By Deb Kallen, Communications Assistant
I work with Rosemary here at 211info. We sit opposite each other. I can easily make eye contact with her when we talk back and forth. It took me a while to realize that, even though she looks right back at me, she could only see the outline of my face and body.
Rosemary has been on an interesting path since her optic nerve got wiped out after a stroke and rendered her blind. She was in her late forties then. For the next several years, she was a client of the Commission for the Blind where she received vocational rehabilitation services.
Over the past few months since I arrived at 211, I’ve gotten bits and pieces of Rosemary’s story. A few strings stand out for me: One, she can tell when someone is smiling by the tone of the person’s voice. Two, she can tell the difference between a Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke, thanks to her ability to distinguish color.
But the third piece blows me away. It’s about something that never should have happened. It’s about job discrimination.
Job hunting as finding a needle in a haystack
Rosemary did go back to work after she became blind. But a couple of years ago, she got laid off. She then began a long and unsuccessful search for an unpaid internship to boost her chances of getting back into the work force.
After contacting five workplaces and explaining her blindness as well as the accommodations provided to her by the Commission for the Blind, not one of them was willing to talk with her in person. “How could I prove that I could perform a job if I couldn’t get one?” she said. She believed she was a victim of job discrimination because of her blindness, but all she could do was forge ahead and keep trying to get hired.
The sixth workplace she approached, about a year and a half ago, was 211info and the management said yes, we’d like to talk to you. After the interview, they said, yes, come and work here. Remember, this was set up as a win-win situation - a chance for Rosemary to get back into the job market and a chance for 211info to benefits from the skills of a much-needed volunteer.
The Commission for the Blind delivered her closed caption TV screen to the 211 office as well as a reader that can decode the printed word and “read aloud” to her. The Commission also installed computer software that automatically enlarges whatever is on her screen. 211 staff (they’re great!) set up her work station and off she went.
A happy ending to a daunting job search
Rosemary may be blind but she has been very successful here. A few months ago, she was hired as a half-time employee. Senator Jeff Merkley sent her a letter extending his “personal congratulations.” “You are to be commended for taking advantage of the valuable services the Commission provides,” he wrote. “Your placement at 211 Information Services is testimony of your hard work…” he continued.
Rosemary was thrilled that her achievement was noticed from such high places.
I think much of Rosemary’s hard work, as Sen. Merkley put it, was about persevering after constant and needless rejection, not about learning to thrive as a blind person in a primarily sighted workplace. She came to 211info with a great resume reflecting years in the electronics field, part of that time training co-workers as a lead department supervisor. As her co-worker, every day I can see she has a gift for organization and a penchant for details. Communication skills, check. Team player, check.
“I didn’t think I’d ever work again because nobody would take me on,” she told me. “But here at 211, they weren’t afraid of my disability.”
My intention in writing this post is not about tooting the 211info management team horn. Rather, it’s about recognizing that employers may have a ways to go in putting aside their biases against people with disabilities. For 211 and other nonprofit agencies that interface daily with disadvantaged people, we need to continually set an example by demonstrating a non-judgmental approach in our hiring practices. We need to live our mission of commitment to making the world better for people less fortunate – not only as service providers but as employers.
What a wonderful story. I too am partly blind and have a job. I never thought I would work again to having a job has opened up new opportunities. I work for a hearing doctor. I'm blind in my right eye and low vision in the left.
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