Never napping and always advocating with Ashley Jackson

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello there, Radio Serrita listeners versus Preston Galer and I
am one of the supporters and avains of the Aaron's
Opinion podcast. Aaron's Opinion is a show where we discuss
critical issues in the blindness community and all across the
universe and galaxy. We have interviewed various fashions in the industry,

(00:23):
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(00:46):
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(01:31):
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Help one person today, help one million people tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Welcome or welcome back, everybody to another exciting episode of
Aaron's Opinion, The Cast for Blind People, where we speak
about critical issues in the blindness community and all other
issues from across the universe and galaxy.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
My name is Aaron Richmond.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
Of course, if you want that electronic business card, as
I always like.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
To say, people always like to ask, hey, how do
I get in touch with the show? Well, if I
if you would just let me send you the electronic
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zero six eight one nine.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Eight six nine.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
One two four zero six eight one nine eight six nine.
Aaron's Opinion six at gmail dot com. A A R
O N S O P I N I O N six.
That's the number six. Aaron's Opinion six at gmail dot com.
That number again, one two four zero six eight one
nine eighty six nine. Of course is the wa business number,
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(02:45):
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Speaker 3 (02:54):
We've been noticing that there's been.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
A lot more a lot more attention in that group
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(03:15):
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(03:58):
So thank you out there. And of course we also
want to say that we don't care where you're listening from,
but we're appreciative that those of you who do, and
I have a suspicion about something, you know, over these
weeks and months, I've been saying, you know, don't forget.
We always like to thank the countries who tune into
the show each week to make sure that you know

(04:19):
that your vote, basically your download, which is basically voting
your download, matters. And this week we're going to actually
start something new because this is a new fun thing
that I'm trying out to see what's going to happen.
So here we go. Here it is, and we're going
to try it out. Ladies and gentlemen. We want to
say that this is the Download Contest, and of course
this week we have some very interesting download results, and

(04:40):
we're going to read off the results here. So with
forty eight downloads, would we please give a warm welcome
to all of the listeners in Mexico. Thank you Mexico.
With forty six downloads, two less than Mexico. It's very interesting,
very close race United States. And with six downloads this

(05:00):
week our friends up in the north across the border
in the north in O Canada. Thank you to all
of you who are downloading. So if you want me
to say your country, you have to download a lot
of these episodes, and make sure that you're telling your
friends to do the same thing, because when you're downloading,
you're competing not only within your country, but with all
the other great countries who choose to take a moment
out of their busy days and lives to listen to

(05:22):
Aaron's opinion. Don't forget about following along on TikTok. We
do occasionally post videos there. And of course, don't forget
about following along and considering joining the Patreon. And if
you want further information about that, I think the patreon's
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not be, or it might be. I'm not sure as
I always say, if you want the electronic business card,

(05:42):
let me know. You can also join the Patreon for
free and occasionally we will be posting videos there, and
of course, if you want to be very generous, you
can even join at the lowest year possible five dollars
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Speaker 3 (05:53):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Don't forget about following along on x and YouTube at
Aaron's Opinion TV. All right, that is basically it for
the for the you know, the ways that you can
get in touch with the show. And of course, as
we always like to say, if you really want to
get in touch with the show quickly, just have me
send you my business card and that will be the
best way for you to get in touch with the show.

(06:15):
We do want to take a moment to spend some
time this evening or this morning or afternoon, whenever you're
listening thinking today's well, today's guests would not have been
possible without us knowing the great Brandon Hennis. And after
we had our bit of a series with Brandon Hennis,
I asked him who should I interview next, and he
said Ashley Jackson. And it took a while. We I

(06:38):
you know, had a lot to do and we had
a lot to do. Our schedules didn't match up perfectly,
but then when they did, we had a wonderful conversation.
So Ashley Jackson is somebody from the great state of Texas,
and and anyway, Brandon was saying, how you know you

(07:11):
should He was saying, Aaron, you should really get in
touch with Ashley Jackson. And I certainly did when I
had when I had the chance to do so. And
Ashley came up here and did a magnificent, magnificent recording.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
If she really.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Focuses a lot on her work as a voke rehab
counselor in the state of Texas, but really she just
focuses a lot on overcoming all of the discrimination that
she's had to overcome growing up in Louisiana and everything
in between. So absolutely, I think it's a fascinating conversation.
We had a lot of laughs. You can even be

(07:45):
friends with her on Facebook. You can you can be
friends with her for real on Facebook, or you can
be friends with her fake page that is actually the
wrong page. So she even gave out the wrong information
at the end of the conversation, which I of course
got a huge kick out of that. You know, it's like,
if you're on a podcast, you're trying to give the
right information, and she on purpose gave the wrong information,
So that part was very silly at the end. She's

(08:06):
a big comedian of course, as we say. But overall,
we had a wonderful, wonderful conversation with Ashley Jackson. So
why don't we get into that today and we'll let
you go talk to her and she will give us
a beautiful conversation of all of the various things she's
overcome in her life and things like that. So it's
truly truly a great It is truly a great It's

(08:33):
truly a of course, a great honor to welcome Ashley
Jackson to the podcast. So of course, let me let
me remind you that my name is Aaron Richmond, and
you're listening to the Erin's Opinion podcast, and I think
we need a great title for this episode. Now, this
title will sound funny to you at first, but there's
a specific reason why. It goes back to one of

(08:55):
the questions I asked, and the title of the episode
is this, So listening to the Aaron's Opinion podcasts and
now let's sit back and listen together too. Never napping
and always advocating with Ashley Jackson. Welcome or welcome back,
everybody to another exciting episode of Aaron's Opinion, the podcast

(09:18):
for blind people where we speak about critical issues in
the blindness community and all of their issues from across
the universe and galaxy. Today, this morning, this night, whenever
you're turning tuning into the show. We are joined this
evening by a great friend of Brandon Hennis. Ashley Jackson
joins us.

Speaker 5 (09:34):
Now, now I apologize for my phone ringing, but hi.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Everyone, never never would have heard it. If you hadn't
said it, I never would have known, never would have noticed.

Speaker 5 (09:44):
Yes, we still have a landline.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Not even audible, No problem. Okay.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Well, as a matter of fact, I sort of forget
I you know, I have a confession, which is that
I forget exactly what you do out there in Texas.
But I understand you do a lot to help blind people,
and you're doing a ton of different interesting stuff. So
why don't you walk through through your life story? Who's
Ashley Jackson? Why don't you go through the whole life story?
And I'll meet my microphone and sit back and listen

(10:12):
and interject.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
When again, oh.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
Man, Okay, where do I begin. Let's see.

