyesight problem.

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One of the things my pharmacy does is pill boxes for nursing homes, where you have to prepare a week's worth of meds for a patient according to the instructions on their pill bottles. When a worker, sight-impaired or not, finishes a box, it has to be inspected by a pharmacist to give the okay, so if you wind up with a similar arrangement, you can tailor your tasks to your capabilities.


Based on my experience, if you can count to ninety, are capable of asking for accommodations when you need them, and are willing to do what it takes to become a certified pharm tech, go for it. So long as they don't expect you to be the one driving to make deliveries to nursing homes or whatever, I think you'll do fine enough. But it's also important to recognize when mistakes happen, and talk with your coworkers to see if you need more or different accommodations or if it was just a flub like sighted people make sometimes when they're tired or stressed or distracted by hearing that one coworker's story about how their cat threw up in the ficus again.

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Best of luck, OP!

I don't know what it's like to be blind. I don't know what it's like to be a pharmacy tech.

I don't know if you'd make a good one. Neither do you, yet. Neither does your mom. Neither does anyone else. The only way to find out is to try.

Go for the gold.

I am currently a pharmacy tech and live with a visually impaired roommate. I love that you have this dream, but I am worried. Some medications are so close in names that we use tall man lettering to differentiate between medications that are one letter apart. Pharmacy techs also deal with loads of legal matters like counting schedule 2 meds, documenting EVERYTHING, and constantly having to work fast. It is very easy to get sued or lose your chance at advancing in the medical field due to a small mess up in a pharm tech job. Due to opiods and all the drug drama in the news lately, pharmacies are under even more scrutiny than usual.

I do not want to offend you, I just want to be realistic, but I don't see this working out. However I do not know your level of vision and I do wish it could work out. I saw a comment suggesting for you to volunteer or shadow and see if you could handle it. I think that is your best idea moving forward. Best of luck.

Look, it is a valid concern that you'll mix up things (so be extra careful, you're dealing directly with people's health), build I assure you you can do it. Blind here and about to graduate next year on Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

Use the computer as much as you can (if you can choose not to use paper receipts it would be ideal). With the computer you are as capable as anyone else.

Here in Portugal some pharmacies use robots to fetch the medications, handwritten prescriptions are a thing of a distant past, paper prescriptions come with a bar code and are slowly being phased out in favor of text messages sent to people's phones, and medications contain all the relevant information embossed in Braille, so as long as you can locate the bar codes on paper prescriptions and read text messages from customers' phones there is absolutely no problem.

With every phone acting as magnifying glass, small print on lables shouldn't be the breaking factor. You cant do EVERYTHING. I would not want you (or me, also visually impaired) as an airline pilot. But in matters such as this, approach your mother and prospective employers with reasonable solutions to hurdles. Have a positive attitude, and demonstrate you will do what it takes. You'll be fine

I think that with the right organizing and labelling one can achieve anything. However, it seems from your post as if you only want to take the course because it will be a lucrative position, and not because it's something which is your passion, have you considered that aspect?

idk bro, I'm blind, and take prescriptions, which makes it tougher to verify those are correct. So, having a blind pharmacist might make me a bit... ahhhh... nervous. Now, if you find a way to do it with the same level of competency as sighted techs, then who am I to stop ya.

I’d go to you’re local pharmacy, tell them your interest, and ask to volunteer/observe for an hour or a day. That way you could determine if it’s for you and if so what accommodations you might need. If you decide to pursue it you’d have a reference. Good luck!

Maybe something as simple as using your camera on your phone to zoom in? That might work depending on your level of vision.

I say DO IT! Step to the challenge.