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Published: Aug. 28, 2018, 6:27 p.m.

Job Insights #9, A Success Story: Meet Emily Zimmermann – One in a Million – Survivor, Advocate and Accessibility Tester

Full Transcript Below.

Welcome to the 9th episode of Job Insights with Serina Gilbert and Jeff Thompson. We focus on Employment, Careers, enhancing opportunities and bringing you  the latest innovations from across the Vocational  Rehabilitation field to ensure your choices lead you down the career pathway that you want and succeed in gainful employment.

From getting started with services, to assessments, Individual Plan for Employment (IPE) to gaining the skills to succeed and tools for success, Job Insights will be giving you tips and tricks to help your journey to employment and break down the barriers along the way.

On this 9th episode of Job Insights Serina and Jeff bring you a success Story from Emily Zimmermann. Emily survived 4 major surgeries to remove a Softball-size brain tumor which ultimately left her totally blind and having to face major changes in her young life.

Emily took on the challenges and transitioned from high school to college and is now approaching her year mark of her internship. She never imagined herself working with accessibility, computer coding and making a difference in the world of accessibility.

Emily has a passion of telling her story and that is how Serina hooked up with Emily. After listening to Emily speak at a conference, she contacted Emily and asked her to join us in the Job Insights Studios. From her childhood to her graduation from college and her work testing accessibility, Emily will take you on her journey and give us great advice first hand on what it was like and is like to day doing what she does. It is not what she dreamed of doing but it must be what was meant to be.

 

We hope you enjoy this Job Insights episode and you can send your feedback and suggestions to the Job Insights team by email

Follow the Job Insights team on twitter @JobInsightsVIP

Job Insights is part of the Blind Abilities network.

 

A big Thank You goes out to CheeChaufor his beautiful music!

You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities
On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com
Send us an email
Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store.
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Full Transcript:

Job Insights #9, A Success Story: Meet Emily Zimmermann – One in a Million – Survivor, Advocate and Accessibility Tester

Emily Zimmermann:
I got the call saying that the MRI showed that I had a brain tumor, and it was pushing on my optic nerve. At that point, it was the size of a softball.

Jeff Thompson:
Job Insights, podcast to help you carve out your career pathway and enhance the opportunities for gainful employment.

Emily Zimmermann:
It was a long time where it was very hard. You're angry and upset and you don't understand. Now, I can look back, but that's certainly a process. It's not something you can just be at that point, and I think that's how a lot of things in life are.

Jeff Thompson:
To help you navigate the employment world and give you job insights and enhance the opportunities to choose the career you want.

Serena Gilbert:
But in middle school, you're really not ... for me, I just wanted to be, quote, unquote, "Normal."

Jeff Thompson:
And you can find the Job Insights podcast on BlindAbilities.com, part of the Blind Abilities Network with hosts, Serena Gilbert and myself, Jeff Thompson, and you can contact us by email at jobinsights@blindabilities.com. Leave us some feedback or suggest some topics that we cover on Twitter @JobInsightsVIP, and check out the Job Insights support group on Facebook where you can learn, share, advise, and interact with the Job Insights community.

Emily Zimmermann:
Going back to your home but small city, and you having all that independence just taken away is very difficult. I mean I'm definitely not super, super tech savvy, so half the stuff that's out there, I don't even really know about, which is super sad.

Serena Gilbert:
Oh, just keep listening to the Blind Abilities Network. You'll learn all kinds of new stuff. Shameless plug there. Sorry.

Emily Zimmermann:
Then I've gotten to do some coding, some different JavaScript and HTML and BSF, just different things like that. So it's so cool because there's such a variety of different things. I love it all. It's been great.

Jeff Thompson:
Whoa. Whoa. Let's back up here, Emily. You were just saying that you're low tech-

Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, I'm confused.

Jeff Thompson:
... low tech, and now she's coding and going into [crosstalk]

Serena Gilbert:
JavaScript.

Jeff Thompson:
Learn about resources for training, education, and employment opportunities.

Emily Zimmermann:
Just many difficult things to get through, but you work through each one, and yeah.

Jeff Thompson:
Now please welcome Serena Gilbert and Jeff Thompson with Job Insights.

Jeff Thompson:
How you doing, Serena?

Serena Gilbert:
I'm great, Jeff. I am really excited today. We have a special guest with us. Her name is
Emily Zimmerman, and I met her at a conference that I attended her in Colorado, and she shared an amazing story of her journey from the first diagnosis that she received all the way through finishing college her at Metro State University, and I'd thought it'd be a great idea for us to hear from her and have her share her journey with our listeners.

