[nabs-l] Part time/campus jobs

Wed Jul 13 12:58:24 UTC 2016

Hi Kaiti,

I held a few different jobs while I was in college.  (Sad face!  I
miss being a student!)  I also looked for jobs when I got to grad
school and observed a number of interesting places to work.

I love the tour guide idea!  It would be so cool to be a tour guide,
and it would be easy enough to give a sample tour to anyone concerned
about how well you know the campus.

Does your DSS office have any available desk or other positions?  I
know some may disagree with me on this because it isn't exactly
branching out from the norm for a person with a disability.  Still, it
would give you work experience, and if you're not looking for anything
too involved this semester, it's not an option to overlook.

It doesn't hurt to inquire about the receptionist positions.  Go visit
them and ask what the phones are like and what they use to find phone
numbers and take notes.  Universities procure technology that can do
just about everything, and I know there are products used by
receptionists that may be accessible.

Tutoring!  I loved being a German tutor.  You know Spanish right?  Or
you could tutor other subjects, including music theory and history.
The most problematic thing about tutoring is that you get work when
people need you.  This means you could go for weeks without anyone to
tutor, and then all of a sudden, you're leading a tutoring session for
five people.  I found tutoring to be the most enlightening position to
take as a blind person because we must ask our students to read aloud
everything to us.  Let me tell you...  We do a lot of pronunciation
work that way.  Also, don't discount looking for tutoring
opportunities outside of your university.

Are you interested in teaching?  Your music department could possibly
hook you up with some students who wish to take lessons.  The
University of Missouri is quite proud of its community music program,
through which the music students could make money from our music
department teaching community members who signed up to study privately
with an instructor.

Does your school have a career center?  In grad school I interviewed
at our career center to be a job coach of sorts.  This would have
involved working on interview skills with students, helping them edit
their resumes and cover letters, and talking to them about possible
career paths and job openings.  We did have a hiring database that was
not fully accessible at the time, but your university may have a
different process for this.  I wanted to work at the career center to
improve my own skills and become a job-readiness expert.  And let's be
real; that's probably why I didn't get the job!  :)

Another point...  Disability services offices work with student
accommodations, but they do not handle job-related accommodations.
Your ADA coordinator would handle any accessibility concerns as you
apply for and work at your new job.

I hope this helps!

On 7/13/16, Justin Williams via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> I applaud your DS office, and your music department, but, that's when you
> would want to look outside of those places.  I like Tour Guide, had a good
> feeling about that, and if you can get the Telephone position, that would
> give you some work during the semester.  Could you Tutor younger college
> students in the music department; your department is familiar with you and
> might let you help. Could you work with one of the professors? Maybe
> something like a GA position, especially if you are going to attend the
> same
> college as a grad student?  The tour guide is good because if you know the
> root, and then the shortcuts around it, you can do the tour jus like anyone
> else.  You can tell the same stories, and give the same information if you
> time everything because  you know the campus.  My friend told me about a
> tour guide who was totally blind at a museum in New York.
> Justin
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti Shelton
> via NABS-L
> Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 1:36 AM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [nabs-l] Part time/campus jobs
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm wondering if some of you who have done work study programs at your
> universities could weigh in on this.  Being just 13 credits shy of earning
> my degree, I'll be a part time student this year.  I'd like to find a part
> time job on campus and do qualify for work study, but there are also a lot
> of businesses within walking distance or a short bus ride of campus that I
> could get to.  My issue is that I'm having difficulty finding something
> that
> I think I can do throughout the semester for a few hours each week that is
> accessible.  I had a somewhat disastrous experience in my sophomore year
> with work study, where I was hired to work in the computer lab for my
> department and eventually was let go because due to an inaccessible main
> work station I wasn't doing anything beyond babysitting the place (while
> that was a big part of the job and the lab needed to be superfvised and
> cleaned regularly, I wasn't able to edit and catalog the audio and video
> files which are processed in the lab as well).  A lot of the readily
> available jobs I'm seeing in the listings are in cafeteria food prep, and
> I'm slightly hesitant to apply for desk jobs because while I do have
> secretarial and receptionist experience it has only been at blindness
> agencies that made sure to supply braille extension lists and the like.  I
> know work study is practice for the real world, and since I qualify for it
> I
> have just as much as a claim to a work study position as a sighted student
> would, but a lot of the jobs seem to be things that present with
> accessibility barriers that staff will not be invested in sorting out for a
> short-term student employee, and I'm not sure if battling them for it is
> really worth it if I can find something that doesn't require so much effort
> just to get my foot in the door.  I'm also looking for something that goes
> all semester long; the telethon positions were an idea I was going to
> pursue, but they tend to have pique times of the semester and not do much
> else.
>
> I will say that my university has a wonderful disability services office
> who
> I know would help with accessibility where they can.  In the last case
> there
> were legitimate reasons for the accessibility being an issue that was just
> beyond anyone's control, but both the DS office and the music department
> made a good effort to give me equal work opportunities before we saw how
> unreasonable that would be for a simple work study position.  I also know
> what my rights are and how I should be equally treated, but going into my
> last few classes and prepping for my internship to follow, I really just
> don't want to fight a long and hard battle to get into a job to make maybe
> $50 extra each week.  Maybe some would agree, but thinking ahead to my next
> steps after college, I'm just not all that invested in potentially fighting
> the good fight like I know I may have to do in the true employment arena.
> I'm wondering if anyone has experience or positive ideas of jobs that might
> be innately accessible or easily made accessible.  I'd prefer campus jobs
> but I'm willing to look out in the community as well; I just know the
> majority of things like food prep and waitressing are probably going to be
> hard for me to score, as would be working in any type of store since
> products move and I can't read the packaging.
>
> Tutoring is something I've already considered, and if I can find a
> receptionist position that doesn't have a ton of print filing I could
> potentially do that.  I know the dorms need desk workers and have a sign in
> sheet, but I might even be able to make the students fill out paperwork
> more
> than usual and accommodate that way.  What worries me about that position
> is
> that the desk workers have to be a little vigilant for anything shady that
> goes on, and I'm worried that the potential for someone to take advantage
> of
> that would be very real and considered a liability.  My other idea that I'm
> still thinking of is tour guide.  I don't know if I'd get hired to do that
> one because they tend to go for the stereotypical campus pride type of
> kids,
> and although I don't make a bad poster child for my school I certainly am
> out of the norm.  Still, I know my campus and all its little shortcuts very
> well and as long as I could get hired, I think I could do that.
> I'm still interested in hearing what has worked for others in case none of
> these leads pan out.  Thanks in advance.
>
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-- 
Julie A. McGinnity
President, National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division,
Second Vice President, National Federation of the Blind of Missouri
"For we walk by faith, not by sight"
2 Cor. 7