Bring your karma
Join the waitlist today
HUMBLECAT.ORG

Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2020 - 12 - 22 - ID#kiiutp
3
21 year old blind student: Advice on working anxiety (self.Blind)
submitted by halfblindstudent
Hello, new to the whole reddit thing, so forgive any formatting issues. As I said in my title. I'm a blind student who's feeling quite nervous about starting some part time work. As an aside, I am pursuing a degree in IT for my long term career. But, in the meantime-over breaks and during the school semester-I'd like to pick up some part time work for savings and extra expenses. The problem is that I'm almost frozen with fear and anxiety over being judged and bullied about my disability on the job. I know I should be over this sort of thing at my age but I'm not.

​

I'd appreciate any advice or experiences similar to mine. I'm feeling pretty pathetic to be honest with you all.
DrillInstructorJan 5 points 2y ago
People will judge you. Everyone judges everyone, at some level. It's really unlikely for it to cause a big issue and there's nothing you can do about it so don't sweat it.

It depends to an extent on what you end up doing. If you choose something where the disability makes zero or near zero difference, you've nothing to worry about. If you're doing something where you might have to ask for a favour, then sure, I know that pain, it's not ideal. You are massively unlikely to get bullied for it, though. What kind of person would even do that? And if you meet anyone who does, you honestly don't want to work with them anyway. They'll also be a really isolated case and basically everyone around them will think they're a dick. And they know that. So they don't do it.

What helps is that you arrive on time, stand up straight, you're well turned out, clean and tidy, speaking clearly and with a positive attitude. If you need something, ask for it. Apologise for the hassle, if you like. Never hurts to be nice. Phrase it like anyone would phrase anything. Oh, you know what, it'd be really great if you could just... thanks yeah, sorry to mess you about. Brilliant.

Some of it comes with practice, so it'll be easier the second and third time, but most of it's just about walking in with the right attitude. Easier said than done, sometimes, but you can work on it.
mehgcap 3 points 2y ago
Everyone is different about handling their disability. My job interview was half about IT, and half questions from my future boss about how I use a phone, what my dog does for me, how I use computers, and so on. Knowing my technology well really helped, as I could explain how I use things, work around problems, and so on. I'm not at all bothered by people asking me about being blind, though I know others can be. As long as questions are asked from a place of honest curiosity, I'm happy to explain.

As to being bullied or teased, this depends on the people doing the teasing. True bullying is, of course, a very different matter than joking around. People at work often say things to me that plenty of people would find highly offensive, but I know these people enough to know that they're joking with me. I truly don't mind, and will often poke fun at my blindness myself. I know this isn't a solution for everyone, but getting more comfortable with being blind will make it easier if you wind up with people who aren't afraid to make fun of you. It's usually the case that people like that will make fun of each other--you're blind, that dude's fat, this guy is super short, whatever it is. If it gets too hard to take, that's what HR departments are for, and as the jobs you've mentioned aren't integral to your career, this is a good way to gain experience in the work force without impacting your experience of the IT field.

It also helps to know your strengths and where your blindness simply makes you less effective. For instance, I'm a pretty good sys admin, so that and duties for coding certain systems are on me. But if I have a bunch of files and need to very quickly know if a git merge will change too much, I'll call up a sighted colleague and ask him to run the diff and tell me if there's anything important. He can visually skim it many times faster than I could review it line by line, so in the interest of expediency, and if I know he's not busy with some critical task, I'll ask him to take 30 seconds to give me a hand.

I'm rambling on, and I feel like people will down vote this because they'll take my comments as me telling you to just "suck it up." I'm not. I'm telling you to get as comfortable as you can with your blindness, to realize when people are teasing you in the same way they'd tease anyone, and to know whom to go to if it gets to be too much. There's no shame in bringing HR into it--that's why they are there. I'm also telling you to know your limits, to work through the ones you can and be up front about the ones that will always be there. Was I a good sys admin five years ago? No, that was a limit on my abilities I removed by learning. Was I a fast code reviewer? No, and that limit will be there as long as I'm still blind. I hope you get what I'm saying, and that you realize I'm trying to offer honest advice. I'm not trying to tell you to toughen up and take it, or anything like that. Just don't be afraid to move out of your comfort zone.
DrillInstructorJan 2 points 2y ago
I won't vote you down for that, you're exactly right.

Getting all offended over super woke social justice bullshit is really counterproductive. If someone making a dumb joke is enough to upset anyone's peace of mind, the problem isn't the dumb joke, it's having self esteem in the first place. And honestly most of the time people making dumb jokes is either them being uncomfortable, which I'm very very happy to help them with by laughing at their dumb joke, or them being so comfortable with you that they feel OK doing it, which I am also very happy to support. You're not really sucking it up, you're engaging in a useful social interaction with the specific goal of making people not feel weird.

And like you said, yes, it makes sense to get 30 seconds of help to save yourself 30 minutes.

Yeah it gets old but like you say you could be really short and have people make comments about that. Oh no, wait, I am really short.

In terms of really serious unpleasant bullying it has literally never happened. Or at least I never interpreted it in that way.
siriuslylupin6 1 points 2y ago
I am actually really short and get both. If it’s good natured joking I agree and I’ve never had otherwise either.
retrolental_morose 2 points 2y ago
what a reply. I work in IT too and this is spot on - although i have to suck it up with code review because most of my colleagues refuse to put themselves through it, but I have metacomments and breakpoints to help.

everything you say about joking, hr, learning, totally agree.
halfblindstudent [OP] 1 points 2y ago
I really appreciate the thoughtful and extensive response. It gives me confidence knowing there are others in my field of interest.

To follow up on your advice about meeting the right kind of people on the job or moving up to HR, I certainly agree. However, most of the jobs I’ve worked in the past were temp positions-menial labor and the sort. Not that it really matters, but a lot of those positions are filled with pretty unsavory types. Young kids and folks down in there luck. (As another aside, I’m a black guy. I don’t stay in the best neighborhood if you understand me.)

That’s a huge point in why I’m striving to start a career in IT. I can cut out the fat of those other low entry positions I’m used to working.
ttp43 2 points 2y ago
If it is for a part-time job, it might work to go to the store and say you’re seeking employment, and then ask if you can trial some job tasks, for free. It might help to show that you can do it and also the employer will notice what works best for you. Hopefully, if you get a good manager they’ll support you and help you get a role there. Don’t work for free for long though! But it might help alleviate some of the pressure.
halfblindstudent [OP] 1 points 2y ago
To give more context on the whole “bullying” term. I had to leave the last position I was in because a worker on the floor was physically threatening me after I confronted him on some ignorant comments he made about my disability.

I’m definitely not one of those “safe space” types. I just ask for mutual respect.
CareersfortheBlindFM 1 points 2y ago
I think most people that are blind or visually impaired feel similar to how you're feeling when they first start looking for work. Something that i did was to find a few mentors in the field that i was interested in and ask for their guidance. Even if you're looking for part time work, seeking some advice from someone who has held that position would be a great start. Also, it doesn't have to be a blind person. A sighted person with an open mind could be a great mentor as well.
K-R-Rose 1 points 2y ago
Wow I am in the exact same situation. I’m looking for jobs “in the back” or ones where no one will bother me. I’m hoping to get a job where I just fill someone’s order for pickup at somewhere like Target. Worst comes to worst, I’ll be a bagger. There’s no way I can do much of anything text based. Typing my credit card pin is a struggle for me lol
This nonprofit website is run by volunteers.
Please contribute if you can. Thank you!
Our mission is to provide everyone with access to large-
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
©2023 HumbleCat Inc   •   HumbleCat is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Michigan, USA.