October is officially National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and I want to share my experience working with a disability. After I graduated with my associate’s degree in web technology from Pellissippi State Community College, it took me five years to earn my associate’s degree; in contrast, people usually take only two years to complete it. In my case, it took longer than two years because I needed to balance my class schedule so that I wouldn’t end up with five classes that all had five papers due within the same week. I usually took six hours per semester to avoid overloading myself.
In 2013, Michael Weaver, a supported employment specialist from the Cerebral Palsy Center of Knoxville, helped me secure a position. Vocational Rehabilitation paid the center to provide me with supported employment, which assisted me in obtaining employment. Supported employment is a service that offers individuals with disabilities proper job placement. Michael was concerned that the hours I worked each week might affect my TennCare benefits, which pay for my caregivers and provide me with a new wheelchair every five years.
I was excited about getting a job so I could support myself without having to rely on anyone. It wasn’t a quick process. Michael explained that there were a lot of clients ahead of me, but after a few weeks, he said that he had found something that seemed like a good fit for me at the Public Broadcasting Service. I went in for an interview and met Adam Hall, the office manager at East Tennessee Public Broadcasting Service. During the interview, I noticed that he was amazed by my ability to work my Tobii with my eyes.
He asked if I had experience working with graphics in Adobe Photoshop and explained that my role would be putting airdates on images. The airdates on the images indicated when the shows aired on the channel, and the photos would go on the website. Every Thursday, I went to the studio and worked for a couple of hours. The assistant emailed images as well so I could work from home. I was excited because I thought I was going to gain more responsibilities. I was earning only $48 after earning a college degree. I hoped to gain experience working for a massive organization like PBS, as I had limited experience working with nonprofit organizations.
My job wasn’t particularly time-consuming, but I was always given 60 images, and an airdate had to be added to each of them. I used a graphic editing program, Adobe Photoshop, to add the airdate. I learned Photoshop while in school at Pellissippi. My employment with East Tennessee Public Broadcasting Service lasted only six months. I asked for more responsibility by working on the website and was committed to learning how, even though they didn’t think I had enough experience.
A few weeks later, Michael called my mother to let her know that I was going to be the recipient of the Rudy Sullivan Award, presented by the Knoxville Area Employment Consortium. Looking back on my employment at PBS, I saw my experience as a stepping stone in deciding whether I wanted to return to school.
Camp ASCCA has given me the confidence to attend school and pursue a career.