Jeff Thompson:
Great.

Serena Gilbert:
So, welcome to the podcast, Emily.

Emily Zimmermann:
And thank you all so much for having me here tonight, and very excited to be a part and to be able to share some of my story.

Serena Gilbert:
Well, we are definitely excited to have you.

Jeff Thompson:
Yes, we are. Nice to meet you, Emily.

Emily Zimmermann:
Nice to meet you all.

Serena Gilbert:
So I guess the best place to start, and I was just fascinated by your story, Emily. You did such a fantastic job over at the conference, and you captivated me from the moment you started talking. I don't know if you realized this, but everyone, there was not anyone in the room that was playing on their phone or doing something else. They were all super into your story because I know that you have a different type of story than most individuals that are in our field in regards to when your vision impairment began to onset. Do you want to start [crosstalk]

Emily Zimmermann:
Right. So I had grown up living a very typical childhood, and then when I entered high school, I went to a small public high school, and I never had any vision problems or medical issues, but I started to have trouble seeing the board in my classes. So my dad and sister both had glasses, of course. We thought I just needed glasses of some kind.

Emily Zimmermann:
So I went to the eye doctor, and they did tons of tests, one of which I can distinctly remember because I was looking at those famous eye charts that we all know so well, and with one of my eyes, I couldn't read the big E on the eye chart, and after growing up always having perfect vision, it was quite a shock. But then the worst part was the eye doctor said there's nothing he could do to correct my vision with glasses. So then we go to an eye specialist, and beginning to get a little more concerned because I just thought I needed glasses, which didn't thrill me, and now I'm finding out they can't fix it with glasses.

Emily Zimmermann:
So several visits to the eye specialist, many, many tests, and he finally said, "I don't think we'll find anything, but we have to start ruling some things out." So he suggested getting an MRI done. At that point, I was 14, and an MRIs a huge machine, super, super loud, and it was so scary. We actually got one. It was the last one of the day. They were just getting ready to close, and on the way home that night, we got the call saying that the MRI showed that I had a brain tumor and it was pushing on my optic nerve, and it was a one-in-a-million tumor, and at that point, it was the size of a softball. So it was going to require several surgeries.

Emily Zimmermann:
So, again, it was a complete shock and a huge adjustment to go from thinking life's all normal and then all the sudden it's not. So the first two surgeries, I actually came out seeing better than I had going in. There were many side effects to deal with, but they were things we could deal with, we could handle. We were working through them. We were just getting through it. Then, over the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, the tumor grew back and the doctor believed after a second surgery that he had had it all. They're not sure if there was maybe a small piece left. They're not sure if it was a new tumor that grew. They don't know, and ultimately, it doesn't matter.

Emily Zimmermann:
But the third surgery, the possibility that was always there happened, and I came out of the operation unable to see. The doctors and surgeons talked to my parents, and even though it was incredibly risky, they asked about going in a fourth time, just two days later, to try to repair my vision. And they did go in a fourth time, but it was too late and the damage was permanent.

Emily Zimmermann:
Now, on top of having to recover from two back-to-back brain surgeries and having to start to relearn how to live life, I mean completely relearn how to live life. I mean I can very vaguely remember nurses and people coming into the hospital room and they showed me basics of how to eat and orient myself with the food on my plate, things that seem so elementary to us, but here I was at 16 years old and I needed to relearn all these things.

Emily Zimmermann:
And then going back to school was a whole new thing, and, again, I had to relearn how to read using Braille and I had to relearn how to get around with a cane and all of those things, which was incredibly difficult. And, yes, we can't change the situation we're in. We can't change the situation we're given, but it's wonderful having had been able to see colors and see things, but the transition was very, very hard.

Serena Gilbert:
Now, Emily, you mentioned that you went back to school. So did you go back to the same high school that you were at prior to the diagnosis?

Emily Zimmermann:
I did, yes. I grew up in a small city, so they didn't have a ton of options to begin with, and while I could have, I suppose, gone to ... they had a school for the blind in Columbia, which would have been an hour and a half away or something like that, at that point, we didn't really think about or consider me going away during the weeks and stuff like that. So we made it work.

Jeff Thompson:
Emily, with all this happening so suddenly and so tragically, where did you find the drive to move forward, and where did you get the information to find a pathway forward?

