Carrie Anton is considered legally blind, as a result of a condition called RLF (now called Retinopathy of Prematurity [ROP]), which is the result of too much oxygen being given to off-set the complications of premature birth. She is not employed in the skilled trades industry. She has worked in a number of positions, ranging from laundry to hospitality. She currently works as the National Marketing Director for the Blindness Products Division of the Aroga Group, which distributes products to people with disabilities. "I'm in charge of national scope of marketing, promotion, devicing, distribution, and customer concerns throughout the country. I make sure that the staff is well-informed and trained, and also bring in new products and take away products that aren't that efficient for the product line to sell," she indicated.
Ms. Anton believes that the disclosure of a disability is up to each individual. "I believe that if a person presents well, and is confident enough in themselves, that disclosure is really up to them. In an employment situation, I think it's important at what point do you disclose your disability; before you get an interview, or in the interview. I would say probably in the interview, but I know people who have done it before. I don't think it's a bad thing at all, I think it just needs to be planned," she indicated.
Ms. Anton believes that self-advocacy involves taking initiative. "I myself have taken the initiative to do a lot of the advocation if I need alternative documents, large print, no hand-writing, or an E-mail rather than having someone pass me a note. I've self-advocated to develop the fact that I let my needs be known, and try to find a solution where everyone can participate," she said.
Ms. Anton believes that her biggest coping mechanisms are organization and finding alternative means of doing things. "It's very important to be organized and know where things are, so that I can just reach there, or I know to go to the same place to retrieve a file, or a pen, or a scissors, or whatever it might be. For me, it's important to be organized and have a system in order to be more efficient. That system doesn't need to change that much.
"Another is finding alternate means to do things like transportation, finding all my possible choices, as far as transportation goes, having people meet on my terms (a place that I know or a restaurant that I know), try to be on-time or early, so that the individual that I'm meeting will have to try to find me, rather than me trying to track them down in a busy place," she indicated.
Ms. Anton has had no difficulty being accommodated in the workplace, as her employer distributes adaptive technology. "Probably 70% of my job is on the computer, 20% is on the road, and 10% is administrative. Most of it is on the computer, so the company that I work for has provided me with their dealer copy of screen magnification software and screen readers to allow me to use computers, and scanners and OCR software for me to scan in material that's not electronic," she indicated.
Ms. Anton's overall experience as a person with a disability has been positive. However, she indicated that the labour market needs to have a greater awareness of what people with disabilities are capable of. "It's important to get more awareness out there, in terms of what this person can do, rather than what they may not be able to do. It's mostly out of ignorance and lack of education," she said.
Ms. Anton's biggest challenge with regard to employment has been finding alternate means of transportation. "The biggest thing for me is driving. It's still a barrier, even today. I'm constantly looking for other ways of getting around. For example, if I go to St. Paul to do a demo, I need to stay over-night in St. Paul because the bus comes back the next day. Little things like that, you need to be more patient of, or find a way around it," she indicated.
