I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling this, but I'd like to provide some context as to what brought this topic up for me.

I'm a nineteen year old nursing assistant who eventually wants to go on to become a paramedic. I'd like to work in some tactical capacity, such as a flight medic or in disaster relief EMS, if possible.
I recently joined Americorps NCCC, and I leave a few days from now.

I was able to find something of a testimony from another blind person in NCCC $1 , and it's roughly what I expected.
They did fine with the work, but had a fair amount of difficulty convincing management that they were able to do even things like navigate the training campus independently.

I read as sighted. I exploit the hell out of this.
My life has become a sort of balancing act between changing people's misconceptions about blindness and being able to breathe fpr a few minutes without having to prove that I can do something I have no trouble with to be allowed the opportunity to do literally anything. I usually land in the precarious zone of either not disclosing my vision or merely saying that my optic nerves are damaged- which nobody seems to know the meaning of, conveniently enough- for at least the first month or so of doing stuff so that people KNOW I'm capable before the word 'blind' comes out of my mouth. I do it in theatre, I do it in volunteer work, and I'll probably do it a lot more as I get older.
It doesn't always work. People's opinions still sometimes change when they find out, which annoys me to no end. I want to change people's misconceptions, sure, mostly for the ease of the next blind person they run into, but I also want to live my life. Getting my certification as a nurse's assistant, I was lucky enough to have two teachers who saw me for what I could do rather than just the fact that I had to use my phone camera to read some things. They actually encouraged me to become a phlebotomist when I showed a knack for finding veins, despite many of my classmates saying that they'd never let a blind person draw their blood with, of course, no offense intented.

As for NCCC, I'm probably just going to say that I have optic nerve damage for the duration of the year, primarily because I don't want to face more difficulty if I choose to work with them again. I'll probably have to do that for a lot of my life, especially considering my aversion of working a desk job.

I suppose my reason for posting is that I'm irritated with my life being more of a performance review than just a life. I'm curious as to similar experiences or advice, as well as if any of you work in more hands-on jobs.

I might also just be venting, haha. Sorry about the throwaway account, my main login is broken.