Speaker 6 (10:18):
Well, everyone, as you know, has Aaron introduced me. My
name is Ashley, So let's start from the beginning of
my life story. So I was originally born and raised
in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the year of nineteen ninety two.

(10:40):
I know it sounds kind of old, sounds kind of young.
I feel like I'm getting old anyways, And I was
born with cataracts which had turned into glaucoma. So the
story behind that is Louisiana at the time, in the nineties,
there were not a whole lot of different technologies that

(11:04):
could help with certain things. And when I was born,
we didn't my family, my mother and my grandmother, they
did not catch these cataracts right away. My mom was
also visually impaired, she wouldn't have known, but my grandma
was the one who saw the difference in my eyes.

(11:24):
And for those of you who may not know what
cataracts in the eye looks like, it essentially will be
maybe a smoky gray color on the I want to
say it's the Irish part of the eye. So my
grandma and my mom had a debate about it, and

(11:47):
we went and we got some genetic testing and we
figured out that it was indeed cataracts.

Speaker 5 (11:55):
So I had the surgery at three months old.

Speaker 6 (11:58):
It was removed and fortunately it turned into congenital glaucoma,
and so now I have glaucoma in the stagnus, which
is the movement of the eye.

Speaker 5 (12:13):
So it's one of these things that.

Speaker 6 (12:16):
When I look at somebody or I try to make contact,
it's really hard to do because what happens is that
in the sided world. I'm sure a lot of you
have experienced it where you'll be looking at someone and
they're like, why are you rolling your eyes at me?
Are you doing it to be rude? And no, it's

(12:37):
not that you know you're doing it to be rude.
It's just something that cannot be helped. So I've gone through.

Speaker 5 (12:46):
Numerous amount of surgeries.

Speaker 6 (12:48):
For correct division and nothing has worked. So my visual
impairment is still the same.

Speaker 5 (12:58):
Now.

Speaker 6 (12:59):
One thing I'm want to mention is as a child
growing up in Louisiana, one thing I will say is this,
and I'm pretty sure Aaron you may want to, you know,
have a question about this, but the school systems in
Louisiana was not very kind to me. As a visually

(13:20):
impaired individual or a lot of people with disabilities, because
there was not a whole lot to offer. Growing up
as a child, I developed many many skills. I believe
that three or four years old, I taught myself how
to read. And throughout the school system, it was a

(13:42):
struggle because a lot of people in Louisiana that didn't
understand I conditions always associated and I conditioned with other
types of disabilities. And the thing is is that you know,
just because somebody may be blind to visually impaired, doesn't

(14:02):
mean that something is wrong mentally, like they cannot understand
what's going on, and so a lot of the teachers
wouldn't be understanding. I never got the proper accommodations.

Speaker 5 (14:19):
I never.

Speaker 6 (14:21):
You know, it was it was difficult getting the proper
things that I needed. And thank goodness that you know,
you when you have a support system like somebody like
your mom who also is visually impaired, who's lived it,
who's been there, will advocate for you. And then you
know you have a grandmother who understands it as well.

(14:43):
They would have, you know, be my voice as a child.
You know, fast forward to times where I was seven
years old, I had a teacher tell my grandmother that
she didn't feel that I was capable learning anything and
they needed to keep me back in the second grade.

(15:05):
And my grandma was like, I don't believe that. Have
a test with her, and see. We did a reading
test and I was way above second grade level. I
was actually fifth grade level, and the teacher refused to
see that her biases about people with disabilities blocked her judgment,

(15:27):
and as a result, I was.

Speaker 5 (15:29):
Held back a grade.

Speaker 6 (15:32):
And then in two thousand and five, it was a
struggle for me because Hurricane Katrina hit and as somebody
who's visually impaired, I lost everything and I ended up
being homeless. We were evacuated and we were sent to Houston, Texas,
different environment to live, different change from what I went

(15:54):
through in Louisiana. And you know, for somebody who was
visually impaired with the vision I have and being able
to still see a little bit, there were some things
that I'd rather not talk about. What I saw it
was very, very traumatizing, and so it was not something

(16:16):
that I'd rather disclose. And so I ended up building
a life here in Houston. I went to school out here,
schools were kind of different.

Speaker 5 (16:28):
I still had a little bit of the.

Speaker 6 (16:29):
Same experience with the discrimination with you know, going to
my what they call them this instead of IP meetings,
they call them art meetings. Here, teachers didn't feel that
just because I, again was visually impaired, I didn't have
that ability to speak and stand up for myself. And

(16:52):
what happened one day was I learned some skills and
I grew some confidence, and I stood up and I
told them, listen, I'm gonna be there in my meetings,
whether you like it or not, I'm gonna be here.
I'm gonna advocate for myself. You're not gonna make decisions
for me. You're going to allow me to speak and say.
What I need is a visually impaired person. I don't

(17:13):
need anyone to think for me. Let me think for myself.
You know, fast forward, I'm sixteen years old. You know,
you get to the end of high school and all
your friends, they can all drive gold places, take them
plate their themselves places. And I grew into a state
of depression and anger because it was something I was

(17:36):
not happy with, being visually impaired and not being able
to take myself places. I always had to depend on
ride share, you know, a pair of transit family members,
and it was a difficult thing and it was something
I dealt with for the longest time. And then as
I got older, I learned to get out of that
shell and be independent and just learn how to do

(17:59):
these things on my own.

Speaker 5 (18:01):
And then I.

Speaker 6 (18:03):
Started college at the age of nineteen. Went through some
things in college with discrimination as well, with professors not
providing accommodations, and advocacy has always been my background where
I've always advocated for the things that I need and
what others need, because it's not enough people that speak

(18:25):
up and say anything when it comes to workplace and
you know, college discrimination when it comes to things like that,
and so I've had to fight for my education to
make sure I got the things that I needed to
be successful, and that encouraged me to major in psychology

(18:46):
and I got my degree in psychology, my bachelor's degree
twenty twenty, No, not twenty twenty, I got it in
twenty seventeen, twenty twenty three. I have my master's degree
in psychology is a minor in social work, hoping that
I can change the perspective of other people and fight

(19:09):
for other people with disabilities.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
And to this day forward, I do a whole.

Speaker 6 (19:13):
Lot of that. In the community. I do a whole
lot of helping other people. And now fast forward to today,
I currently have my first job and I work as
somebody who teaches blind and visually and paired individuals to
be independent and maintain and seek that employment.

