[blindlaw] Receptions

[Gregory I. Vendeland]

I recently completed law school.  I found that my friends and colleagues 
were quite helpful when I was direct with them.  Asking for assistance in 
getting to the correct table or in finding someone that you need to speak 
with is okay.

I also found that if I did a bit of pre-prep work it made things go more 
smoothly too.  I'd find out some of the prospective employers who were 
attending and I'd contact them ahead of time and let them know I  was blind. 
This just gave them the heads-up that I was interested in speaking with 
them.

Additionally, the career center was always helpful.  In fact, I was able to 
have someone from their office assit in certain cases.

And finally, I often took it upon myself to use a personal assistant that 
I'd hired.  This can be a friend or a person specifically hired for an event 
or  series of tasks.

I know that my particular view on getting sighted assistance is not popular, 
but at the end of the day I find it more important to accomplish the task at 
hand rather than be conerned about using a sighted person or not.

As mentioned on this list before, every person brings a unique set of 
skills, talents and gifts to the table.  Even sighted people have their own 
challenges.  If there is a way to make our particualr experience more 
efficient and more enjoyable, I think that's what is important.

When a client hires me to do a task, he/she is not concerned whether I do 
all of the work myself, but whether I execute the tasks in a manner that is 
both efficient and effective.  At the end of the day, that is the point.  We 
are supposed to be providing guidance, counsel, advocacy for those people 
who hire us to do so.


Greg Vendeland
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "E.J. Zufelt" <everett at zufelt.ca>
To: <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 1:16 PM
Subject: [blindlaw] Receptions


Good afternoon,

I believe that this question has been asked here before.  So, I apologize 
for bringing it up again.

I am attending a reception for an interview weekend at my law school this 
Saturday evening.  I am completely blind and normally use a guide dog; 
however, I am comfortable with a cane.

I have not really attended one of these functions since being blind and am 
not quite sure what the most effective method of mingling amongst the 
potential employers would be.

One problem is that many of the people that I would normally ask to attend 
this type of event with me will be competing for the same jobs.

Any thoughts would be appreciated,
E.J.





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