Finding a suitable job for a vision impaired person is a
challenging task. I lost my job twice because of my low vision, while I was
working as a manager trainee & later when I was working as an IT executive.
It became really hard to me to recover after I lost my first job. It took me 2
years to make my mind that I’m strong and capable of working in an office
environment. But the same thing happened the second time as well. At that time
I gave up looking for jobs because your employer is trying to get the maximum
out of you at work, being vision impaired is a huge disadvantage for you while
working in an office environment especially the number of employees are less
than 10 in a company. Losing jobs in this way affects your personality really
bad and it was a massive stress for me.
After I lost my second job I followed a training program in Korean
ANMA massaging therapy. The training program was organized by The New Light
Welfare Center. The duration of the training program was 3 months and a leading
vision impaired Korean ANMA massage therapist Mr. Lee was our teacher. As I
completed my training program I was selected among the best students in the
program and got further training for another 2 months. The director of The New
Light Welfare Center was planning to open a new therapy center, to provide job
opportunities for vision impaired masseurs. I was preparing myself to work in
that massage center.
At that time I received a call from a gentleman who was working as
a bio medical engineer in leading bio medical equipments suppliers and
maintaining company. He has read my articles I posted in my blog and he told me
“I would like to offer you a job as a bio medical support technician. You
should work as a support technician under my supervision”. I was
surprised with this offer and I told him “sorry I’m a vision impaired person.
How can I repair bio medical equipments, connecting machines and calibrating
machines?” he replied “You can try working with me and do the maximum you can”.
The new therapy center was planned to open in mid of March 2016, I got this
offer in January. So I thought I can work for a month as a bio medical support
technician until the new therapy center opens.
I learned a lot while I was working there for a month. Managing a
person with disability at working place is a rare skill for an employer. I saw
that quality in all the workers in the company. It’s amazing how encouraging
they were, my boss always used to say “Believe in God, He can do miracles” and
he told others to support me at work. I had my own tool set. I had a portable
video magnifier, a torch, a normal magnifier and my screen reading software
installed to the laptop. My boss used to take my opinion in IT related issues
in the company. I felt that I’m an important employee in the company. I
supported in repairing bio medical equipments, preparing documents, managing maintenance
reports, handing over repaired machines to hospitals and managing IT related
tasks in the company.
Working as a bio medical technician, sounds impossible for a vision
impaired person. But with proper guidance and necessary tools people with
disabilities can be employed in jobs. Empathy is the most important skill a
manager should have to manage a person with disability at work.
