[Blindtlk] Professions on list?

[Julie J.]

Peter,

I'm glad my story was helpful to you.   Honestly, I don't think it's all 
that remarkable.  We all have struggles and challenges.

I'll try to respond to your questions below.

You wrote: *Realizing that your blind that your expectations
shouldn't be that everything will work at any given point of time.*

Well, yes and no.  There are a few things that I've failed at because I 
didn't have the blindness skills  and probably some things I've not 
tried because I think a blind person can't do them.  We all have our own 
internal prejudices.  After all I decided not to go into veterinary 
technology because I didn't think a blind person could do it.  I now 
know of blind people working in that field.  A few years ago I didn't 
think a blind person could be a doctor, but then there are a couple that 
up and prove me wrong.  I have no interest in becoming a medical doctor, 
never have, still it's good for me to reevaluate my thinking about 
blindness.

Mostly though, I think I've failed because of other factors.  My 
statistical clerk job was a failure, not because of my blindness, but 
because I cannot work in a cube farm and remain sane.  My dish washing 
job was a fail because it lacked any sort of thinking or mental challenge.

You mention that you had difficulty selling a house because it was 
stripped.  That's exactly what I'm saying, the difficulty wasn't that 
your blind.  There were other factors.  I think that there are instances 
where blindness does prevent us from something or another, but most of 
the time I don't think blindness is the real reason things didn't work out.

You asked about statistical software...The software that I've used with 
the Department of Labor and now in my current job isn't really 
statistical software.  It is designed for the input of the specific 
information that is used to come up with the statistical figures.  So 
for example, I input how many referrals I've had, how many were male, 
how many were 16, how many had shoplifting tickets and so forth.  Then 
the folks at the Crime Commission use that information to produce the 
statistics that tell the public about juvenile crime in Nebraska.

I did use SPSS way back in college.  I honestly don't remember much 
about it.  I think parts of it were accessible and other bits weren't.  
I remember using a reader for some assignments.  That was ages ago 
though.  I think the computer sciences division would be of more help in 
figuring this out.

Resources for learning blindness skills...there have been some really 
good sites mentioned already and I would strongly second those 
recommendations.  Here are a couple more:
http://www.ncbvi.ne.gov/
go to the link called Pathways to Independence.  It's a described video 
series with how to info for various blindness skills
also, http://www.livingblind.com  has some good info.  although I just 
took a peek at what's new there.  They have added a couple of pages that 
make no sense to me, so skip if it makes no sense.  Most of it is good 
though!

Again, I'm glad you found my post helpful.  You can always write to me 
off list at:
julielj at neb.rr.com
that goes for anyone else too!

Julie