[NFB_of_Georgia] WR resident wants better-equipped area for the blind

[Armando Vias]

https://hhjonline.com/wr-resident-wants-betterequipped-area-for-the-blind-p18233-95.htm

WR resident wants better-equipped area for the blind

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Opal Young, a Warner Robins resident who lives without her eyesight as a result of retinitis pigmentosa, said Middle Georgia is not well equipped to accommodate the blind community, especially relative to her original home of New York. 

"Coming from up north, I can definitely tell the difference in the resources, just Middle Georgia compared to north of Georgia,” Young said. "The resources are a lot more open for the people, for blind and the visually impaired up north. Middle Georgia seems to have nothing — nothing at all. We’re just being forgotten, I think.”

Young said after hearing about Armando Vias and his experience in the May 11 edition of The Journal, she reached out and connected with him.

After Young moved with her husband to Warner Robins in 2020 for a good deal on a house, she did some research on accommodations for the blind around the area.

"I started feeling lost again when I moved because the services were not there, and I was becoming depressed like, ‘oh my goodness, I have to start all over,’” she explained. "I had issues getting joined up with Georgia Vocational Rehab; I didn’t get started with services until the following year, July.”

Last year, she started a peer support group called Empowering the Blind, and a representative from the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency referred clientele to the group to share their experiences.

Young continued on, speaking about some individuals in her group. Multiple members of the group have been denied their respective Social Security benefits.

She spoke on area issues with public transportation and employment accommodating the blind.

"Blind people would like to work, they would like to go back to work,” Young said. "But I don’t feel like the organizations or the companies here even understand when we go into a store — let’s say Walmart I went into — and I don’t believe they’re educated.

"So education, they need to be educated about what we can and cannot do. And they see us out there, and they immediately feel, ‘oh my goodness, oh my goodness, this person is blind. They’re going to trip, they’re going to fall.’ So education is a big issue because, to be honest with you, for the most part, people are very helpful, they’re very compassionate. But sometimes, they just don’t know what to do, so we feel a little isolated and a lot of us don’t want to go out in the community because we’re being stared at or not confident because they’re using a cane.”

She insisted that people like her may need assistance, but they do not have to be watched. This can apply to job interviews as well, she said.

"[Employers] need to become more acquainted with the kinds of things [that help us] … knowing about some reasonable accommodations so if we do go out and interview, we won’t get shunned immediately because they don’t understand how we do what we do,” she added. "We use voiceover, we use JAWS, we use different technologies to make things accessible. I could be all on my phone, but they don’t know I’m all on my phone because my phone talks.”

She said she works part time two days a week as an independent living coordinator with Disability Connections, a social services organization, in Macon. She said her employer was quick to make appropriate accommodations when she joined the staff.

"I just work with people like myself and with all disabilities assisting with different challenges and to become independent; that is our core service, to become independent,” Young said.

She said that right now her husband can help her get to and from work, but she said that might not always be the case.

"I have that privilege to have someone,” she said. "A lot of people don’t even have a spouse or a loved one that can drive them around, so I understand the pain of a person that probably would want to work in Macon but lives in Fort Valley — but you can’t get to Macon, you can’t.”

Young said she had consulted with city council and the city transportation planner among other staff in the past, saying the city secretary had given her some documents on local transit options. But they all were related to medical care.

"We want to get to the restaurant, maybe a movie,” she said. "We’d want to go out independently.”

She added that she wanted to get some of her group together and consult council at an upcoming meeting.

"We’d love to be able to participate in some change,” Young said. "We’re not asking, we want to do what we can to make some change.”

Young said she and a couple of people from Empowering the Blind are in the process of starting a non-profit with a goal to direct resources and additional help to people with similar conditions.

"When they first lose their sight, they don’t where to go, they don’t know who to call,” she explained. "I want to be that person or that company that goes, ‘oh okay, this is what you need to do, here’s who you need to contact.’”

Young said she enjoys listening to audiobooks and music in her free time. She said she also loves singing and dancing to reggae music as well as going out and socializing.

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