[Journalists] moving past mid-career vision loss

[Deborah Kendrick]

Hello Nate, 
Your post is both compelling and encouraging.  The latter in that it is so
good to see someone taking action when vision loss strikes, rather than
considering that life is over.  
I have worked as a freelance writer in a variety of genres for 30 years.  I
created and edited a magazine on access technology that was subsumed by the
American Foundation for the Blind in 2000, and continue as that
publication's senior features editor.  It's called AccessWorld, and you can
find it here: www.afb.org/aw.  
I have been a freelance newspaper columnist since 1986, have published some
books on jobs blind and low vision people are doing successfully, and have
had poems and other pieces included in various anthologies.  
I lost my sight at age five, so don't have the same mid-career crisis as
yours, but have had some other experiences that do resonate and thus may
render some assistance.  
I'll follow Elizabeth C's lead by inviting you to contact me off list to
avoid list clutter.  
Deborah Kendrick
dkkendrick at earthlink.net
513-673-4474

-----Original Message-----
From: Journalists [mailto:journalists-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Nate
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013 4:06 PM
To: journalists at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Journalists] moving past mid-career vision loss

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
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