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 display. I use JAWS.
Speaker 2:
Put on your cape, grab your gladiator shield and go get them tiger.
Speaker 6:
Don’t limit yourself.
Jeff Thompson:
Career Expo 2019, such a great opportunity for transition age students to meet up with professionals from a wide variety of professions. It was an 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 State Services for the Blind and this is for transition students. And there’s a lot of mentors, a lot of role models. People who are employed that are sharing their journeys and just showing that they too, can be successful.
Jeff Thompson:
So, I came up to a table, to a physical therapist named Alex Loch. How are you doing?
Alex Loch:
I’m doing well.
Jeff Thompson:
So, what do you do as a physical therapist?
Alex Loch:
Yeah. So as a physical therapist, generally, if somebody has any kind of body dysfunction, pain, just something that’s limiting them from participating in life or a sport or whatever. They’ll come to a physical therapist and we do what’s called a rehab and just work on either exercise, stretching, soft tissue kind of muscle bone techniques and hopefully get them back to doing whatever they want to do.
Jeff Thompson:
So this obviously took some schooling?
Alex Loch:
It did. You have to have an undergrad degree and then it’s an additional three year doctorate. So for me, it took about eight years, but if you do it fast, it can take seven years.
Jeff Thompson:
Eight’s not bad.
Alex Loch:
Eight’s not bad and it’s because I had started… My undergrad was in English and dance. So I had quite the amount of prerequisites before I could even apply to a doctorate program.
Jeff Thompson:
So how did State Services for the Blind come into play?
Alex Loch:
You know, they were really helpful in actually participating in the graduate school. So I was not connected with State Services as an undergrad. And then it was per a recommendation from a disability coordinator when I was getting prereq’s done, that suggested I get involved with State Services, to look into what options I would have for graduate school. And they were instrumental in handling a lot of funding things, kind of connecting with technologies and it was great.
Jeff Thompson:
So, highly recommended that people get connected up?
Alex Loch:
Yeah, absolutely. You don’t know what you don’t know. So, they might have something that is going to be really helpful.
Jeff Thompson:
So in your job, being visually impaired, what is that like? How do you overcome that?
Alex Loch:
I have some functional vision. So I’m able to use a computer if I have large font settings. I can navigate without the use of a cane in familiar situations. So actually a lot of the time, my patients, or colleagues will not be aware of my blindness. And I am sure to tell everybody, just so they don’t feel like something unusual is happening. So for example, at the end of every clinic session with a patient, Duluth’s not a huge community. So there’s a good chance I’m going to run into that person at some point in the community and my vision will not allow me to see them if they’re more than five feet in front of me. So I tell everybody at the end of the session, “Just so you’re aware, I’m legally blind. If you’re more than five feet from me, I’ll know there’s a person there, but I just won’t know who it is. So if you see me on the street, be sure to come up and say hi.” Just kind of that thing, so people are sort of aware of it.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. That can be interesting because my neighbor could be waving to me every morning and I’ve never waved back.
Alex Loch:
Right. Absolutely. I heard the stories like this in Duluth, about people seeing me, waving at me, and feeling like I ignored them. So now, I just try to tell everybody, “I am blind and I’m sorry if I don’t wave back.”
Jeff Thompson:
So what advice would you, or have you been giving to the transition age students that have been attending?
Alex Loch:
One, I would say theme, has just been sort of self-advocacy. So if you’re in a situation with your professor, I always recommend if somebody’s comfortable in their disability, to approach their professor the first day of class and just let them know the situation. I think you should still be involved with the disability office. But in my experience, the professor having that line of communication with me directly, we’ve been able to solve a lot of issues. Sort of on the spot versus retroactively. So, that’s been super helpful.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. You bring up a good point, because when I was in school I went to my instructor’s office and the first thing he said is, “I didn’t think you’d ever show up, because you’re always looking off like you don’t really want to be here.” And then I explained my visual impairment.
Alex Loch:
Yes. So that kind of goes with the whole, the more people that know the better, from my perspective.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, to quote Hawthorne, maybe we all should be wearing scarlet letter B’s on our chest.
Alex Loch:
Yes.
Jeff Thompson:
How has… I mean, we talked a little bit about visual impairment, but in the sense that you can get by with a little bit in certain situations, like myself too. In some instances, I’m the sighted guy amongst a bunch of other people because I have a little bit of peripheral, but in other situations, I’m the blindest guy in a room.
Alex Loch:
Yeah. I’ve had that a lot and so because I normally don’t carry a white cane. But then if we’re doing advocacy type work, or something where I’m with a large group of blind people, I will purposefully bring a white cane. Because I’ve been in situations like that, where I’ve been the person without the cane. And I’ve almost… I’m almost being looked at, sort of misguidedly as like a chaperone or something like that. That is not the situation. So I feel like the cane helps kind of send a message to everybody like, “We are all blind people and blindness looks different for everybody.” And, yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
When I had a little bit more sight, bringing the cane with me at the bus stop, because one time I just stowed my cane away and the bus driver… I asked the bus driver, “What bus is this?” And he says. “The number is on the front of the bus.” And I was like, “Okay.” So I pulled my cane out, then he said it to me. So, that identifier in helping out the situation in social networking.
Alex Loch:
Yeah. I’ve had lots of things like that too. We should have a coffee table book of those stories.
Jeff Thompson:
So physical therapy, that’s a lot of work sometimes and I’m thinking of massages or like you said, deep tissue or something of that nature. It is physical work?
Alex Loch:
You know, it certainly can be physical work. I guess I’m young enough in my career and I’ve heard enough stories where I’m pretty mindful of my body and keeping it healthy. So I’m not really willing… For example, I’ll work with people in the hospital and it’s even just the labor of getting from sitting to standing can be unbelievable for people. It’s like you are literally lifting them up. I’m in a situation where I’m willing to put in so much work, but then the patient’s got to kind of meet me halfway with the amount of work they’re willing to put in. And then I just… I go to the gym every day. So I stay active and I think that counteracts any sort of negative things that are going on at work.
Jeff Thompson:
Did you have that before you got into this field, or is it something that you developed later on, or carried with you?
Alex Loch:
I think I did have that. Even growing up, I was a competitive gymnast. And then after that, in college, I took up dance pretty seriously and was doing a lot of performance with that. So activity has been an always present thing in my life. So, I’ve just sort of made sure to keep that up going into my professional work.
Jeff Thompson:
So what advice would you give to someone who is thinking about joining a gym, or getting physically active, but is hesitant because they’re visually impaired?
Alex Loch:
I would say do it and do it now. And sometimes logistics hold people up. How am I going to get to the gym? Am I going to be able to use the equipment? I think do it, try a trial and then they’ll figure it out. I mean, we are so resilient, and we’ve found ways to do so many things that being physically active is not going to be something you’re not included in. So, do it.
Jeff Thompson:
All right. Just do it. Sounds good. Well Alex, I want to thank you for being part of the career expo here and sharing your experience and your insightfulness to all the students that came along here.
Alex Loch:
Happy to be here. Thanks for talking to me.
Jeff Thompson:
Be sure to contact your State Services for the Blind, your voc. rehab, and find out what they can do for you. Live, work, read, succeed. A big shout out goes out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music. And 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:
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