{"id":6661,"date":"2021-04-17T17:10:57","date_gmt":"2021-04-17T22:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=6661"},"modified":"2021-04-17T17:11:02","modified_gmt":"2021-04-17T22:11:02","slug":"modesty-integrity-a-dedicated-work-ethic-and-above-all-a-strong-love-of-family-meet-sandhya-rao-attorney-in-the-united-states-district-court-for-the-southern-district-of-texas-and-vp-of-ibug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=6661","title":{"rendered":"Modesty, Integrity, a Dedicated Work Ethic and Above All, a Strong Love of Family     &#8211; Meet Sandhya Rao: Attorney in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas and VP of iBugToday"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--powerpress_player--><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5708\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6661-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/sandhyaRao.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/sandhyaRao.mp3\">https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/sandhyaRao.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Show Summary:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane are joined in the Blind Abilities studio by Sandhya Rao. They recently met Sandhya a few weeks ago along with Michael McCulloch as they discussed the amazing organization called, I Blind User&#8217;s Group, (iBug). You can listen to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=6624\">iBugToday episode on Blind Abilities<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this episode, they shift the focus to Sandhya, the person. Sandhya is currently employed as an Attorney&nbsp;in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, where she conducts legal research on constitutional issues and drafts judicial memoranda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sandhya describes her life\u2019s journey, not only with her blindness, but with Osteo Petrosis,&nbsp;the rare bone disease which brought about her blindness, along with a myriad of other serious effects. Listen as Sandhya outlines how this illness impacted her life, but not the goals and outcomes she set forth to achieve.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sandhya completed four years at Rice University where she graduated&nbsp;Magna Cum Laude. This was followed by completing law school at Stanford University. &nbsp;Clearly Sandhya has not allowed her medical condition to deter her from achieving success at the highest levels in her field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sandhya offers advice for students looking towards college and the workplace, her passions such as assistive technology, the law, playing classical piano, and her strong belief that braille has been a key to her successes in all endeavors. And of course, she talks about iBug with its numerous training sessions and social activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be sure to set aside a few short minutes to listen to this fascinating guest share her story in her own humble way, with modesty, integrity, a dedicated work ethic and above all, a strong love of family &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can read more about Sandhya&#8217;s personal accomplishments in her&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibugtoday.com\/board-bios\">bio on the iBugToday web site<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find out more about\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibugtoday.org\/\">iBug on their web site<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Contact Your State Services<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:Sheila.Koenig@state.mn.us\">email<\/a>&nbsp;or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Contact:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You can follow us on Twitter&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/blindabilities\">@BlindAbilities<\/a><br>On the web at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/\">www.BlindAbilities.com<\/a><br>Send us an&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:info@BlindAbilities.com\">email<\/a><br>Get the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/blind-abilities\/id1085849859?l=es&amp;mt=8\">Free Blind Abilities App&nbsp;on the App Store<\/a>and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.blindabilities.android.blind&amp;hl=en_US\">Google Play Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/607027582712671\/\">Blind Abilities Community<\/a>on Facebook, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BlindAbilities\/\">Blind Abilities Page<\/a>, and the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/jobinsightsgroup\">Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired<\/a>&nbsp;group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<!--powerpress_player--><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5710\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6661-3\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/sandhyaRao.mp3?_=3\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/sandhyaRao.mp3\">https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/sandhyaRao.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p>https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/sandhyaRao.mp3 Show Summary: Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane are joined in the Blind Abilities studio by Sandhya Rao. They recently met Sandhya a few weeks ago along with Michael McCulloch as they discussed the amazing organization called, I Blind User&#8217;s Group, (iBug). You can listen to the&nbsp;iBugToday episode on Blind Abilities In this episode, they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,263,512],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bapresents","category-college","category-tvitoolbox"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6rcRg-1Jr","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6624,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=6624","url_meta":{"origin":6661,"position":0},"title":"iBUG \u2013 the iBlind Users Group for Beginners and Proficient Assistive Tech Users. Join iBUGToday \u2013 it\u2019s Abuzz!","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"April 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Show Summary: In this episode of\u00a0\u00a0Blind Abilities we feature the iBlind Users Group, aka\u00a0iBUGToday, a nonprofit organization located in Houston, Texas, but which operates a variety of virtual training and social activities for individuals around the country using the Zoom platform.