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Personal Welfare Journal - Part 1 of 2
3 years ago
hOI!!!!!
OVERVIEW:
This series of ‘picture journals’ is intended to help make up for how I’ve been absent on Facebook, along with social media in general, while serving as an apology to those who I’ve been unable to keep in regular contact with.
IMPORTANT:
It has come to my attention that people have become worried for my well-being. This is a result of how my respective efforts to succeed since losing my job at Giant in June of 2020 has made me go in-and-out of depression. This depression has primarily been from the growing knowledge of how it is extremely unlikely that I will ever acquire gainful employment. It also stems from feeling unappreciated for my efforts to find happiness in a world where approximately 80% of how we interact as a society requires physical eyesight.
The above said, along with knowing people have called ‘Protective Services’ on me three times over the past year, I will spend the remainder of these posts to assure everyone that I am doing the best that someone in my particular situation can possibly do with those resources available to me.
NO JOBS FOR EXPERIENCED & EDUCATED BLIND PEOPLE:
Anyone who feels that I am being overdramatic, cynical, pessimistic, etc. may feel free to stop reading now. I am extremely frustrated with being told “All you need to do is (Insert bogus presumptions of Government Services, The Americans with Disability Act (ADA), and blind-centric organizations.”” along with “There are many successful blind people out there!”. It is also hurtful and insulting to be told, “You got to keep trying.”, “There’s got to be something out there.”, and anything that relates with “Why can’t you should start your own business / find out how to become a motivational speaker.”. I’ve been there, done all that, and have only had my hopes and self-esteem quashed more-and- more with each failure in attempting to be successful in an ableist society. There ‘are’ success stories for the blind and visually-impaired, like my sister, but she is an exception to a rule where we are told the disabled are respected by public and private entities. There is lots of talk, public relations (PR), and corporate policies written to appease the masses, but it is all for show with little, to no, actual intent to practice what they preach.
I prefer to not relive all the two-faced coworkers, bigoted leadership, and backstabbing human resources (HR) experiences I’ve gone through over the past sixteen years. I also desire to not retell all the false offers to help me find work, the countless places I’ve reached out to and found out all that could be done is for me to call someone else who tells me to contact someone else, being informed that a “Reasonable Accommodation” is taking away job responsibilities until you are little more than a sack of meat in a chair and/or having some asshole manager state what they believe I can and cannot do with what is provided to me.
Of all the above, the absolute worst things I loathe to recall are how my disability is weaponized against me to prevent any job I could get into a career, the ‘Blind Tax / Blinkenomics’ involved in just getting to-and-from work, being indebted to able-bodied people as a result of technology becoming increasingly incompatible with software and hardware meant to enable the blind and visually-impaired, and the passive / accepting way people in management positions say, “We no longer live in a time where software can be tested for user friendliness beyond what is bare minimum for those end users who are not afflicted by any physical and/or psychological disabilities.”
Lastly, for this portion of the update journal, I am beyond angry over how I can be silently denied a job I was offered just because the one offering me the job felt it not necessary to get back to me in regard to if the presence of my Seeing Eye Dog, Uri / Buddy, may have been too much of a health risk to their assisted living / retirement community, *I applied, interviewed, and was called to be given the job back in early February of this year. I asked, just in case, if all was still okay for me to perform my duties as a part-time receptionist while having my Seeing Eye Dog under the desk. The lady said she would need to look up the health and safety guidelines before getting back to me later in the day. She never got back to me and my efforts to make contact over the next three weeks ended with no response and no job.)
If this silent rejection was not enough, I was also hired to work for the very city I live in. I made it through two interviews and a background check before coming in to start work at the end of February of this year. It was only at this time I had access to the proprietary software used in doing the job that, surprise, had zero compatibility with my screen reading software. We tried again in April with a potential update to the third-party software with little success. I then worked with Blindness & Visual Services (BBVS) to bring in an Accessibility Technology Specialist (AT) to analyze all aspects of the job in May. The AT found more than just the third-party software system was not compatible with me and the tools currently available to assist the blind and visually-impaired. There was ‘talk’ about being brought in to serve as a Part Time HR Assistant, but it fell through with no more opportunity to work for the city beyond being told I had to find another open position and start the entire process all over again.
Oh, one more thing, is I did work for two days shy of six months for Pennsylvania’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program . , I had high hopes that me and the rest of the blind and visually-impaired team would be brought on to take on future projects that the disability-driven employer may get. Instead of just being laid off until a new opportunity became available, we were told that all open jobs had software that was not compatible with our screen reading software and we would have to completely start from the beginning of the hiring process if we wanted to continue working for the company at any capacity. (Most places you get laid off from tend to call you back when a position becomes available. Having to be treated like we were all ‘fired’ was downright awful.).
CONTINUED IN NEXT POSt…
OVERVIEW:
This series of ‘picture journals’ is intended to help make up for how I’ve been absent on Facebook, along with social media in general, while serving as an apology to those who I’ve been unable to keep in regular contact with.
