They are just words.

Right now I am in a hurry up and wait mode as I wait for a training program for the blind to get started in February 2026 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

I thought the process was getting started over the summer when my counselor sent me to the program for three days.But that was just for an evaluation

I am going into this training with an open mind. I know I need Jaws training as I have never been trained on using Jaws.

Its not that I don't know how to use a screen reader I have used NVDA and before NVDA it was Window-Eyes. I made jobs at Citibank accessible using Window-Eyes, Right now I am in a hurry up and wait mode as I wait for a training program for the blind to get started in February 2026 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

I thought the process was getting started over the summer when my counselor sent me to the program for three days.But that was just for an evaluation 
Its not that I don't know how to use screen reading software I have used NVDA until recently and I bought the home version of Jaws. Now I just need training with one exception.

I have a learning disability I started to understand when I was in high school. I would go home, read an assignment in a history textbook and that clutter of words, those were just words, they didn't form into sentences. It didn't matter how many times over and over again I read, they were just words.

My teachers without any testing just decided I was a lazy overweight kid and didn't want to do the work. All they had to do was talk to me and they would have heard me talking about reading their assignments over and over and over and they would understand I only saw them as words. There were notdigital recordings of public school books back then. Yet teachers I had couldn't understand why I got such poor grades because I was an excellent student who went above what was required.

I was part of the crew that was at school until 2 am the night before a musical or play, getting the final touches on the lighting, sound, and making sure everything was just right.

It wasn't until after I became blind that I started to figure parts of this out.

I have learned recently that it is common for people to have more than one disability when going into a training program. I know it will take me and the help of an instructor with some knowledge in teaching people in different ways to find a teaching and learning method that works for me.

Also I am aware that having  a proper braille knowledge will only do good things for me in the future. I'm not starting this with a great understanding of braille but I am willing to give it a good honest try. I learned grade 1 in 1997 and my braille teacher who was also a good friend, said one of the things she thinks that led to me not learning grade 2 was the lack of resources that training program had.

In case you didn't know I didn't become blind until I was 21 years old.

If the doctors would have been correct on my prognosis, I wouldn't be here to write about this, but I am. 

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