Emily Zimmermann:
Honestly, for me, a big part of it is I have a strong faith, so my faith is a big part of what helped me just get through, but, like you're saying, I had a huge support system. Even though it was a very small city, I found through my church a visually impaired lady who gave me information on the National Federation for the Blind and the chapter for the area and just the community gathering around me and a closer knit community, people like that, just was a huge, huge help besides, like I said, my faith was a tremendous help.

Serena Gilbert:
I have another question for you, Emily, before we move past your high school days.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yeah.

Serena Gilbert:
Did you find that your close friends treated you any differently, or were they pretty supportive? Because sometimes that transition can be difficult not only for the individual experiencing the sudden loss of vision but also those around that person.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yes. So I'm going to say it was difficult for them as well because they were not there. They just were not supportive at all, and every one of my quote, unquote, "friends" left, and that also made just the transition and everything about it very difficult. It was a long time where it was very hard and very ... you're angry and upset and you don't understand. Now, I can look back, and be like, "If that's how they are, I'm better off without them," but that's certainly a process. It's not something you can just be at that point, and I think that's how a lot of things in life are. Yeah, they were, unfortunately, not supportive.

Jeff Thompson:
Emily, was there a sense of loss? I'm not talking about just a loss of vision, but a loss of identity, who you were, and how you would define yourself at that time?

Emily Zimmermann:
Very, very much so, just because everything I knew was different, and, to some extent, I mean not because of anything I could but because that desire was gone. All of my dreams were gone because they just had all changed. So I think very much so there was that feeling and that loss at first. But you refind yourself and you refind yourself in different ways, and you have to believe that those different ways are just what's supposed to be.

Jeff Thompson:
Do you have any key turning points that you remember?

Emily Zimmermann:
Well, one key for sure, I lost my vision as a sophomore in high school, and that after high school, I knew I needed some training, and that's when I came out to Colorado from South Carolina to the Colorado Center for the Blind. And I was out there one year at the training program they have because I just had so much I needed to learn. I was learning things in school, but it was just a half hour each day or something. So being in the intense, intense training program was a huge help, and at the same time, it was obviously incredibly difficult. Yeah, I think that was just one of the huge points where extremely difficult but totally paid off in the end.

Jeff Thompson:
You mentioned that you had someone from your hometown that was visually impaired, and she gave you some information. What was it like when you went to the Colorado Center for the Blind and found so many other students, so many other people that had blindness as well?

Emily Zimmermann:
It was honestly very different. I mean it wasn't, obviously, bad or good or anything like that. It was just different for me because being in a small town, there was just so little of that and just so few of us. I mean I know when I went out I was stared at, and, obviously, probably still am to some extent today, but we were just a very, very, very minority there. I mean the two of us probably were two out of maybe 10 in the whole city limits, all that area, and that's a big stretch.

Jeff Thompson:
So when you got to Colorado, that must have been a big change when you had so many people.

Emily Zimmermann:
Exactly. So when I got to Colorado, and then, like you said, was surrounded by them at the Colorado Center for the Blind, it was just a huge change, and not good or bad. It was just a huge change.

Jeff Thompson:
Did you find any role models?

Emily Zimmermann:
Definitely, and different things in different people because some people were extremely just adventurous in their traveling whereas other people just amazing in their cooking. So I totally had role models just with different skills and abilities, which was great. I liked that a lot.

Serena Gilbert:
Emily, what was the hardest part about transitioning to the Colorado Center for the Blind?

Emily Zimmermann:
Ooh, the hardest part. I mean I'm trying to think of the best way to put this. I think the fact that, for your own good, they push you so hard, but then if you break, they're not necessarily going to be there to help wipe your tears. You know what I mean? The pushing had to happen, and I understand that, but I never felt necessarily ... I don't know. I don't know how else to put it, but it was just a very tough program, but I think the toughness of it is what helped build the character.

Jeff Thompson:
I can understand exactly where you're coming from. I taught at Blind Incorporated. I taught woodworking, and I was a student there at one time, and I think you start to identify with some of the instructors or some of the other people and you find your own comfort zone within the confines of the camp, the training center.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yeah.

Jeff Thompson:
Kind of after hours when everyone goes back to the apartments and stuff, you start finding your own little group or comfort zone.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yeah.

Jeff Thompson:
Serena, you haven't been to a training center, have you?