Speaker 5 (19:36):
So that's a little bit about me.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
That's a great answer to get us going.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Absolutely, that is a beautiful, beautiful answer. You know, I
could not have asked for better. And yeah, I was
born in ninety one. By the way, in case you
were wondering somewhere around you s yeah, okay, And everything
you said sounded we say, vaguely familiar. I also faced tremendous,

(20:05):
tremendous discrimination in my state, not Louisiana, but my state
where I grew up. I faced tremendous discrimination. I also
faced disturbing discrimination in university, to which I'm not ashamed
to admit I still have PTSD about I have Not
only do I have PTSD about that university that I

(20:27):
graduated from, which I did graduate from it in the end,
not only do I have PTSD about the university, but
I have PTSD about the town.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
I won't even go into the town around.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
The university because they were so hostile in this one
particular community in Maryland.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
So I won't even I won't even if.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
We're ever in the state of Maryland, I'll ask the
driver to drive around that town in some of those
In some cases, it wouldn't even be safe for me
to be in that particular in some of those neighborhoods.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
Now.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
But that's a very long story, and you know, to
make a long story shorter or a short story long.
I certainly do remember Hurricane Katrina and being a middle
schooler and hearing about it and hearing about the destruction
and the politics and the trauma and all of that,
and then I just think you did you did everything right. Really,

(21:18):
you just stuck to it and continue to you know,
obtain your degree and things like that.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
You know, I wish I.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Could tell you that you'll be able to change people's
you know, change people's perspective and give people a new perspective.
And unfortunately, the most frustrating part of all of this
is you can never give anybody else a new perspective.
In other words, what I mean by that is people
have already formulated their opinions right. There will always there

(21:48):
will always be people like you and Brandon who listen,
and many others, by the way, who listen to Aaron's opinion.
And there will be other people will who will refuse.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
To listen to Aaron's opinion.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
And you'd be surprised to know how many people refuse
to listen to certain podcasts, whether it's mine or someone else's.
You tell them about it now, I refuse. You know,
we live in a society where people are extraordinarily closed minded.
I have not seen in my thirty four years so far,
I have not seen a society where people are so

(22:20):
closed minded about everything. And you know, it's a very
strange phenomena. You know, I don't know why people are
so closed minded about society and about understanding you know
what blind people are truly capable of. I mean, you know,
you're the person that studied psychology, you know, so if

(22:40):
you were to think about our society psychologically, what are
some observations you've made through your studies and now that
you're working and living in it now in Texas, what
do you really think about that about our society?

Speaker 6 (22:52):
I think one of the things that I've noticed growing
up in all of my thirty three years is I
have seen where we formed these opinions, because what happens
is that we live in a society where stereotyping is immaculate.
For example, you know somebody who is visually impaired, really

(23:16):
really trying to fight hard. You know, I can say
that I have lived in a situation where I would
have you know, for a example, I was in college
and I had a professor literally say to me because
I had a piece of paper. We were taking an exam,
and the exam was about fifty minutes, and I finished

(23:38):
within twenty five minutes of everyone else. And she's like, oh,
you finished right away. I didn't think you were capable
of even reading it or even getting it done. And
so what happens is that a lot of the times
we will basically stick to the way we feel because
those in our societ you have that prejudgment and that

(24:03):
mindset that a blind and visually impaired individual cannot do it.
It puts our self esteem down, and so then we
don't change that opinion because it sticks with us. It
sticks with us in our mind. And then this is
where the word overthinking comes into play, is what I
really think.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah. So basically people still maintain stereotypes and maintain prejudice
over over a very long period of time.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (24:33):
Yes, and it's still prevalent today.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Absolutely.

Speaker 6 (24:36):
You know, you'll go into a restaurant you're somebody who's
visually impaired, and you have your you know, like a
cited friend or a cited family member, and you'll hear
something like what would your friend like? What was your
sister like?

Speaker 5 (24:51):
What would she like?

Speaker 6 (24:52):
And it's like, you didn't ask me, and you didn't
know why if I was capable or not to even answer,
but you're acting like I don't have a voice. And
so that's where we as a society have got to
stop with the stereotyping and the judgmentality and learn how

(25:13):
to be open. We have to learn how to be
open and try to understand each other and listen and
encourage because I've never had that growing up. The only
time I ever had that encouragement is when it was
family members throughout the school system. Like I mentioned before,
Louisiana is not a disability friendly state.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
I mean, are there any by the way, I mean,
is any state?

Speaker 2 (25:40):
I mean I didn't know any state. I mean I
would in my estimation. I don't think any state goes
out of their way to say we're I don't think
there's any disability friendly state.

Speaker 6 (25:49):
Really I agree with that, because I mean even here
where I live, I have experienced that with you know,
ubers and lyfts, for example. I will put in the
notes that I'm visually impaired, and then the driver they
don't read the notes, and what will happen is they
pull up, you have the cane, and then when you

(26:10):
get in, you tell them, well, I put in there
that I was planning, Well I didn't know. You didn't
tell me, Well, you didn't read your notes. When I
called you, you didn't answer. And then sometimes they see
the cane and they'll pull off.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, all the experienced it more often, many many, many times,
many times. And you know, I was a guide dog
user for many years and there were there were a few.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
The problem that I see saw with.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
It and really noticed is that when I had a
guide doog, there were many great drivers by the way,
who never gave me any trouble, but it was always
the one or two really bad drivers that ruined the
whole experience. That's what the problem with that is is
that those companies Uber Lift, they have a lot of
great people who truly want to do well and truly
just want to make their money. But then when you

(27:01):
have only one or it only takes one or two
bad experiences for a passenger to not want to, you know,
download the up again or set up another trip again.

Speaker 5 (27:11):
You know, same thing with going places.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, or or really listening to a podcast, right, I mean,
if people have bad experiences on podcasts, they don't come back.
If you have good experiences, you'll always come back. So
you know, that's kind of this similar concept, you know,
is that this has been an ongoing thing, and and
I'm frustrated that it continues to be a prevalent topic,

(27:36):
you know, on the table of discussion. But it's also
frustrating that, in my opinion, really nothing is being done
to actually solve the problem apart from us talking about it. Now.
It's important for us to speak up about it, for
you and I to speak and many other blind people
to speak up about these things, you know, But the
fact that it's not being addressed, that's actually the most

(27:59):
bothersome part, you know, that's actually worse than the fact
that it continues is the fact that there's no effort
is being made, in my opinion, no efforts being made
to fully stop the problem when it could be you know.

Speaker 6 (28:10):
And it's the same thing with the school systems, like
with the colleges for example. And I've seen it, I've
experienced it. I have had friends who have shared those
experiences where you will go into a college course and
the professor doesn't read the accommodation. But one thing about
certain schools is that they will within those seven days

(28:34):
of the accommodation being active. It's automatically approved, and you
get professors they're like, I shouldn't have to feel like
I need to modify things so you can get an education.
I had one do that to me when it came
to recording.

