Date:

04/12/2021

Herd SIGHT: Eyes on Employment of Individuals Who are Blind or Visually Impaired

Webinar 4/12/2021 from 10:00-11:00 am

Goals

  • Increase awareness of vision, visual impairment, and blindness;
  • Provide concrete examples of persons who are blind in various occupations and how they perform their duties; and Increase positive attitudes toward hiring persons who are blind or visually impaired

This is the first of a series of webinars on employment of persons who are blind or visually impaired. In this webinar about vision, life and work, the audience receives a brief overview of visual impairment and general principles of how life and work tasks are performed without sight or with partial vision. Then they hear about the current status of employment of the blind and what it is important for everyone to understand. Next, the audience is treated to stories by three individuals who are blind/partially sighted, two of whom are West Virginians. Finally, the speakers field questions from the audience.

Moderators

  • Dr. Avinandan Mukherjee, Dean - MU Lewis College of Business and Brad D. Smith Schools of Business
  • Dr. Nancy K. Lankton, Associate Dean, Lewis College of Business and Brad D. Smith Schools of Business
  • Dr. Ralph McKinney – Assistant Professor of Management - MU Lewis College of Business and Brad D. Smith Schools of Business

Guests

  • Anthony R. “Tony” Candela is an Outreach Coordinator for Bookshare/Benetech and is a Program Assistant with American Foundation for the Blind on leadership development and employment projects. He worked for more than 40 years in the field of blindness and visual impairment. He was founding Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Blind Rehabilitation Center in Long Beach, CA; Director of the Specialized Services Division of the California Department of Rehabilitation; National Program Associate in employment for the American Foundation for the Blind; Director of Employment Services for Lighthouse International (Now Lighthouse-Guild); and for 17 years served as a rehabilitation counselor, supervisor, and district manager for the New York State Commission for the Blind. Mr. Candela is interested in enhancing the success of blind persons who wish to work in the computer science field. He is a “retired” athlete (wrestler and long-distance runner). He loves movies, sports, reading, writing, and music, including dabbling in guitar. He has published two books.

  • Jeff Bosley, “Chairman of the Board”, Sounds Good, LLC. Jeff Bosley started his career in radio broadcasting in 1975 working with the famous Molly O'Day & Lynn Davis and he moved on to a myriad of other work as a sound recorder. His company, has over 40 years of music production experience. Most recently, Jeff was a member of the Mountain Stage Production Crew for 10 years and has produced recording projects for Marshall University's College of Arts and Media for the past 18 years.

  • Randy Gilkey, is a well-known West Virginia musician. He is a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and recording engineer. Gilkey began playing piano at age two. He tours, records and performs with his band "The Boatmen". Gilkey's instrumentation can be found on albums by artists such as The Drifters, Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs. He has played on stage with artists such as Chuck Berry and David Holt and has appeared on NPR’s Mountain Stage several times.