Eventually I went on to study at Mohawk College in Hamilton, I trained to be a Radio Broadcaster and was actually able to find limited work in the field. This after being told that I was not employable and in one interview referred to as told and blind by a program director. 4 months later I was working for CBC in the national news recording room as a Group 4 Radio Tech and for the summer of 1994 was the lead tech on the day shift during the week for the hourly news cast. FYI radio techs are the people who operate the soundboards at CBC. In 95 I created and produced Aware a show about people with disabilities and the issues surrounding the disabled at CFMU in Hamilton Ontario with a grant from the provincial government that paid my salary.
Recently, 2 years ago, I took a course and trained to be a Medical Secretary and though I have not taken a post in the filed I can say it was interesting to learn. My career success to date has been in of all things call centres, a field I really have no interest in at all. Funny how life works.
Some of the other success points for me have included winning a bowling tournament, beating some of the very best in the local scene in Montreal as a pre teen. Serving in the Army Cadet Corps and winning the first every Green Star most improved Cadet Award, a giant boot on a trophy base. The award has been renamed but is still handed out to this day. And, yes my name is still on it. I have also won numerous radio sport contests as a ham radio operator. And, in my career have also been given praise and reward for success on the job.
And, here is the interesting part I was tested before being mainstreamed into regular school and was pretty much told I had the capacity of a grade 4 student and at best could expect to do nothing more than learn how to MOP A FLOOR after going to a "trade school". Most blind and visually impaired persons do not not work and have low to almost no education. The unemployment rate is staggering for people with a disability in Canada and in particular for the blind and low visioned.
Fail yes I have, but more often than not I have won the battle.
Now for the post. If you have ever felt like a failure take a look at this interesting trailer for a company doing motivational videos on Youtube. It's really astounding to see what people have had to face and how these very famous people showed they're detractors up big time.
C. T.