Speaker 5 (28:53):
She went off. She was like, what are you doing?

Speaker 6 (28:58):
And I basically like, well, ma'am, you checked the box
and you said it was okay for me to record
my lectures. And this is the only way for me
to learn. Because I am somebody who is an active listener.
I'm also a visual and audio learner, and so if
I can't get it visually, audio is my second option.
And so she just went livid, Well, you aren't supposed.

Speaker 5 (29:23):
To have that ef thing thing in my class. Blah
blah blah blah.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
I can totally picture this totally.

Speaker 5 (29:30):
And I was like, Okay, you know what, I'm going
to go to.

Speaker 6 (29:32):
Ada because there's per arguing with you and I totally Yeah,
you know what else is interesting?

Speaker 2 (29:40):
If it fascinates me about this this psychosis that I've
noticed with these PhDs. And again I had I want
to go out of my way to say I have interviewed, actually,
I have interviewed three different professors here on Aaron's opinion.
They all have PhDs, they're all blind people, and they're

(30:00):
all some of the nicest and most intriguing people we've
ever had. Just to spark your interest, because I don't know, Ashley,
how much of my content you've absorbed over you know,
I don't know have you absorbed much of my content
since we started talking?

Speaker 5 (30:17):
Yes, I listened to Brandon's podcast.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Sure that makes sense, you know, Brandon.

Speaker 6 (30:21):
Yeah, yeah, I didn't really get a chance to listen
to the rest of them, but I have listened to
the way you do things on your podcast.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Excellent, thank you. I've interviewed in the past many years ago.
Now I don't know her well. I've interviewed doctor Monam
and Kara, who is extremely well known and extremely well
well well respected in the engineering in the engineering field
in Northeastern. I've also interviewed doctor Hoby Wedler, and I

(30:51):
don't know. I don't know how familiar you are with
doctor Hoby Wedler. Are you familiar with.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
What he does?

Speaker 5 (30:57):
No, I'm not familiar.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
Not a Oh that's all right, that's all right.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Doctor Hoby Wedler is is a is a chemist. He
has a degree. He has at least one PhD. He
might have two.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
I forget.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
He has at least one PhD. And I think it's
organic chemistry. Now I could be wrong now, but it's
it's definitely chemistry, chemistry. And he has taught chemistry classes
at the university level. Now he has a couple of companies.
And then I've also interviewed very recently, came out just
a couple of weeks ago, doctor Charles W. Powell the second,

(31:32):
And he has several master's degrees, and and and and
and and a PhD. And all three of those people
are incredibly kind to people, ridiculously they went out of
their way to be kind to me, just like you, Ashley,
of course. But it's it's a very interesting dichotomy and
a very interesting notion that it seems to me that

(31:53):
a lot of people get PhDs because they don't want
to interact with people. And I have consistently repeatedly known
notice that that that many people with PhDs have incredibly
poor social skills and just don't want to interact with anybody.
And I agree, and I'm not I'm not saying that
all of them are like that. As I said, I've

(32:15):
encountered some several people on my show who have PhDs,
and they're great, and I talk to them in any day,
But many others are people that that just just would
rather mouth off then actually teach you.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
And I don't.

Speaker 6 (32:30):
I don't notoriety. I think it's the notoriety. I think
that having doctor by their name makes them feel that
they are entitled in the notoriety. And I think that's where,
again we call it a thing called pride. And it

(32:51):
really is sad that to see that you've got maybe
three or four out of a bunch who can be
so kind, who have that, Because I've met people as
well who've had a PhD. You know a friend of mine,
he has a PhD and he's a professor, and he
was just amazed at how when I was telling him

(33:16):
my story about this particular professor because she was a doctor,
how she just got angry because one day a student
slipped and called her professor or miss. And I mean,
it was just a whole different environment.

Speaker 5 (33:35):
It was how dare you call me that? I am doctor?
I'm not a professor, I'm doctor.

Speaker 6 (33:45):
So it tells me that having that notoriety makes them
feel like they think they're entitled.

Speaker 5 (33:51):
And it's really sad.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, it's very sad and people and the problem is
is that if they were truly educating people, and if
our country was getting better as a whole, I would
believe a lot of those people. But the reality, the
overwhelming reality, is that I don't think I don't think
these people are really interested in in in education. Some
of them certainly are. I'm sure that if I sat

(34:15):
down in one of Hoby's lectures, well, I'm sure that
he would be interested in educating me up until the
point where he noticed that I have absolutely zero ability
in chemistry, and then he probably would not be at
all interested in educating me.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
But the fact but then he would realize.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
But the fact is that many of these people who
work in the school system, in the education field. And
trust me, I've been there too. My parents had to
fight for me too, and this is a personal fight
for me, and it's a personal fight for my family.
And this has really really impacted everything. And I will
tell you, I think a lot of these professors are

(34:52):
just bureaucrats who work.

Speaker 4 (34:55):
They're just bureaucrats, some of them.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Occasionally you'll get some that actually want to teach you,
and that's really good, that can be a really powerful combination.
But the vast majority are bureaucrats who work at a university.
That's where bureaucrats work. If they aren't working at universities,
they work in the school system or things like that.
But that's where bureaucracy thrives, it seems, which you know,

(35:20):
I mean, I'm not going to say we need to
completely dismantle the bureaucratic structure, certainly not.

Speaker 5 (35:26):
But they need education.

Speaker 6 (35:28):
They need to be educated on how to work with
people who are blind and visually impaired. Because I don't
know if you've experienced it, but I'm pretty sure if
you were out there or anybody who may be listening
have experienced having professors when you'll talk to them and
they'll say something like, well, I've never had an experience

(35:50):
with working with blind and visually impaired individuals, and I
don't plan on it. And it's like that's the kind
of ignorance that we deal with on a daily basis
where people are not open to being educated. There needs
to be more education around blind and visual impairment awareness

(36:12):
in universities. They need to have it in the school
systems as well, because I think with that blind and
visually imped individuals will have a better experience. And then
if they're more open, then blind and visually imped individuals
will be more open to sharing their experiences and talking

(36:36):
to them and feeling comfortable on educating them on what
to do right right.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, it seems like people who are in these positions,
it also seems like is that they're also people who
might actually be the problem. Seems that they're very knowledgeable
about what they studied themselves, but where they don't have
knowledge and where they where they really struggle as understanding
the business world in some cases and understanding how to

(37:02):
interact with other people, and they are not many of
them are not good at that type of thing as
far as that as far as that goes. But the
other problem that I would also note here that you
should remember when you're working with students or working with
other people is that unfortunately, not enough blind people are
going to university. So it makes it even all the

(37:23):
more difficult, you know, because not enough people are willing
to listen to what someone else has to say when
there's not enough of a population, you know, And it's.