Serena Gilbert:
I have not, so, Emily, to give you a little bit of background on myself, I have retinitis pigmentosa, so I've had that I guess throughout my whole life, but I really didn't start receiving blindness-specific services until probably ... it was like middle school, I want to say. But in middle school, you're really not ... for me, I just wanted to be quote, unquote, "normal." I didn't want a special lock on my locker. I'd rather struggle and put the wrong code in three times before I do it myself. I didn't want to walk around with a cane. I did not want to feel different. Middle school's awkward enough without adding, "Oh, this girl has a white cane too," on top of everything.

Serena Gilbert:
I really didn't embrace truly using blindness-specific tools and learning screen readers and things like that until I was actually a sophomore in college and that was more-

Emily Zimmermann:
Oh, wow.

Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, well, because I still have some usable vision, and back then, I had enough where I could even read regular print. It just took me forever, but in college, that doesn't cut it. So I finally realized ... I got a sample of JAWS and taught myself how to use it and all the sudden it was like, "Holy cow. This is way faster than struggling for an hour to read one chapter." And that's when I really started embracing using the cane and using some more blindness-specific tools.

Serena Gilbert:
They did offer me the opportunity to do a residential type of program, but at the time, I had commitments with college and I had a part-time job, so I could not be gone for that long.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yeah, that makes sense.

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, and I think that's a big difference between ... so many people, it depends on where they are in life when it comes to a training type of center, especially residential, especially where you're living. And you traveled all the way from, wow, South Carolina?

Emily Zimmermann:
Yeah.

Jeff Thompson:
To Colorado. Now, how was that process when you decided you wanted to leave South Carolina to go to there? You must have went through your voc rehab to get authorized.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yeah. [inaudible] very smoothly. They were a huge part of the transition. They were the ones who recommended coming out to the Colorado Center for the Blind, and then when I decided I wanted to stay, they were totally helpful in the transition process. So it was honestly a very good transition.

Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that's great, because some people really find it a real stickler to get them to override being sent to somewhere within their state or someplace close and stuff. So that's great that you had that opportunity and took advantage of it.

Serena Gilbert:
I am curious though, Emily. How was that transition for your mom?

Emily Zimmermann:
Well, she actually writes about some of it. She has a book that she titled, "She's One in a Million," because the brain tumor I had was a one-in-a-million brain tumor. So she writes about some of those transitions in the book, but I know it was very difficult. The transition just with me losing my sight, and then when I came out here, it was very difficult at first. So just many difficult things to get through, but you work through each one, and yeah.

Jeff Thompson:
So I have a question for you. While teaching for quite a few years at Blind Incorporated, I watched students come and go and come and go, and I always remember once they leave through that door and go down the sidewalk and they go off into the world again, they've been at the training center for six to nine months, there they go, you just wonder what it's like, especially if they're going to go return to a small town where they don't have the transit system, where they don't have the grid system or the public transportation available to them. What was that like for you when you left Colorado?

Emily Zimmermann:
It was very hard because you're used to having all those things available, and you feel this liberation and independence that you can have and feel you do have, and then going back to your home but a small city and you having all that independence just taken away is very difficult. I mean that's a big reason why I'm back out here now is because you miss it, and it's hard to go from having it to not having it all the sudden.

Jeff Thompson:
Just like losing your sight.

Emily Zimmermann:
Exactly. [inaudible] changes you can avoid, by all means, avoid it.

Serena Gilbert:
And Denver has an excellent public transit system with the light rail, the buses-

Emily Zimmermann:
Oh, yeah.

Serena Gilbert:
I'm jealous, because I'm down here in Colorado Springs, and ours isn't the best.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing down here, up here, whatever.

Jeff Thompson:
Well, likewise in Minneapolis, we have two training centers, probably a mile apart. There's always 30, 35, 40 students out there exploring, traveling, and doing stuff. So even the people of the city get acclimated to seeing people who are blind around.

Emily Zimmermann:
Wow.

Serena Gilbert:
So, Emily, how soon after you completed the program at the Colorado Center for the Blind did you decide to come back out for college?

Emily Zimmermann:
So I completed the Center for the Blind in May. Then I went back home. I had already applied at a couple different schools, and I had been looking at Metro just as a possibility. Then I applied ... I want to say early June and [inaudible] it all then came together pretty quickly because then once I got the acceptance, I thought, "Okay, well, then it's meant to be." And then you call ... I mean I had been accepted and everything at Winthrop and already contacted them to put all my scholarships on hold for a year when I was at the Center for the Blind. It's like everything that's all set up there was on hold for the year that I was at the Center for the Blind, and I was basically just coming back.

