Text Index



Help make history

"Blind No More, As I See It!"

by Mary DAgostino

First of all, I really want to work. I cannot afford the expense of advertising; instead I decided to share my story with readers who may be able to help.

I want to be very open and honest with you; I am visually impaired. In other words, severely blind. In addition, I have hearing loss in both ears; I use hearing aids. Along with those disabilities, I also have a condition known as Lupus. Now don't you feel sorry for me, because I don't. This condition began at the age of nine and I am now at the proud age of 50.

As a single parent, I raised my two children, Tony and Tara. I am now a delighted grandmother of two: Hallie, seven, and Joey, 16 months.

Through the years, I learned to adapt to the vision loss and have developed skills in all aspects of living. Independently, I get along just fine. However, after my children grew up and got on their own, my income was decreased by $770.00 monthly. This all took place in 1992. At that time, I owned a home and some financial assets and received S.S.D. income. Unfortunately, I fell short in maintaining my assets and signed myself with an agency for rehabilitation with goals towards employment. At the time, I was unaware of how long it would take to reach the point that I would become employed and, as a result of all the time gone by, I lost everything.

In the meantime, I was given a computer and had a few computer training sessions. From then on, I have been self-trained and have developed my computer skills. In the last year, my computer has been up-dated by my daughter, Tara, along with my knowledge regarding the up-dated software. On a daily basis, I spend at least eight to ten hours on my computer. Since the agency I am a client of will not provide training until the job comes available, I have taken my training in my own hands. And, because of that fact, I will take the rest in my hands.

Blind No More, As I See It! Let me explain. I have software installed in my computer that reads the screen to me and every key stroke is audible to me. I have found the windows to my world. With this software, I read my mail, recipes, newspapers and you name it. I have Internet service and enjoy surfing on the World Wide Web. I have learned more in the last five years from this wonderful computer. Blind No More, As I See It! I even have my own web site a dear friend designed for me which I take great pride in sharing with my visitors.

But, let's get back to the purpose why I am writing this true story. I want a job. I want to share my skills with an employer who can appreciate my perseverance and my drive to accomplish quality of life. I would like to have the opportunity to extend myself and my countless attributes to reach my goals toward security and to feel I have been given a part in this equal opportunity world (as promoted by most employers).

I have extended myself and applied my efforts towards employment. However, I'm still not working. I am realistic about my goals in regards to my skills, but employers can't look beyond the physical. A simple customer service position is all I am striving for in my job quest. As I write today, I can't understand why employers don't focus on the abilities rather than the physical. This world needs to change its way of thinking towards the positive aspects of life instead of the negative.

Throughout my experiences, I have learned the quality of life and that life is beautiful to me. I would like to take this time to thank you for reading my story. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Mary D'Agostino - e-mail her at cudkitten@aol.com.

Oh, and she sings too!!!

Note: The software I use can be found at http://www.hj.com

P.S. I'm still not working. How can anyone live on $583.00 per month? What benefits are there out there for people like me in the meantime?

Note: I sent this story to WEWS and they interviewed me around six weeks ago and showed the viewers on Friday, 11:00 PM news how I operated my computer and that I was having difficulty finding an employer to hire me. "Just give me a chance."

Top of page