Speaker 5 (37:32):
Because of the discouragement.

Speaker 6 (37:34):
It's because we get a lot of discouragement, you know,
you know, speaking about my journey, I was, you know,
once there I was somebody.

Speaker 5 (37:45):
Who was really discouraged.

Speaker 6 (37:48):
I and you know, as much as determination you hear
in my voice today, and how much passion I have
for that, you know, this particular topic. One thing I
can say is have this passion. I would say back
in you know, the two thousands sure going up before

(38:08):
I got to college and the past. The reason I
didn't have that passion is because I always had people
tell me you can't do this, Oh you're visually impaired.
You don't know how to read. We need to stick
her in special ed because we don't feel that she's
capable of.

Speaker 5 (38:27):
Being in mainstream.

Speaker 6 (38:29):
Yes, oh, you know, we don't really need her to
come to the IEPs because we don't feel that she's
capable of having a voice and hearing those things hearing,
you know, people say not and you know, and that's
the key key word, not capable. When you hear people

(38:49):
say not capable, it is a thing that affects you
not only just on a mental level, but an emotional
level too, because it brings you down and it's like, well,
why am I even trying when you don't have faith
in me? Sure, and it's only one two people that
have faith in me. And you know, you're trying to

(39:13):
have faith in yourself, but you can't have that faith
in yourself when all you hear is about negative, this
negative that, can't do this, can't do that, not capable,
lack of understanding. And I just think that if people
would just learn to really pay attention to a person

(39:36):
not with just deny a condition, but with a disability
in general, and watch the work that they can do,
watch what they're capable of and what they can bring
to the table. I guarantee you, people with disabilities, including
blind and visually impaired individuals, will feel so encouraged they

(39:56):
will go out there and actually feel motive to want
to be independent, to want to go and get a job,
to want to go to school and do something because
we can't right now when people are saying we're not.

Speaker 5 (40:11):
Capable, or we don't.

Speaker 6 (40:13):
Have the capacity, or we're always being oppressed. And it's
not just a school thing. It's public places, it's transportation,
and it's just the public in general. It's really really sad,
and I feel that society has got to do better.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah, and we can. Not only do we need to
do better, but we can do better. And there's no reason,
in my estimation, there's no reason why we can't do better.
You know, with all of the knowledge that exists out here,
with everything that's out here right now, there should be
no excuse for people not to improve.

Speaker 5 (40:54):
No. No.

Speaker 6 (40:56):
And I think one of the things that helped me
grow is I started to as I got older, surrounding
myself around positive people. And when I saw how motivated
other people were, and you know, I saw how other
people learned to be motivational, it put me out there
to really want to say, Okay, you know what, I'm

(41:17):
gonna try.

Speaker 5 (41:18):
I'm gonna try. I'm gonna have.

Speaker 6 (41:20):
A voice, and guess what, people are gonna hear me.
No matter what, You're not gonna silence me. I'm gonna
keep going.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Well that's that's your You.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
Are so correct with all of that.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
So then what can you tell me. You've thought a lot.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
About society and studying you know, psychology, but then what
about social work? What can you tell me? So everybody
likes to kind of joke around about that, but yeah,
what is social work?

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Really? What do you learn about social work?

Speaker 6 (41:52):
So with social work, social work is basically you are
out there in the field and you are fighting for justice.
You are solving the problems of the injustice, and you
are basically looking at all of these injustices and this
is where advocacy comes along as a social worker, and
your job is to not only have compassion and empathy,

(42:14):
but also make sure that you are the one that's
the social change that can bring that social change.

Speaker 5 (42:22):
So that's what social work is to me.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
Yeah, yeah, well that's that's really excellent.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
But so exactly like when you're taking classes in social work,
you know, what did you learn about in social work?
And then what are your specific interests. I mean, there's
a lot that you can do in social work, so
what do you, uh, you know, what do you do
in the social work field, and exactly what do you
want to do.

Speaker 6 (42:43):
Well in the social work field. I don't really do
anything in the social work field because what I do
is a little different. But basically what I want to
focus on is I want to fight for justice for
people with disabilities who in general, you know, again go
through the discrimination process and you know, fight for that accessibility,

(43:06):
fight for the accommodations that people need to be able
to make it out in this world. As far as
the classes I've taken. One of the things that I
did learn about social work is this is that sometimes
you need little self care because when you are working

(43:27):
with people, it's all about energy and sometimes when you
have so much compassion and empathy for others, it can
drain you, especially fighting hard for them. And one of
the biggest, biggest things that I've learned when it comes
to you know, a lot of the social work courses

(43:47):
and just learning in general, I learned that make sure
that you advocate for what you as a social worker
need to be able to help your customers and your clients, right, absolutely, yeah, yeah,
because if you don't, what's going to happen is they're

(44:09):
going to walk all over you in the field, you know.
And if you don't say what you you know. Oh,
and then the other thing is I will say it
as well, regardless of what happens. If you are somebody
who works in the field, it is very important if
something happens you case noted. Because you didn't case not it,

(44:30):
it never happened. That's the biggest, biggest, biggest golden rule
when it comes to being a future social worker.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
I'm guessing case noting means documenting.

Speaker 6 (44:41):
Yes, you want a document. Case noting is a fancy
way of saying documenting.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Right right, And that's interesting, yeah, because if.

Speaker 5 (44:50):
You don't, it never happened.

Speaker 6 (44:52):
And then somebody comes back and say, well, this did happen,
but it wasn't in the case notes, you can't do
anything about it.

Speaker 5 (45:00):
And so that's very important in social work.

Speaker 6 (45:02):
But the main thing is self care, self care, self care,
whether it's social work or just in general. Because life
can be very exhausting.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Sure, absolutely take.

Speaker 5 (45:13):
A toll on you. So that's very important.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
Mm hmmm, yeah, I know you're so, You're so right,
You're so right.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
So moving now towards you know, we built up, you know,
we we went over a lot about you know, your
past and some of the shared experiences we both have,
you know, But so what are you doing today? You know,
get us a little bit closer to twenty twenty five.
What's you know, what's going on today?

Speaker 4 (45:40):
Well?

Speaker 6 (45:40):
Today, all I can really share because I don't really
want to go into if I have to be careful.

Speaker 5 (45:47):
But all I can say is that I, like I said, I.

