You've done a better job articulating my experience than I have ever been able to. Especially the bits about the dog and the dishwasher. I've learned to slide my feet around the areas I know he likes to relax so I can avoid kicking him in the face. Again.

I've felt the feat about work. I had a job and folks there were understanding and supportive, but I needed to move on. I hit a ceiling and I wasn't going to let my eyes be what limited me, so I started applying. I decided to be up front in my interviews. I have a visual condition that makes some things more difficult, but modern tools let me do my job as a developer just as well as any sighted person. I found a new job and they're as supportive as I could have hoped for. They adapted to the remote world of Covid incredibly well and are dedicated to keeping that as an option post-Covid, so I don't need to worry about getting to work. If I do want to go in, I can use public transportation to get into town to visit folks in the office.

> I complain sometimes but life is good. I wouldn't trade places with anybody

Happy to hear it!

I lost my sight as a teen so had to learn everything from scratch. I'm 40 now and some days are just difficult and/or depressing. Not being able to drive is probably the worst thing for me. Just not having the freedom and flexibility that people who can drive have, and take for granted, really pisses me off.

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I am looking forward to owning a self driving tesla whenever that is actually available! that would be a real game changer! Interestingly though, when I talk about this idea with sighted people who drive, most of them have a reaction like "Oh, yeah, well, that's not really going to be for you."

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Also, the amount of people who just assume you can drive and then when you inform them you can't, they don't have much to say.

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Relating to that last point, it's ironic that living in the places we'd thrive much more in due to good to great public transit, is pretty much impossible as it's so hard to land a job that actually pays enough to allow you to live in those sorts of places. (New York city, Boston, San fran to name three of them.)

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I have a BA degree and decent employment history but it's so damn hard trying to get a job with decent pay. I have two kids and when I've told voc rehab people that I'm interested in a job that pays between $20 and $30 an hour with a benafits package, they hem and haw and have no answers at the end of the day. One of them suggested I apply for a job that paid ten dollars an hour with pretty much no hope of promotion. What the hell am I going to do with ten dollars an hour? That's $1600 a month before taxes. Even renting a one bedroom apartment in a place with really good public transit is going to run you a grand or more before utilities. (I'm looking at you Boston.) With two kids and a partner, we'd have to find a three bedroom place so that easily pushes your rent up to over $2500 if you're lucky.

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I'm hearing so much about this booming job market and about how employers are bending over backwards to try and fill open positions with signing bonuses and higher salaries etc. As a totally blind person, this has not been my experience. All but one of the places I applied at recently even bothered to send me a rejection letter/e-mail!

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Things would be a little better if the SSI limitations were anywhere near reasonable because this is freaking 2021. They expect you to try and find employment but they make it so damn difficult in so many ways. for example: if you apply for a job and have to move, your security deposit, first month's rent, and last month's rent can easily run over three thousand dollars. How are you supposed to pull that off if the max amount of savings you can have is two thousand dollars? I love how they have no answers to these questions by the way! Also, when you work freelance/part time, as I am doing currently, good luck reporting your income because nine times out of ten, they will screw something up. The whole damn system needs an overhaul and it's long overdue.

Try cats who love to sleep on the stairs. They don't get sad, they get mad, then you get the claws.

This is brilliant!! I’d love to see others do something similar. Great job

What an amazing list. Thank you for sharing.

This is a good post. Damn near tripped over the dishwasher door today also. I'd opened it myself, though.

Great list. I definitely concur on being bored without having a job since becoming legally blind. I’m considering signing up for vocational rehab for the blind or whatever it’s called, through my state but I’m scared too.

I can definitely understand where you’re coming from, sometimes being blind can be a bit daunting at times; but yet we as the blind community we stick together, and I understand exactly what it’s like with having the opportunity to have a job, but then losing that job, and having to find another one. If you would like to talk, about your recent blindness, please feel free to send me a private message and let us chat.