Skills for Success

For virtually everyone, visually impaired or not, developing skills for success begins from the moment you are born—long before you have the vocabulary or experience to even know what the concept means. And for just about everyone, developing those skills is a continuum.

You, like most people who are visually impaired, have already learned a wide range of compensatory skills that enable you to be independent, self-assertive, and confident in school and social situations. But the world of work is, for many, unknown territory. What can you expect from employers, human resources interviewers, job placement counselors, co-workers? What sort of accommodations is it reasonable to request? Are vocational training programs available, affordable, and useful? You can find authoritative answers to those questions in the employment area of this web site.

This Skills for Success section focuses on the period in life when you have completed basic education—high school or college—and are ready to move on to earning a livelihood. That move may entail further formal education at a graduate school for business, medicine, law, or any one of a number of technical subjects. But this section takes a broader, more generalized approach to the skills required to make smooth transitions from school to work, from college to career, and on to jobs that are challenging and rewarding.