Speaker 6 (45:52):
Am a VRT from my state, and I teach even
visually impaired individuals how to be independent and how to
maintain and gain that employment. Basically, I teach them non
visual skills where somebody may be blind and visually impaired

(46:15):
and they are coping with it, and that's where we
have to get them to adjust to that blindness basically.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
Right, And.

Speaker 6 (46:25):
That's about it all I really do really.

Speaker 5 (46:28):
As far as school is concerned, I'm done with school.

Speaker 6 (46:32):
So you know, I was taking some classes for a
while to really you know ingrain what I was trying
to learn, But otherwise, other than that, I just do that,
and I continue to give people advice on what to

(46:54):
do when they're in college and they aren't able to
advocate and they're not sure what to say or do
to you know, get the things that they need.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
Right.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Sure. Sure, that's that's so special and really really really
valuable to people.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
That's really good.

Speaker 5 (47:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
So when when you teach blind people training, especially people
who are newly blind, like, you know, walk me through
your curriculum. What are some things that you that you
really teach them? What exactly would they learn?

Speaker 6 (47:21):
Well, for example, we teach them how to basically, for example,
we teach the things in the kitchen, so if they
are not sure how if they're scared to use a knife,
we be fine an alternative for them to be able
to cut. We put pump dots on stoves and you know,

(47:45):
be able to get them to independently access their appliances.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
We teach them Braille. I mean, we we do a lot.

Speaker 6 (47:54):
And this is actually something that I started doing since March.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
Okay, good, really really really good.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
I'm sure you've heard a lot of hilarious stories or
interesting stories about why someone either can't do their training
or needs to do their training. I guess you can
answer it in two different ways. What has been the
most interesting story you've heard so far as a VRT
And what has been the silliest reason someone has ever
given you for saying that they can't learn the skills

(48:27):
they need? What have been some silly excuses or just
some downmaight, hilariously funny excuses that people have given you
for not wanting to do the training they need to do.

Speaker 6 (48:36):
Well, one thing I can say is this was before
I even went into that field. But I have had
people tell me way before I came into the picture.
And this is on a personal because I've never had
any experiences yet I'm still in training. But before that
I have heard somebody say, well, the reason they don't

(48:57):
want to train is because they just don't feel like
it and they just want to.

Speaker 5 (49:00):
Sleep all day. I think the funniest one.

Speaker 6 (49:05):
That I've ever heard of is, well, I want to train,
but I gotta ask my mom first.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Well, no, that doesn't that doesn't hold up no matter what.

Speaker 5 (49:19):
Yeah, And I had to. I had to for a second.

Speaker 6 (49:25):
And this was on a personal level because they were
in a different state and it was a you know,
it was kind of you know, confidentiality. It was a
friend of mine and she was like, well, I got
to ask my mom, And in my mind, I'm like.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
How old is this person that said that.

Speaker 5 (49:45):
You are forty four years old?

Speaker 3 (49:48):
Okay, so it's not like they're like fourteen.

Speaker 6 (49:51):
Yeah, you're forty four years old and you have to
ask your mom.

Speaker 5 (50:00):
And I'm just in my mind like, okay, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
It sounds like there are some very very I would
say interesting. Can you you really run across that you
really get all the characters when you're when you're doing
this type of work, for sure, Yeah, you'll get.

Speaker 6 (50:23):
This was before like free, like way before I went
into the field applying for anything like that.

Speaker 5 (50:33):
And I have heard stories where.

Speaker 6 (50:35):
You know, I'll talk to people on the side on
a personal level, and you know, they'll say something along
the lines of, well, I want to go back to
work again, but I'm scared to go back and and
you know, this one really isn't a funny one. But
I understand why they would feel this way, because they

(50:58):
said the reason they feel like don't want to go
back to work though, is because of the fact that
they're scared to disclose their their disability.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
Well, it's a very different see okay, and it's a
different thing.

Speaker 6 (51:10):
It's a different thing because what happens is that, you know,
people will apply for jobs and I you know, can
say this from my personal experience. I've applied for a
lot of jobs in my lifetime, and as soon as
they see that you have a disability, application just gets overlooked.

(51:35):
No interview process, no call, no communication, nothing like that.

Speaker 5 (51:41):
Or what will.

Speaker 6 (51:42):
Happen is nine times out of the ten I've seen
where And like I said, I've heard these stories throughout
my thirty three years of going to like conventions and
just talking to people in general, because I I back
in the day, I never used to talk to people.
Now I'm so vocal, I never shut up.

Speaker 5 (52:05):
I love to talk.

Speaker 6 (52:06):
But you know, I've heard people say that they'll apply
and they'll get the job, and as soon as they
see the cane, they're like, oh no, you have to go,
thank you for coming, and it's like, well jeez, rather
than looking at the disability, did you even see what
they were capable of?

Speaker 5 (52:29):
Yeah, it happens.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Now let's let's review something, right, because this is this
one is a little bit harder for people to understand
this whole, this whole notion of disclosing disability, right, So
I kind of love the school of thought, and this
is only my opinion. I think that the employers who
are willing to employ people with disabilities are always willing,

(52:54):
and the people who will never employ employee will never
employ you. Yeah, and so I think I think it's
a pretty cut and dry thing. But have you developed
or do you learn about in your schooling? Did you
learn about any like are there any theories academic theories
to support either always disclosing your disability in a proper

(53:14):
way before during the interview segments, or like, what have
you learned? I guess Ashley about the disclosure of blindness
as it relates to interviews and going through the process,
because blind people are really, as you know, really traumatized
and really overwhelmed by this concept.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (53:31):
I think one of the things I've ever done is
I will never disclose it until after I got the position.
That was something I learned when I was younger. I
don't know if that's the right way to do that.

Speaker 5 (53:45):
I don't know, you know, to be truthful with you.

Speaker 6 (53:50):
I personally think disclosing it is better after you get
the position and you get your foot in the door,
because I believe that if you tell them beforehand, then
it may seem like they've got it.

Speaker 5 (54:09):
They're like, oh, you.

Speaker 6 (54:10):
Know, ooh, but you know, I noticed today when applying
for jobs on some job applications, because I've seen it
where I would apply for some and it would say
on the application do you have a disability? So I
think they know if you do check that box and

(54:32):
it says yes and you put it there, they already know.
So you probably won't have to say anything. But then again, too,
from what you know, it may be too they could
be doing that as well for an incentive.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
I'm not really sure what the incentive could be really, probably.

Speaker 6 (54:55):
You know, something along the lines, maybe like I don't know,
maybe more money. No one really knows. It's something I
gotta really research, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Because a company should not be receiving more money just
because they interview people with disabilities.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
They shouldn't.