Emily Zimmermann:
So it was just surreal because all the plans I'd made were, in a good way, no more, but it's like I had to call them and change it, but it was all great. And then I just organized things with the disability office at Metro, and Metro was a great experience, great experience.

Serena Gilbert:
And Jeff and I have talked a lot about ... gosh, Jeff, it feels like forever ago, on our very first episode you remember we talked about the difference between getting accommodations in high school versus in college?

Jeff Thompson:
Oh, yeah. It's quite a difference because you have a disability services office that you got to get connected with, and then all your individual professors, you don't have a TVI anymore or a district teacher. You're got to put this all into action yourself.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yep. Absolutely. I totally agree. That was a huge thing I noted, and it was following up with professors, following up with different people, that's all on you. So I totally get what you're saying.

Jeff Thompson:
What tools did you use to keep all that organized? You were pretty new with Braille, and probably were using JAWS, I imagine.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yes.

Jeff Thompson:
So what was your go-to tools when you first started college?

Emily Zimmermann:
Definitely, like you said, JAWS. Honestly, at first, I didn't use many tools at all just because I was so new to everything. I used a recorder. I used the pure note-taker option they have, and then I did use, as my Braille got a little better and a little faster, I used a Braille note-taker, the Braille Edge 40, and that has been great, especially since Braille has improved. But those are really the main things for college that have been helpful.

Emily Zimmermann:
So, I mean, I'm definitely not I mean I'm definitely not super, super tech savvy, so half the stuff that's out there, I don't even really know about, which is super sad, but probably just as well because I can't afford it anyway.

Serena Gilbert:
Oh, just keep listening to the Blind Abilities Network. You'll learn all kinds of new stuff. Shameless plug there. Sorry.

Emily Zimmermann:
I'm sure I will learn way too much.

Serena Gilbert:
So, college went overall pretty smooth for you, Emily?

Emily Zimmermann:
It did. It certainly did. I mean I'm sure I had some professors ... I know I did, who handled my blindness better than others, but overall, I certainly didn't have any major problems by any means, and, overall, it was a very good experience. So it was good. It was very good.

Serena Gilbert:
And tell us, what was your major?

Emily Zimmermann:
Communications.

Serena Gilbert:
So, Emily, I understand that you're working at an internship right now.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yes. I'm super excited about it. I've been loving it. I've done it ever since this past September, so coming up on a year. And what I like is because I'm an intern, I get all sorts of different work. I've had the opportunity to test some of their products for accessibility, and then I go through all the different usability tests that they have, and I tell them what does and doesn't work for me being blind. Then I've gotten to do some coding, some different JavaScript and HTML and BSF, just different things like that. So it's so cool because there's such a variety of different things. I love it all. It's been great.

Jeff Thompson:
Whoa. Whoa. Let's back up here, Emily. You were just saying that you're low tech-

Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, I'm confused.

Jeff Thompson:
... low tech, and now she's coding and going into [crosstalk]

Serena Gilbert:
JavaScript.

Jeff Thompson:
That's impressive.

Serena Gilbert:
I think it's really cool you do accessibility testing because you can see an immediate impact with what you're doing. That's awesome.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it.

Jeff Thompson:
It is a great sense of being employed, even having an internship and it's coming up on a year, but it's a good feeling to being rewarded for the work that you're doing.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yeah. I totally agree. It's cool. What I love is to be able to fix something and to see the result right then. I love that just immediate effect and just to be able to think, "This is helping so many people like me be able to access the internet better and easier and more effectively." I love thinking about that, like a firsthand experience, just like I obviously get how it helps people. And so it's just ... I don't know. It's so cool.

Serena Gilbert:
So, Emily, this is going to be a question that I start asking everyone that's in the position that you're in as far as maybe fresh out of college or that sort of thing, and it's a cheesy question so I apologize in advance, but, Emily, what is your dream job?

Emily Zimmermann:
So my dream job would be to be a motivational speaker, to go to different companies, schools, churches, sharing how I lost my vision, but, more importantly, how I got through the difficulty of losing my vision and just sharing hope and that there's hope in whatever we go through, and whether what I'm doing now, the coding, testing, that's a part of that for a full-time job and just doing a lot of speaking on the side, I don't know. That'd be fine if that's the case, but the passion is in the speaking.

Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that's great. That's great.

Serena Gilbert:
And you definitely have a talent for it.

Emily Zimmermann:
Oh, thank you so much.

Serena Gilbert:
So before we wrap up the interview, we have a question that we ask every single person that we've probably had on the podcast so far, because it's been so long.

