Partnering with VR: All About the First Steps. A Blog Posts by Serina Gilbert

Starting your partnership with Vocational Rehabilitation is highly individualized and will look different for every single person.  With that said, however, there are general procedures and timelines to keep in mind when preparing for your very first meeting with Vocational Rehabilitation. The first step towards receiving services with Vocational Rehabilitation is attending your Intake appointment. This appointment is a time for you...

JobInsights: Reasonable Accommodations in the Workplace

Show Summary: Welcome to Job Insights with Serina Gilbert and Jeff Thompson. We focus on Employment, . We focus on Employment, Careers, enhancing opportunities and bringing you  the latest innovations from across the Vocational Rehabilitation field to ensure your choices lead you down the career pathway that you want and succeed in gainful employment. From getting started with services, to assessments, Individual Plan for Employment (IPE)...

Holly Scott-Gardner: Catch These Words – Graduating University and pursuing the Career She Wants (transcript provided)

Full Transcript Show Summary: Holly Scott-Gardner is set to graduate University at the end of this semester and cross the pond to Colorado for Adjustment to Blindness Training. Holly is interested in pursuing a career in Teaching Blindness Training and her upcoming experience along with her volunteer experience at Enchanted Hills Camp, will give her a well-rounded set of tools to draw from. Holly has a passion for writing and is a blogger...

Assistive Technology: Choosing the Right Tools for Success – Meet Jesse Anderson, Assistive Technology Specialist and Accessible Game Advocate

Show Summary: Full Transcript Screen readers, Refreshable Braille, Magnification, Audio Books, Computers and Smart Devices are just a few of the Tools for Success that are available to the Blind/Visually Impaired community. From education to the workplace, Assistive Technology enables people with a visual impairment to do just about anything they want to and apply for the jobs and the careers that they want. State Services for the Blind has a...

Job Insights: Smart Networking 101- Don’t Be Surprised Who is Checking Out Your Virtual Résumé (transcript provided)

Full Transcript Show Summary: Welcome to Job Insights with Serina Gilbert and Jeff Thompson. We focus on Employment, Careers, enhancing opportunities and bringing you  the latest innovations from across the Vocational  Rehabilitation field to ensure your choices lead you down the career pathway that you want and succeed in gainful employment. From getting started with services, to assessments, Individual Plan for Employment...

Job Insights: College Is Over, Now What? Leaving the Disability Services Office Behind. (transcript provided)

Show Summary: Full Transcript Welcome to Job Insights with Serina Gilbert and Jeff Thompson. We focus on Employment, Careers, enhancing opportunities and bringing you  the latest innovations from across the Vocational  Rehabilitation field to ensure your choices lead you down the career pathway that you want and succeed in gainful employment. From getting started with services, to assessments, Individual Plan for Employment...

TVI Toolbox: A Conversation with Keith Ford l- Retired Teacher of the Blind and Visually Impaired and Orientation and Mobility Instructor (Transcript Provided)

Show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) Please welcome Teen correspondent, Simon Bonenfant, as he steps into the interviewer role for Blind Abilities. While attending and presenting at the Pennsylvania NFB convention, Simon pulled out his recorder and went to work. Conducting 5 interviews from vendors and presenters. In this interview, Simon talks to Retired Teacher of the Visually Impaired/Orientation and Mobility Instructor Keith Ford. They talk...

Rakeb Max: Breaking Down Barriers and Addressing Those Preconceived Notions

Show Summary: Rakeb Max returns to the Blind Abilities studio to share what she has learned since entering her first year of college at Providence college. Last summer Rakeb joined us to talk about her college transition plans and the steps she was taking to ensure she chose the right college.   Rakeb did choose Providence college and talks about how the realities and expectations are not always the same and how she is adjusting to her new...

Job Insights: Shooting for the Stars and Landing on the Moon: Rejection in the Job Interview (Transcript provided)

Full Transcript Below: Show Summary: In this Job Insights episode, Serina Gilbert talks about her job interview process and the rejection she experienced and more so about what she learned and gained from the interview process. Serina goes into the details when she found out about a position opening in her work place. How she prepared for each step of the process and what she gained from taking the risk of challenging her self and wanting to...

Meet Michael Colbrunn: Business Enterprise Program Owner/Operator and Advocate for the Blind (transcript provided)

Show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) The Business Enterprise Program (BEP) is a great way for interested Blind/Visually Impaired clients of their State Agency/Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) to own their own business and be their own boss. Michael Colbrunn is a business owner in the BEP and joined Jeff Thompson of Blind Abilities in the studio to talk about the BEP and about his work at his campus location and his work on the State...