Speaker 6 (55:13):
No, and you know, to be truthful with you, I
think it's bad on their part to try to just oh, well,
let's just justify that we have somebody there with a disability,
so we don't look like we're discriminating against.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
Them, right, Yeah, And I have.

Speaker 6 (55:33):
Heard some horror stories about that. I have, and so
you know, that's one of the things I really feel
where it's a sticky one to be honest about disclosing
the disability. But I've often felt that maybe doing that
after you get the position and it's a sure thing

(55:58):
and you know, you get your foot in the door,
so that when you can get a feel of what
you're working for and things like that is what I
really truly think. I mean, So that one is kind
of a hard one in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
My theory is that people should be as open as
they possibly can be at certain times.

Speaker 5 (56:17):
And I agree with that too.

Speaker 6 (56:18):
And there's and see that's the thing too, like there's
a right time to be open, and then there's a
wrong time to not, you know, for you to disclose things.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Right, right, And the jobs that I've gotten in the past,
and the interviews and the experiences I've had in the
past have showed me that that if people are willing
to hire people with disabilities, they're willing. If not, then
I don't want Then I don't want to give them
their business, you know, I I don't want to support
a company that doesn't hire people with disabilities, yeah so.

Speaker 6 (56:52):
Or support the company that will not hire people with disabilities,
or they're treat you know, treat the customers really bad.
Because I've heard a lot of companies do that, and
there there is no accountability, which is sad to me
and used to be more accountability in the job market

(57:13):
about that.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Well, for that to happen, there would need to be
more true incentive for companies to hire people with disabilities.
You see, I don't I don't know enough about it
to know honestly, but I don't think there are incentives
for for for companies. I mean, I know, I mean,
I know cited people and this just gives this just
proves the point. There are YouTube videos that you can

(57:35):
watch that teach cited people how to do interviews for
themselves after they get laid off from a job. Right, So,
it's not easy for anybody to get a new job,
or get a job, or get the first job. It's
not easy for any it's not easy for cited people.
It's not easy for anybody. You know, it's not you know, yeah.

Speaker 6 (57:53):
No, And that's where you know again, that's where I
just really think again, we need to start change. There
needs to be a lot of change. But again, the
change starts with everybody's speaking up. But I don't you
know again, people aren't gonna speak up unless they get that.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Encouragement, right, absolutely, absolutely not, Yeah, I mean unless they
start going to podcasts like like ours here at Aaron's Opinion,
in many other great ones.

Speaker 5 (58:20):
And I wish people would listen to this one because
you know, I'm going I'm not talking about.

Speaker 6 (58:25):
Yeah and and and listen to this particular one because
later on I'm gonna give some encouraging words to some
people out here that really need it.

Speaker 5 (58:34):
Well, well particularly.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Well, I think that's well, you know what, well, you
know what you can do about that. And this is
something I rarely say. I say it in the intro,
I say it in the outro, but in this case,
I'll say it in the in the interview segment. So
if you're listening to this episode with me and Ashley,
you know what you can do if you really want
someone else to hear this episode, Well share the episode

(58:59):
wherever you listen to it, share it with your friends
on social media for one for another. And I'm sure
you're going to do this rate and review. Write a
review of the Facebook page Aaron's Opinion podcast That really
gets the word out if you go over to that
page and tomorrow I'll send you more information. But if
you go to the Facebook page Aaron's Opinion Podcasts, you
can see the reviews that others have written and you

(59:19):
can write your own review, Ashley, and that will help.
That will set up a thing where your friends all
over the world will see that you were on the show,
and it promotes it further that way too. So that's
how other people find out. Is based on it's based
on the number of downloads, and it's based on other
people reading the reviews of the podcast as a product.
So that's how things move forward. But I'm not stopping

(59:42):
you go for it. Share this, share the video on YouTube,
Subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want join mine.

Speaker 5 (59:48):
Already done, already done.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Oh good, oh good. Well, by the way, thank you
for your subscription. Much appreciate it. On youtubee with.

Speaker 5 (59:57):
Speed racers, I get on top of it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Let me just solve the curiosity. So I don't know
when you did subscribe, but I'm appreciative that that you did.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
That's excellent.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
It's not necessarily noticeable to the YouTuber only reason, the
only reason we say this is new and old subscribers
come in and out and off and on the channel
all the time, so the numbers keep fluctuating the whole time.
So you might think it's terribly noticeable when somebody subscribes.

(01:00:28):
But and I get a notification, I don't know what's
your handle on YouTube? What do you call yourself?

Speaker 5 (01:00:34):
I was just my last name in my first name,
the middle Yeah, and with the year I was born.

Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
Oh okay, when did you subscribe?

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Because I didn't. I really didn't get a notification. I'm interested. Now,
when when do you think you push subscribe.

Speaker 6 (01:00:49):
The first time you reached out, which was a couple
of weeks ago, actually when you mentioned it, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Okay, all right, cool, Well I don't know, maybe you
have to. Maybe you probably did do it. I just
didn't notice. So that that's why it's important to make
sure that that you do that. And you can even
I mean, there's a lot, I mean, actually there's a
lot you can do to help people find it. You
can join my Patreon for free. We've been at very
low level, you know, tier members and things like that,
so there's there's a ton that you can do. Just

(01:01:20):
you as yourself can do a ton. But the main
thing is to share the episode in rite and write
a review that that that's the main thing. And encourage,
encourage other blind people and encourage, you know, encourage other
people you work with, right, encourage other other parents and
and and other people that you're encountering. Hey, you know what,
it's okay to talk about these things because there's a
podcast called Aaron's Opinion and we've covered that and and

(01:01:43):
it is hard to talk about these things and these traumas,
but when you do over a period of time, it
definitely becomes easier and easier. The more you do it,
and the more you talk, you.

Speaker 6 (01:01:52):
Build that confidence and you're doing it unstoppable.

Speaker 5 (01:01:57):
Yeah, you're unstoppable.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
Yeah, absolutely, And I've been doing this since twenty twenty.
You know, it takes a lot of practice to you know,
get you know, get the momentum going and really know
who you want to talk to and right things like that.

Speaker 5 (01:02:11):
Yeahsues you want to address.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
But you know, but the irony is the same issues
keep circulating and keep coming up. And earlier today we
covered very different things with another guest that you'll hear
about soon. And yesterday we covered very different things from him,
so you know, each episode is different, but the overarching
story is there's always a new episode for you.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
Is the story.

Speaker 4 (01:02:34):
So anyway, what, by the way, what do you do
in your free time?

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
What are some of your hobbies?

Speaker 6 (01:02:40):
Oh, man, I have a ton of things I love
to do. Well, Mainly, I am a huge and when
I say huge.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
You mean it.

