Hi everybody!

This week I met with my Job Developer that I am meeting with through BVR’s partner JFSA, and it was an intriguing but scary process. While it is nice to get the ball rolling finally, it means I have to actually put some effort into trying to find a real job <shudder>. Together we went over the accommodations I am entitled to, such as, the use of Dragon Naturally Speaking™—a speech recognition software from Nuance—as well as an accessible workspace, and other reasonable accommodations specific to the job. 

Honestly, this meeting helped to ease some of my initial fears of this process. Being someone with a disability, I was concerned that things like having to orally dictate all my paperwork would hinder my productivity, and make me less attractive as a potential employee. The Job Developer taught me though that it is important to focus on other attributes such as my ability to learn quickly and integrate that, and other skills, into my resume. 

One of the other things that I learned in my meeting was to not purely focus on my desire to work with people with disabilities so as not to pigeonhole myself into one career or another, with the job market being what it is nowadays. Another interesting opportunity was a job club, which is a group of people who get together and talk about things such as how to properly act when ‘on the job’ and they also bring in local business people as speakers to discuss what it is they are looking for in potential employees. I am looking forward to getting started with this group because it should be a good opportunity to do some networking as well as take advantage of their peer-criticism to enhance my resume.

Anyone under the age of 15 that is reading this is probably saying to themselves “Ok, but what does this have to do with me?” I would say it has A LOT to do with you, actually. Believe it or not, I started this whole process back when I was around 13. Granted, all I did back then was think of what careers suited me and my disability, and it was awhile before BVR and I began to start the actual process, but it is important to have some direction and some interests, and to think about how you can adapt that job to fit your needs with whatever accommodations are, or will eventually be, available. 

This process has made me think about all of the strides that people with disabilities have made in general. Not that long ago, people with a disability did not have as many opportunities as they do now because of the lack of legislation by our government that has changed in the past 20 years with the passage of the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The anniversary date is next Monday July 26th.  There will be a celebration downtown with Mayor Frank Jackson.  Contact Linking Employment Abilities and Potential (LEAP) at 1-216-696-2716 for more information. This makes processes like the one I am going through much more commonplace and adaptations more available so I can maximize my skills and talents without my disability being a factor.  Hope to see you all at the celebration!