TRANSITION

What will your child be doing in another 10 years or in another 2 years? When they leave school, what do you imagine they could be doing? Leaving school is another one of those transition periods where not only the student faces new challenges but the parents can feel quite fragile as well.

Those transition stages have also been considered grieving stages for parents – a time of change, of a new acceptance, worries for the future, a reminder of their child’s abilities and disabilities when exploring new grounds and building new relationships. Naturally, as parents we will always express concern and worry but we also need to be the ‘encourager’, the ‘tough support’, the ‘teacher’, the ‘lifelong support’ when needed and/or when requested.

Today a question was asked about whether there is a group that exists where parents are advocating for and alongside, their children/teenagers/young adults with vision impairments for them to become part of the workforce and employed based on their skills and abilities. The parent asking the question knew of someone in the ‘deaf community’ which is a very strong group who apparently achieved great success in non-profit organisations where a percentage of jobs are now allocated to the ‘deaf/hearing impaired’ person.
The following question was then put forward and I thought I would include her question in this week’s blog – “Does the VI community need to further join together to drive and implement services and supports structured to the communities’ real needs?”
What are your thoughts? Should certain jobs in our networks be for people with vision impairments only? What do you think about this concept? We will welcome your thoughts.
More questions have been posed for future blogs and depending on your responses, it may be lead to further discussion or a planned ‘chat time’.