Learning to Thrive Despite Having a Visual Disability

By Deborah L. Shelton, Chicago Tribune

May 27–Christy Costa feared her working days were over when she lost most of her eyesight five years ago. She was 45 at the time.

Costa had undergone four surgeries, two on each eye, to repair damage caused by retinopathy, a complication of her diabetes. But her vision was severely limited. Neither she nor her employer had any idea how she would be able to perform her office job at a Des Plaines flooring company.

“I thought my life was over,” said Costa, a married mother of three who lives on Chicago’s Northwest Side. “I sat at home for two years and got more and more depressed.”

Her situation took a turn for the better, however, after a rehabilitation counselor referred her to the office skills training program at The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired. The eight-week program helps prepare people who are blind or have visual impairments to re-enter the working world. Costa enrolled last September.

Students, whose disabilities range from severe visual impairments to total blindness, are taught how to operate computers using Braille displays and other adaptive technology. They learn to e-mail, maneuver the Internet and work with software programs such as Microsoft Office, which includes Word, Access, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft incorporates speech recognition into its software, including text-to-speech, speech-to-text and text enlargement tools.

Learning these skills helps prepare students for receptionist, data entry, call center, administrative assistant and other office positions.

On a recent afternoon, surrounded by computers, Braille writers, transcription machines and special magnifying equipment, nine students tackled their lessons in a large second-floor classroom at 1850 W. Roosevelt Rd. Circling the room, instructor Shareefah Muhammad offered suggestions and encouragement, reminding two students to calculate the number of words they were typing per minute.

“Today you can’t do any office job unless you can run a computer,” said instructor Mary Abramson, who is legally blind. “And it’s not just the simple things. Some jobs require employees to know how to do PowerPoint presentations…”

The training program has evolved since it was started about 30 years ago. In 2006 the program received $430,000 in cash and grants from Microsoft that allowed it to hire a second instructor, double the number of students, purchase software and upgrade equipment.

About 60 students are expected to complete the program this year. The Illinois Department of Human Services pays the $2,500 tuition and covers classroom materials for the students.

Some students hope to go back to the line of work they were doing before they lost their sight as a result of disease or injury. Others want to acquire new skills. A job-placement service at The Lighthouse helps them find employment after they graduate. Anna Kyles, 53, of Chicago’s Gage Park neighborhood, began to lose vision in both eyes about 14 years ago.

She later was diagnosed with glaucoma and a condition called chronic uveitis. She wears an implant, an artificial left eye.

She enrolled in the training program in February 2007. Out of work for more than three years, she was able to update her computer skills, she said.

“It also gave me confidence,” said Kyles, who didn’t have to go far to get a job; Lighthouse hired her as a customer service representative in April 2007.

dshelton@tribune.com

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