My experience with a visual impairment
My name is Joshua Young and I’d like to talk about my experience as a person with a visual impairment. To clarify things I have Nystagmus, a condition where the optical nerve never fully developed as I was in the womb.
As I grew up I would be getting closer to things I couldn’t see or squinting my eyes. This would usually strain my eyes depending on whatever I was looking at. Whenever I was at school I would have to sit close to the whiteboard. This being so I could see it clearly. In addition, a lot of the work that was on paper wasn’t the easiest to see. To help with these challenges I was given magnifiers to make reading things easier. As well as a monocular for reading from a distance. Using computers was the easiest to overcome thanks to the many settings that could be adjusted to it.
However, challenges didn’t just arise during school but outside it too. In day to day life I struggled with new locations as I wasn’t the most familiar with my surroundings. So finding where I was heading in a new place wasn’t easy as you could tell. Reading things outside of school was also a challenge whether it was reading bus schedules, labels or signs. Despite this I used everything I could to make it easier for me. However, using them was a little embarrassing as I was used to doing everything I possibly could on my own.
Job searching and work
Finding a job wasn’t an easy task for me. I needed to find a job that I didn’t struggle too much with or was incapable of doing. Moreover, I also needed to find an employer that understood my needs. As well as, being able to make changes so those needs would be met.
Thanks to the support that I have received from many great people I have landed a job here at Eric Knows and enjoy every day that I spend here working as I know that they understand my needs and are always willing to adjust to meet them.