As a Rehabilitation Counselor and a writer for Proyecto Vision, I tend to write articles that are well within my frame of expertise. As a Rehabilitation educator, I am challenged to rise outside of my comfort zone and learn new ideas about how to work with persons of different conditions or disabilities. I have always wondered what it would be like to be blind or visually impaired.

During my college education years, I had little experience with students with blindness, which did not challenge me to experience new people with disabilities. Because of my limited experience with persons that are blind, I have chosen to write my next article about the difficulties of placing a person who is blind into a job. As a person with severe cerebral palsy, I understand the difficulties of trying to find employment when someone has a speech impairment, but is it more difficult to search for jobs if someone does not have vision? 

Eva Smith, my interviewee, believes that people with all disabilities have difficulties finding jobs within the State of Texas. I have visited several websites to assist me in understanding the concepts for job placement for persons that are blind or visually impaired. According to the website of the American Foundation for the Blind, "in the United States today, there are approximately four million working-age adults who report some form of uncorrectable vision loss. Among those working-age adults who are totally blind or have severe visual impairments, 74% are unemployed (McNeil, 1993)."

I have gained more awareness about the difficulties a person with blindness must endure as they enter into the job market and the community. On a personal note, I have not seen too many persons with blindness or other specific severe disabilities working within service delivery entities in Texas.

Eva's story
Eva Smith, a resident of Alvin, Texas, a small town near Houston, is a strong Latino wife and parent who was blinded by Retinopathy of Prematurity, a disease of the retina that affects prematurely born babies. As a child, Eva's mother did not want her to go to a special school for the blind in Austin because she wanted her to be like all the other children in the neighborhood. Eva's mother advocated against the Alvin School District, and eventually they gave up and let Eva attend regular classes. Eva notes that the Texas School for the Blind has a wonderful summer program for children who attend public school during the school year. It was her Aunt Josie who encouraged Eva to attend in the summer so she could network with blind students within her age group.

Early educational challenges
On the first day of school Eva's mother made her leave the comfort zone of her blind friends, and get on the regular bus with her cousins who went to the neighborhood school. This made her very angry because her friends were in Visual Impaired (VI) class where they were setting up a new classroom at Alvin Elementary, and she wanted to help with the designs. She was called into the principal's office where she was told that she was at the wrong school and the principal forced Eva to leave the campus. Eva's mother explained to her that the only way to get the school district to listen to their demands was to boycott the school. The next day, before she went back to the VI class, Eva and her mother went to the neighborhood school wearing picket signs. The signs read, "Blind children should not be segregated, but allowed to attend their neighborhood schools."  Eva felt so embarrassed about the demonstration, especially when the newspaper crew came out to report about the situation, but the demonstration did produce the desired results for attending regular classes at her school. After high school, she attended Texas Southern University. It took her eight years to graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Science in Special Education with a minor in Child Development.

First experiences with employment
In 2001 she got a job as a Lifeskills teacher with Austin Independent School District. According to Eva, the job did not last very long because she did not have all the accommodations she needed to sustain the employment status. Eva adds, "the kids were very nice, but I was stressing out, so I had to leave the job." Then she decided that teaching was not for her, so in 2003 she received training at the Lighthouse for the Blind in Houston as a customer service representative. In December 2004 she started working as a receptionist at the Fast Track Training Center in Houston. At the job she went from receptionist to job coach and then supervisor. Next Eva got married to Adair Smith, who is also blind. In August of this year, Fast Track Training Center folded and she and her husband lost their jobs.

Tips from the American Foundation for the Blind
The American Foundation for the Blind makes specific recommendations for rehabilitation counselors and teachers who work to educate persons with blindness or visual impairments. These include; training and placement in "mainstream" employment settings, specialized employment provided by organizations serving blind people --formerly known as workshops, training and employment in independently operated retail and vending operations in government and private industry.

The American Foundation for the Blind believes that federal and state cuts in funding could limit future services for persons with blindness and visual impairments. They recommend and urge communities to: support funding for separate state or private rehabilitation agencies for blind people in each state, provide sufficient funding for university-level programs in rehabilitation teaching, orientation and mobility, and low-vision services to assure adequate numbers of specially-trained professionals; assure adequate funding for assistive technology devices and services, and support specialized employment programs for visually impaired people who are not interested in, or do not have access to "mainstream" employment settings.

Concluding tip from Eva
Eva Smith hopes that other persons with blindness and visual impairments seek government internships while in high school or college to help them further their careers.

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