Full Transcript
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson.
Speaker 2:
Okay. So state services actually played a huge part in everything that I’m doing.
Speaker 3
Don’t be afraid. Get out there, meet people, be friendly. Nobody is judging you.
Speaker 4
Think big. Look at what do you love to do, what do you enjoy doing, and then how can you turn that into getting paid.
Speaker 5:
I use my braille this way. I use JAWS.
Speaker 6:
Put on your cape, grab your gladiator shield, and go get them, tiger.
Speaker 7:
Don’t limit yourself.
Jeff Thompson:
Career Expo 2019, such a great opportunity for transition aged students to meet up with professionals from a wide variety of professions, whose opportunity for students transitioning from high school to college to the workplace to ask questions from nearly 25 professionals: what is their job like, what tools they use, and to receive encouragement about the possibilities that they too can achieve their dreams and get the career that they want.
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson, and I’m at the Career Expo in Roseville, Minnesota, part of the state services for the blind, an event for transitioning students to meet mentors and role models. I came up, and I’m at the MDI table with Matt Higgins. How you doing?
Matt Higgins:
Doing pretty good.
Jeff Thompson:
So, Matt, what do you do at MDI?
Matt Higgins:
So it’s a, I guess it’s kind of an assembly/manufacturing, kind of lighter stuff. The biggest contact right now is for the US Postal Service, and we put together the plastic totes they use to kind of transport their mail in.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s a big industry, the US Postal.
Matt Higgins:
We put together usually 4000-5000 of those per day, per shift actually. And also we do the same thing kind of for FedEx. There’s a plethora of other companies that send us things that need to be repackaged or packaged a certain way.
Jeff Thompson:
So how does state services place a part in you getting a job?
Matt Higgins:
So state services was a big help. I moved here from Delaware. Before I went blind, I was working for Dow Chemical Company making buffing pads for semiconductors. I was a team lead and did a whole bunch of stuff there that was really cool and lost my vision. Delaware didn’t really have the resources to get me back into the place I needed to be. So I Googled different ways to do this and found Blind Incorporated in Minneapolis, and state services agreed to split the cost with Delaware so I could get back on my feet.
Matt Higgins:
Since then, I’ve been through the training, I’ve built my confidence. I found this job kind of on my own and contacted state services. And they offered to be I guess a job coach because that was one of the stipulations. I had to convince this place that they wanted me to work for them, and one of the stipulations was to have a job coach. After one day of it, they’re like, “Okay. Matt knows what he’s doing. He’s working just as fast as everybody else. Let’s give him a try.”
Jeff Thompson:
One day.
Matt Higgins:
Yeah. Yup. Just after a shift, they’re like, “Okay. He knows what he’s doing.” So the job coach didn’t really need to keep coming in.
Jeff Thompson:
So skills and confidence helped with that.
Matt Higgins:
Oh yeah. Yeah. And state services have been there for pretty much anything I’ve asked for. So-
Jeff Thompson:
Well, great. It’s nice to have that resource available to you.
Matt Higgins:
Yeah. Definitely. It’s been a big help, and after the Blind Incorporated training, I decided to stay in Minneapolis and look, here I am with a job now. So playing music in a band and got a bunch of friends. Had state services not stepped in, I wouldn’t have had that opportunity.
Jeff Thompson:
So what kind of music?
Matt Higgins:
I’m in a punk rock band. I play bass guitar.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s cool. Who’s your favorite bass player?
Matt Higgins:
I’d say Matt Freeman, Rancid.
Jeff Thompson:
There you go. All right. Little shout out. What’s the name of the band?
Matt Higgins:
Reven McGee and the Phantom Hands.
Jeff Thompson:
Reven McGee and the Phantom Hands.
Matt Higgins:
Yeah. Reven is a guitar player/singer. He’s actually completely blind.
Jeff Thompson:
Can you get that all on a t-shirt?
Matt Higgins:
I think we can. My brother’s an artist, so we’ll have to put him to work.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great. So when you first decided that… Oh, you lost eye sight, and you had to contact your state agency. How was it to talk to them about you coming to Blind Incorporated in Minneapolis?
Matt Higgins:
They were totally against it. They basically wanted to give me an OEM training for a half an hour a week, and wasn’t good. I had a twisted arm. So contacting state services really helped. Dick Davis was a huge, huge help for that. Yeah. They tried to say, “Hey, Matt. You don’t want to go up for training like that. They’re going to blindfold you for six months.” I’m like, “Well, I’m going to learn how to get around on my own up there.” So it was kind of a big thing. Delaware didn’t want to give me any of the help I needed.
Jeff Thompson:
So self-advocacy comes into play.
Matt Higgins:
It was a big thing. And I had a bunch of people on my side. And I learned… I was so independent before I lose my vision, I didn’t know how to ask for help. You know, put it out there and realizing what I need and figuring out how to get it. I’ve always been a good problem solver. So I kind of had to go back and use a skills but also add, “Okay. I need help with this.” It was a big skill that I had to pick up.
Jeff Thompson:
How about transportation in the Minneapolis area?
Matt Higgins:
Oh, hitchhiking, you mean?
Matt Higgins:
So that was another thing. I’d never taken a city bus before. Make a mental map in my head, and I take the bus to most places. After a show, I’ll get an Uber. You can get around the city for next to nothing in an Uber, you know? I’ve always walked eight miles home before with no cellphone or anything. This city is wonderful for it. But it’s another thing that I gained from coming up here. I wouldn’t be able to do that back home.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great. So what advice… You’ve been talking to a lot of transition aged students coming through here. What advice would you give to them?
Matt Higgins:
I have only been on a few interviews since I’ve been blind. The main advice I’ve been giving everybody is to be confident, be prepared, and be yourself has gotten me through… Like I’ve been interviewing way better than I ever did before in my life just having that.
Jeff Thompson:
Also do the band members call you the blind guy in the band?
Matt Higgins:
Well, there’s two blind guys in the band. So 50% of us. No, we all have our joke stuff. We like to rip. That’s pretty good. We always figure it out. It’s kind of tough. Reven’s up there, and he can’t tell anything that’s going on. He’ll just start a song when nobody’s ready. So we have to figure out different techniques of communicating up there on stage. But it’s pretty good though. We usually figure it out.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s really cool. You’re not afraid to get out there and get things done.
Matt Higgins:
Oh, no. Yeah, we do whatever we need. And he and I, we’ll just shoot off into the city and just find new stuff to do. We don’t really that much stop us.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s really neat. People need to drive, people a passion, and it seems like you’re working it all.
Matt Higgins:
Yup. It’s pretty good. We even go set out and busk sometimes, just play music out in the street. It’s pretty cool. Two blind guys, imagine that.
Jeff Thompson:
Two blind guys and a microphone.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, Matt, thank you very much for coming to the Career Expo and sharing your skills and your confidence with all the transition aged students.
Matt Higgins:
No problem at all.
Jeff Thompson:
Be sure to contact your state services for the blind, your vocal rehab, and find out what they can do for you. Live, work, read, succeed. Big shout out goes out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music. You can follow Chee Chau on Twitter @LCHeeChau. Chee Chau, Chee Chau. Enable the Blind Abilities skill on your Amazon device just by saying “Enable Blind Abilities.”
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:
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Or send us an e-mail at:
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Thanks for listening.
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