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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2021 - 01 - 02 - ID#kp9enb
13
Careers (self.Blind)
submitted by baistei
What does everyone do for a living? I'm legally blind (20/400) and color blind. I'm 33. Considering going back to college because I've only ever worked very low wage jobs or been on ssdi. I used to be able to do cashier stuff pretty easily but the last few cashier jobs I had I just memorized where the buttons were on the screen. Though I was quite proud of that, I do not think future employers would be lol. Covid makes it especially hard because I can't seem to figure out how to wear glasses and a mask successfully still. I've tried everything! Just looking for any ideas or inspiration.
LadyAlleta 3 points 2y ago
Court Reporting. It's a hard skill that you don't need vision for. You can graduate in two years. Employment is easy to get and they pay well.
Sereniitty 3 points 2y ago
My gf ( blind since birth ) is at university in social work. She helps the elderly to accept and give them tools to help them in their lost of senses as viewing or earing loss. Everything she learned from birth to survive this world, she wants to share it to others to give them an opportunity to live their life's as autonomously as possible. Well, you ask and there is my answer. I find it very honorable to earn a life that way so I think it's a very good an healthy way to make an earnings. But I have learned that coding is also something that the visually impaired can very freaking well do. Oh and in our technological world, very useful and we'll paid. I hope it helps or give you ideas and what ever you choose to do, I wish you an happy and well fullfil life!
Marconius 2 points 2y ago
i'm totally blind and I'm an Accessibility Specialist, helping to test and make apps and websites usable by people with disabilities. I primarily contract with Lyft, but do independent consulting with a few Accessibility testing companies and directly with clients through my networking. I work directly with designers and engineers and would like to build my way up to being an accessibility engineer.

I studied animation and media arts in college and was hyper visual, having a successful design and senior animator and visual FX artist until I lost all of my vision in 2014, so this has been a massive shift. I'm happy that I could find this niche by showcasing my knowledge of design and engineering from my jobs before the vision loss. You can get a free scholarship to DeQue University if you are interested in learning about accessibility:

$1
TwistyTurret 2 points 2y ago
My husband, blind since birth, is a computer programmer.
AlwaysLilly 2 points 2y ago
I WAH doing basic SEO optimization work that’s great in that I can adjust the screen on my computer to suit my vision, but it’s isolating. I’ve also done freelance writing in the past but as a full time job that was utterly exhausting, and I don’t love being on the computer all day.

Before COVID, I’d been wanting to work outside my house more — ideally in a library or a school but now that driving is a lot more difficult and I live in a very rural area, I’m sticking to at home work. I also have hearing problems, so while I have a lot of customer service/retail experience, the atmosphere in those jobs doesn’t mesh well with my hearing/vision issues.
siriuslylupin6 1 points 2y ago
Political science student thinking about switching over to assistivce tech. Otherwise I’ve been doing a lot of work in the blind community mentored taught assistivce tech for a few months, advocacy, did a committee and was the advocate, did a few panels and did a documentary and help out here and there.
casmithva 1 points 2y ago
I've been a software engineer for about 30 years now, working primarily on the back-end, behind-the-scenes stuff and not user-facing websites or user interfaces. I have 20/300 vision and am extremely light-sensitive, due to albinism, and while I am not color-blind, the light sensitivity is so severe that it can distort my perception of color. I use primarily Apple products because I've found them to be more accessible—e.g., effortless screen magnification, plus dark mode, together with a large monitor. I also wear telescopic glasses from $1. I chose this industry because I felt, even back in the late \`80s, that it would be more adaptable to my visual limitations than other careers, and I think that, for the most part, that's been true. College, for me, was brutal. Adaptive technologies either did not exist or were prohibitively expensive back then, and the endless reading led to endless migraines. "Accessibility" and "accommodations" were not familiar concepts to college administrators or professors back then, so I had to be my own advocate and find solutions to problems on my own. Nowadays, with changes in technology and attitude, I think university is more realistic for the visually impaired, at least in North America and Europe (not familiar with the rest of the world). Choose a career path that is suitable to you and your situation and then figure out how much education that really requires. Bring your own assistive technologies and accommodations and be your own advocate; don't expect a university to bend over backwards to help. They might, or they may only go so far. The experience will probably be as invaluable to you as the academics.
Sal0170 1 points 2y ago
Currently working as a C.N.A I received my certificate in about four months and became certified in March
PsychAce 1 points 2y ago
Go into psychology/counseling. Bachelors and Masters degree is all you need to be a counselor
baistei [OP] 1 points 2y ago
I'm looking for something that I could do sooner than 6 years from now. The last time I took college courses was over ten years ago and I only completed a few.
psychgamer2014 1 points 2y ago
I’m a soon-to-be behavior analyst (taking the exam in April) and psychology professor.
petite4eyes 1 points 2y ago
Definitely consider going back to college. Education means opportunity. Even an associate’s degree may open doors!
baistei [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Having a hard time decided what to go back for though. Everything seems so computer based these days and I'm terrible with screens unless I can hold them 3 inches from my face.
petite4eyes 1 points 2y ago
Play to your strengths. Think about what you excel at, and study that. Talk to a guidance counselor who may have some ideas. Good luck!
momopeach7 1 points 2y ago
As for the glasses and mask thing, I have trouble with that as well. I wear it at work for 10-12 hours and sometimes the mask makes the difference. One where you can pinch the bridge and top of the mask helps a little to prevent fogging. Putting on glasses after your mask helps when needing to remove your mask like for meals.
marazomeno 2 points 2y ago
On the glasses thing, I watched a youtube video about diving basics and the person said there's anti-fogging liquid but they just use toothpaste. I haven't tried it, because it seemed like a bad idea to rub toothpaste on my glasses. But maybe someone else has tried either of these?

Edit: apparently it truly is a thing to rub toothpaste (or shaving cream, or spit) on goggles for antifogging, but they're abrasive so the special liquid is best.
baistei [OP] 1 points 2y ago
I just tried the shaving cream trick the other day. Felt silly but worked better than anything else so far. Immediately stopped working when I went outside though.
AlwaysLilly 1 points 2y ago
For the glasses, the technician at my last eye appointment put masking tape on the nose part of my cloth mask, like a bridge thing and that helped a ton. The masks with bridge pieces you can pinch don’t seem to do much for me. I also find with plain cloth masks, if I put the top of the mask under my glasses, the frames will usually hold it down the mask enough.
baistei [OP] 1 points 2y ago
It's really only the fogging that bothers me. I've tried about twenty different "anti fogging" masks and do like the nose punching ones the most. I'm still foggy the entire time though.
swissy_queen 0 points 2y ago
Human resources and business administration
Tschallacka -1 points 2y ago
Think out a story, record it, make a youtube video out of it, put it on spotify, sell on audible.
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