Jeff Thompson:
It's not a math question.

Serena Gilbert:
No, we promise.

Emily Zimmermann:
Good.

Serena Gilbert:
There's no wrong answers. You don't even have to study for it, but a lot of our listeners are either young adults that are right exactly where you're at, maybe even coming out of high school or finishing up college-

Jeff Thompson:
And we also have listeners who are newly blind, like you were at one time.

Serena Gilbert:
Exactly, or that are looking at career changes because of the new blindness. The question that we have is, "What advice do you have for somebody transitioning either out of high school or into a new career?"

Emily Zimmermann:
My advice ... well, it's multi-fold. First of all, it'd be, "Don't limit yourself," because doing something like coding or testing a website, I never would have imagined myself doing. The only reason I'm doing it is because of the internships I was pushed into when I was college. I needed an internship just to get something on my resume, so I went to my advisor, and that was the only thing he could really think of that'd be easy to get to, on campus, and so I took it because I needed something and that's when I fell in love with that kind of thing. So I think that's the biggest thing, just being open to try something you maybe wouldn't have tried and maybe it doesn't go perfect with your degree or whatever, but that's the big thing.

Emily Zimmerman:
Then, kind of goes with that, is also being open to people around you, your boss, your coworkers, the people you encounter. I think that just so helps form your work experience and being able to view people in a more positive way just, I don't know, helps your work experience be more positive.

Serena Gilbert:
That is great advice.

Jeff Thompson:
Well, Emily, I just want to say the component of an internship, I think they work that into degrees, and it's kind of like volunteering. Sometimes you get to explore some areas that you're maybe interested or not or just wanting to do it to stay busy, but you might find an interest. It's a opportunity. It's a safety net type of situation, at first. Then you found a love for it, a passion for it, and you're making the best of it. So good for you.

Emily Zimmermann:
Yeah. Well, thank you very much.

Serena Gilbert:
So, Emily, if any of our listeners would like to learn more about you, where can they find you?

Emily Zimmermann:
Absolutely. They can go to my website at www.brokencrayonsejz.com.

Serena Gilbert:
Perfect. Well, you all have just been listening to us interview
Emily Zimmerman. She doesn't know this yet, but she's probably going to make another appearance on your podcast in a few months so we can catch up with her and see where she's at because I think our listeners are going to fall in love with you, and I just love that you share your story and are so honest and upfront with us.

Emily Zimmermann:
Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been a true pleasure.

Serena Gilbert:
We really appreciate you, Emily, and thank you so much for sharing.

Jeff Thompson:
Thanks, Emily.

Emily Zimmermann:
Thank you.

Jeff Thompson:
Serena, that was a great guest. Emily was just awesome.

Serena Gilbert:
I can't wait to have her back.

Jeff Thompson:
Emily, that was a good find. That must have been a great convention.

Serena Gilbert:
Oh, it was fantastic. Like I said, when we were in the general session, you could have heard a pin drop. Everybody was just captivated by what Emily was sharing with us, and I cannot tell her again how much I appreciate how open she was on this interview.

Jeff Thompson:
I know you got to listening and you just started sinking in further and further into her story, and it's like you could really relate to it, and yet, you wouldn't wish it upon anybody, yourself, or anybody, one in a million.

Serena Gilbert:
Exactly. And I'd like to check that book out, because she did say her mom had a book called One in a Million, so I'm going to have to look that up.

Jeff Thompson:
A lot of the transitions from a mother's point of view. That must be interesting.

Serena Gilbert:
Exactly. Well, we hope you enjoyed this episode, and, again, Jeff, do you want to tell them where you can find us?

Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, so you can go to www.BlindAbilities.com, check out all the Job Insights podcasts and you can also find us on Twitter @JobInsightsVIP.

Serena Gilbert:
And on Facebook under Job Insights, and we also have a wonderful support group called Job Insights Support Group.

Jeff Thompson:
And you can also send us email, feedback at-

Serena Gilbert:
JobInsights@BlindAbilities.com.

Jeff Thompson:
Great. Thanks for listening.

Serena Gilbert:
We'll see you next time.

Jeff Thompson:
And thank you, Chee Chau, for the beautiful music. You can follow Chee Chau on Twitter @LCheeChau And, as always, we want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye-bye.

 

[Music]  [Transition noise]

 

When we share, What we see, Through each other's eyes...

 

[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]

 

...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.

Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with a blindness perspective check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com. On Twitter @blindabilities. Download our app from the app store, Blind Abilities, that's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.