Bringing Your "A" Game to Life's Challenges
Convincing employers to look at how much people with blindness are capable of accomplishing is still an obstacle, but much less so with the aid of today’s remarkable technology. Each time I get a new job, I encounter the same apprehension that people with sight have about working with someone sightless. Unfortunately, many people do not give those who are blind adequate opportunities in the workplace, simply because most people have never had the chance to learn about today’s helpful technology and how much we are able to achieve with it.
Once I am given the chance to prove to an employer my abilities, along with the required modifications when necessary, their apprehension completely vanishes. The people who have given me opportunities have earned my respect and admiration because they have added value to my life. It also encourages teamwork when my colleagues observe my accomplishments and productivity. I am confident that I add value to any company I work with and that I serve its customers well. It is fulfilling to know that through my positive attitude and best efforts in the workplace, God has enabled many others to see the light through my loss of sight.
At age 19, I was pleased to have an opportunity to help blaze the trail for my well-deserving, hard-working friend Stephen Kerr. He is totally blind like me and wanted to get into commercial radio. One summer, when I was nearly 19 years old, I got to work with K-98 and received positive press on a televised news segment, which reduced thousands of peoples’ apprehension by helping them to understand that radio was an excellent and feasible career for blind communicators.
Stephen has a great attitude, and he had the bonus of working with caring people at the station who helped him excel. Darrel Heckendorf was an engineer determined to take on the challenge of modernizing a blind-friendly radio control room for my buddy's employment and independence. For more than 20 years he worked at Entercom’s radio KKMJ-MAGIC-95.5 in Austin, Texas. Several years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with Stephen and Darrel to sample Darrel’s creation for myself. His solution to our challenge was simple and completely obliging to me as well. Darrel had laid a full-sized piece of Plexiglas over the computer touch screen and cut finger-sized holes precisely where the functionality was located. A blind person can easily familiarize themselves with the screen by memorizing the exact count to the correct hole in the Plexiglas to execute the specific task required. Yeah! No more Braille labels that easily fall off!
For further convenience, this template folds up and out of the way for those who don’t call for this modification. It is a cheap and simple solution to assist those visually challenged in radio broadcasting. It even eliminates the need for an assistant, which I had to employ throughout my 22-year radio career. I look forward to using this adaptation some day in my own radio setup.
I often sit and think about the people like Darrel who make such great contributions for the advancement of others. What would life be like without those caring people who focus their inventions on helping others who face unique physical challenges? I thank God for these extraordinary people, and an extra special blessing I wish upon Darrel Heckendorf.