June 18 - Lethbridge, AB

I enjoyed my day in Lethbridge. It was a busy morning. Bob had arranged for an interview with the Lethbridge Herald and also another short interview with AMI (Accessible Media Inc.). I’ll post the link to this when it becomes available. In the afternoon when we arrived at Henderson Park, the rain started and for the first time in the walk series we moved to an alternate location in an indoor shopping mall. The added attraction here was a stop at a juice stand after the walk.

Over assorted juice drinks, Cory, Matthew, Lyle and I talked generally about many things and specifically about the problem of unemployment and underemployment among people who are blind or partially sighted. I think that it would be true to say that this ratio appears to be far greater than the rate of unemployment for people who are sighted. 

Employment opportunities for people who can’t see are extremely limited. To begin with, there is only a narrow range of jobs from which to choose. For instance, it would be unsafe for a blind person to drive or to operate heavy-duty machinery. Nor does a person without sight think that he or she will become a commercial pilot or a brain surgeon.  However, many people without sight have abilities and capabilities that are not being utilized.  

In our post walk conversation near the juice counter; we put forward the idea that perhaps people with sight challenges are fairly stable employees. Job security is important to them and they are unlikely to risk a sure thing when they know the difficulty of finding something else. Consequently, it behooves employers to recognize that any initial training or accommodations made to equipment to enhance the work experience of someone without sight is worth any time or expense involved. Really this is just a solid investment.

So, that is my rant for today – a little on the heavy side perhaps, but an issue of great importance to many young people who want to be a part of the work force. Soon I will post the dates for my next set of walks. When you see these, you will notice that I am backtracking into British Columbia. I had planned this series of walks for April but was unable to complete them at that time. After BC there will be another couple of walks in Alberta and Saskatchewan and then Lyle and I will be moving into Ontario.

Thanks to everyone who has been following the White Cane Connections progress on the blog.  Did you see that we have nearly surpassed 2,000 page views? I can almost imagine that you are all walking with me on this cross country trek to promote white cane awareness.

Thank you!