IMPORTANT:
It has come to my attention that people have become worried for my well-being. This is a result of how my respective efforts to succeed since losing my job at Giant in June of 2020 has made me go in-and-out of depression. This depression has primarily been from the growing knowledge of how it is extremely unlikely that I will ever acquire gainful employment. It also stems from feeling unappreciated for my efforts to find happiness in a world where approximately 80% of how we interact as a society requires physical eyesight.
The above said, along with knowing people have called ‘Protective Services’ on me three times over the past year, I will spend the remainder of these posts to assure everyone that I am doing the best that someone in my particular situation can possibly do with those resources available to me.
NO JOBS FOR EXPERIENCED & EDUCATED BLIND PEOPLE:
Anyone who feels that I am being overdramatic, cynical, pessimistic, etc. may feel free to stop reading now. I am extremely frustrated with being told “All you need to do is (Insert bogus presumptions of Government Services, The Americans with Disability Act (ADA), and blind-centric organizations.”” along with “There are many successful blind people out there!”. It is also hurtful and insulting to be told, “You got to keep trying.”, “There’s got to be something out there.”, and anything that relates with “Why can’t you should start your own business / find out how to become a motivational speaker.”. I’ve been there, done all that, and have only had my hopes and self-esteem quashed more-and- more with each failure in attempting to be successful in an ableist society. There ‘are’ success stories for the blind and visually-impaired, like my sister, but she is an exception to a rule where we are told the disabled are respected by public and private entities. There is lots of talk, public relations (PR), and corporate policies written to appease the masses, but it is all for show with little, to no, actual intent to practice what they preach.
I prefer to not relive all the two-faced coworkers, bigoted leadership, and backstabbing human resources (HR) experiences I’ve gone through over the past sixteen years. I also desire to not retell all the false offers to help me find work, the countless places I’ve reached out to and found out all that could be done is for me to call someone else who tells me to contact someone else, being informed that a “Reasonable Accommodation” is taking away job responsibilities until you are little more than a sack of meat in a chair and/or having some asshole manager state what they believe I can and cannot do with what is provided to me.
Of all the above, the absolute worst things I loathe to recall are how my disability is weaponized against me to prevent any job I could get into a career, the ‘Blind Tax / Blinkenomics’ involved in just getting to-and-from work, being indebted to able-bodied people as a result of technology becoming increasingly incompatible with software and hardware meant to enable the blind and visually-impaired, and the passive / accepting way people in management positions say, “We no longer live in a time where software can be tested for user friendliness beyond what is bare minimum for those end users who are not afflicted by any physical and/or psychological disabilities.”
Lastly, for this portion of the update journal, I am beyond angry over how I can be silently denied a job I was offered just because the one offering me the job felt it not necessary to get back to me in regard to if the presence of my Seeing Eye Dog, Uri / Buddy, may have been too much of a health risk to their assisted living / retirement community, *I applied, interviewed, and was called to be given the job back in early February of this year. I asked, just in case, if all was still okay for me to perform my duties as a part-time receptionist while having my Seeing Eye Dog under the desk. The lady said she would need to look up the health and safety guidelines before getting back to me later in the day. She never got back to me and my efforts to make contact over the next three weeks ended with no response and no job.)
If this silent rejection was not enough, I was also hired to work for the very city I live in. I made it through two interviews and a background check before coming in to start work at the end of February of this year. It was only at this time I had access to the proprietary software used in doing the job that, surprise, had zero compatibility with my screen reading software. We tried again in April with a potential update to the third-party software with little success. I then worked with Blindness & Visual Services (BBVS) to bring in an Accessibility Technology Specialist (AT) to analyze all aspects of the job in May. The AT found more than just the third-party software system was not compatible with me and the tools currently available to assist the blind and visually-impaired. There was ‘talk’ about being brought in to serve as a Part Time HR Assistant, but it fell through with no more opportunity to work for the city beyond being told I had to find another open position and start the entire process all over again.
Oh, one more thing, is I did work for two days shy of six months for Pennsylvania’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program . , I had high hopes that me and the rest of the blind and visually-impaired team would be brought on to take on future projects that the disability-driven employer may get. Instead of just being laid off until a new opportunity became available, we were told that all open jobs had software that was not compatible with our screen reading software and we would have to completely start from the beginning of the hiring process if we wanted to continue working for the company at any capacity. (Most places you get laid off from tend to call you back when a position becomes available. Having to be treated like we were all ‘fired’ was downright awful.).
CONTINUED IN NEXT POSt…
Anyways, I guess I (and probably you too) try to maintain the hopes that you'll eventually find a place to work which accept your needs. That place to have to exist... Or at least I hope so.
I hope you have better luck and better opportunities soon Yosh. That's all that I'm able to say to cheer you up anyways...
***
Lucca and I should have enough stuff resolved by November to prove that we both the 'ability' in disability. For now, I am glad I can write these journals to work out my thoughts while, hopefully, giving others a chance to see they are not alone in coming to terms with life after going through one, or more, traumatic events in their lives. :)