[Journalists] moving past mid-career vision loss

[Nate]

Hi all,

I worked as a writer and editor for 14 years before losing my vision last year and I am getting ready to start a program at the Colorado Center for the Blind to get the training I need to return to work.   However I was also just informed by my employer they likely will not hold my position open (I have been  a one-man multi-state bureau for an online news service and while they have tried to cover my region with stringers and contributions from other reporters, they need to place someone here.) They have promised to bring me back as a freelancer as quickly as possible after I am done with my program, but I know I meed to be prudent and look at finding full-time gigs as well. (And I really don't want to uproot my family again.) 

So I am wondering how others who have suffered a mid-career loss of vision have dealt with that when it comes to having to sell yourself to new employers.  I suspect my biggest issue is that I have been writing for a niche service for the last two years so I have not been able to stretch my legs much as a writer. I have to go back to mid-2005 for the  last time I wrote regularly for a general audience. Those clips are going to obviously be pretty stale but I doubt much of my newer stuff is really usable (and will be at least a year old by the time I am done with voc. rehab.) . I was an assistant metro editor at a pretty good-sized daily in another part of the country. in the intervening years.

I fear I am going to have to rebuild my portfolio with new clips I amass as a freelancer late this year or early next year,  And of course that brings the challenge of selling myself as a freelancer with the same stale or dry clips. 

So again, I am wondering how others have sold themselves ... how do you explain the time not writing? Do you address blindness immediately? (My gut says no.)
 How much do I emphasize what I did earlier in my career? (I'm damn proud of my earlier work, but it seems tough to refer potential employers  back the better part of a decade to show them what I can do now.)

Thanks for the feedback in advance.

Mate
  
Sent from my iPad