\u00a0 The mission of\u00a0iBUG, is to promote the individual independence,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BlindAbilities Presents&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BlindAbilities Presents","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9362,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=9362","url_meta":{"origin":6661,"position":1},"title":"From Gestures to Jobs: Learning Assistive Tech That Actually Matters","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"February 5, 2026","format":"audio","excerpt":"Learning assistive technology isn\u2019t just about memorizing shortcuts\u2014it\u2019s about building skills that open doors to school, work, and everyday life. In this episode, Cheryl McIntosh and Sree Roy share how mastering screen readers like JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver can turn frustration into confidence. They break down why fundamentals matter, how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BlindAbilities Presents&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BlindAbilities Presents","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_0035.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_0035.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_0035.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_0035.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4949,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=4949","url_meta":{"origin":6661,"position":2},"title":"Career Expo: Switching Her College Major Landed Her in Court! Meet Official Court Reporter Kayde Rieken","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"May 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Show Summary: State Services for the Blind hosted a Career Expo for high school and college students who are blind, low vision, or DeafBlind. The event took place on Saturday, April 27. Throughout the Expo students had the opportunity to: Connect with adults with a vision loss from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Career&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Career","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=373"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image of man with cane and woman with service dog and City Skyline with Job Insights in bold letters.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jobinsights.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jobinsights.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jobinsights.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jobinsights.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jobinsights.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/jobinsights.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7572,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=7572","url_meta":{"origin":6661,"position":3},"title":"Tech Abilities: Sonic Graphs, Mac App Store, Kim Kardashian Beats, NASA&#8217;s iPad Journey and are you a Buncher, Folder or Wrapper? And, More Tech Tidbits for you all!","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"August 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Podcast Summary In this Tech Abilities episode Serina, Callie and Jeff welcome Seyoon Choi to the show. He is working on his major and undergrad simultaneously While playing Blind Hockey and working at the local fruit store. From Kardashian Beats Fit Pros, to NVDA at Texas State, Demos on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Tech Abilities&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Tech Abilities","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=524"},"img":{"alt_text":"The TechAbilities Logo-Dark Sunglasses with TA and BA bold letters in each lens.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/TechAbilitiesLogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/TechAbilitiesLogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/TechAbilitiesLogo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/TechAbilitiesLogo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/TechAbilitiesLogo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/TechAbilitiesLogo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5985,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=5985","url_meta":{"origin":6661,"position":4},"title":"Around the World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective &#8211; Episode 6: Brooklyn Rodden Kelly, from Sacramento, CA\u2013 Doing My Thing \u2013 Safe and Aware.","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"June 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Show Summary: Every day we are inundated with reports about COVID-19: statistics, new cases, and worse. Every day we hear of how the coronavirus has impacted people all over the world, but have we heard specific reports of its effect on blind and visually impaired individuals?\u00a0In this sixth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BlindAbilities Presents&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BlindAbilities Presents","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5964,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=5964","url_meta":{"origin":6661,"position":5},"title":"Around the World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective. A New Series. Episode 1 \u2013 When it Began Down Under.","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"June 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Show Summary: Every day we are inundated with reports about COVID-19: statistics, new cases, and worse. Every day we hear of how the coronavirus has impacted people all over the world, but have we heard specific reports of its effect on blind and visually impaired individuals?\u00a0 In this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BlindAbilities Presents&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BlindAbilities Presents","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6661"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6664,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661\/revisions\/6664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}