Speaker 5 (01:02:49):
I mean you mean you mean and it's on the huge,
big capital letters. I love to read. I am a
huge worm.

Speaker 6 (01:03:01):
I will read anything that has a plot. If it's interesting,
I'm will sit down and I will read it to end.
I once upon a time, I uh did jewelry, So
I'd make jewelry and I used to sell them. I
used to make key chains and I would sell those.
I don't have time to do that much anymore, since

(01:03:24):
I'm running around.

Speaker 5 (01:03:26):
And you know, working a lot, and.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
Well, you know what, you know what I think about that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
I think that you definitely have time for jewelry because
if you would just listen to your clients who tell
you that you should go home and sleep and not work,
you could spend that same time sleeping making the jewelry. See,
then you can come back to work and tell people
that you actually sleep is your hobby. Sleeping can be

(01:03:52):
your hobby, but what you're really doing is making jewelry
on the side.

Speaker 5 (01:03:56):
Yes, yes, And you know what, that's another thing. I
love to talk.

Speaker 6 (01:04:03):
When I'm comfortable. I'm basically an open book. Yes, I'm
an open book. I love to write. Actually, I when
I was I want to say, in eighth grade, I
wrote a book and I put poems in it.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
I wrote my story in it.

Speaker 6 (01:04:26):
I just, you know, writing is a way for me
to express what I'm truly truly feeling. And it was
something I learned to do at that age after everything
with you know, moving and Hurricane Katrina and just in
general going through things in life, you know, going through

(01:04:47):
different heartbreaks, going through loss of friendships, loss of family,
just coping with you know, visual impairment, coping with trying
to really figure my self out. That is a hobby
of mine. And I just like to go out in
general and have a good time and go explore. I

(01:05:11):
like to travel when I have the free time.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
Mmmmm yeah, absolutely, absolutely, that's that's really that's really good.

Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
That's really good.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
Yeah, Yeah, when I'm not teaching or podcasting, I'm actually
a pretty quiet guy. Actually, I listen to all the
other podcasters around the circuit, and I listened to everybody
else too, just as I listen just as much as
I talk.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
In fact, I listen more than I talk.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
But I love you know, audible and reading books that
way too, you know, yeah, yeah, that's that's a blast. Yeah,
there's some There have been some really prolific books that
have been written, you know, lately about society and everything
that's wrong in society. I know, right, if I read
a book, I'm not going to read a happy book.
I only read books that talk about everything that's everything
that went wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:05:56):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:05:57):
Oh, I've read them Chevrette book instead of made me cry.
And let's just put it to you this way.

Speaker 5 (01:06:05):
I am a huge and I discovered this about myself.
Is I'm a huge.

Speaker 6 (01:06:12):
Yes, well, yep, a capital h. You remember, I am
a huge mushball. So if I'm watching a Hallmark movie
and the person falls in love, I'm like, and then
my grandma comes in the room, Oh girl, stop all
that crying. But you know, yeah, I read pretty emotional

(01:06:39):
books too. Just depends on the mood, what I'm feeling.
If I want something to give me a good cry,
I'll do it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
Right, absolutely absolutely so interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:06:51):
Good.

Speaker 5 (01:06:52):
Yeah, and that's where I developed empathy.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
Oh oh okay, yeah, uh one one one moment actually
hold on, hold on one, hold on one second.

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
So yeah, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
That's all really all really really interesting for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:28):
Yeah, But so you said, you know, you do all
those things. So you said that you have some some
parting words or some you know, some words of encouragement
that you want to give to some people out there
in the Great State of Texas, or maybe there are
people that you know out there. So what do you
want to say out there for some parting words? I
suppose what I would like.

Speaker 6 (01:07:51):
To say is this for anyone that's listening and who's
right now dealing with you know, your vision, loss, coping,
and may feel that anger. Do not feel discouraged. If
you have a dream, follow your dream, because if you
let your anger your emotions get in the way, that

(01:08:15):
dream could pass you up. And the one thing I
would like to say is it is okay to be angry.
It is more than okay for you to go outside
and have that good scream and be like why why
am I like this? But also keep in mind that
at the end of the day.

Speaker 5 (01:08:36):
You are who you are.

Speaker 6 (01:08:39):
Basically, embrace that blindness and visual impairment and keep going
because you'll be surprised at all the things that you
can do in this lifetime. You can definitely make a difference.
Just speak up, be proud and stand strong.

Speaker 4 (01:08:57):
Absolutely absolutely right.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's really good.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
I'm sure you have a lot of questions for Aaron
Richmond and Aaron's opinions. So of course, if you can
really get under my skin, if you can really make
me sweat to see if I'm worth my salt as
a podcast, or what do you really want to know
about me?

Speaker 6 (01:09:20):
Well, you mentioned earlier because we were talking and actually
this was actually another thing one goes I want to
circle back to this. You were talking about how you
dealt with some situations in college as well. Could you
tell me or would you you know, like to share

(01:09:41):
and it doesn't have to be something that's deep, but
would you like to share and experience that happened. I'm
kind of curious to know.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
What you went through very similar to what you went through,
painfully the same, just different people in different circumstances, but
almost the same.

Speaker 3 (01:09:58):
So there's so unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
The discrimination was so parallel and so severe that there's
not much more for me to say that you haven't
said so in that case.

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
Yeah, So there was a lot of issues at that
particular university with just school politics was was a major
major issue.

Speaker 6 (01:10:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that seems to be that seems
till this day, seems to be a big problem.

Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
I think. I mean, I think anyone would say this.
My school was the worst.

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
Anybody would say, but I think at my small college
that I was going to do, it was especially not good.
It was especially it was especially bad.

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:10:41):
Yeah, my college was it was a commuter school, and
I wanted to at first have the experience to go
live in a dorm. But you know, at that time,
I will even admit to myself, just because you're in
your early twenties doesn't mean that you're mature enough to

(01:11:01):
really live on your own and do the things.

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
Kidding, you know, I was at that place, whatever it
was I was at that I was at that place
for four years. Nobody matured. They had four years and
nobody it almost seemed like it was like a fairy tale.
I'm not I'm not making this up. You would go
back there, you know how they had like the semester
breaks between like Christmas and New Year's You know, you

(01:11:25):
would go back there for the start of the spring
semester in the in the in January, at the end
of January, and it would be cold in Maryland and
you'd go back and everybody looked the same. It's like nothing,
It's like they didn't move. It's like, you know, people
at that age, people at that age that is a
that is a tough age of life. That is a

(01:11:45):
really tough age it is.

Speaker 6 (01:11:48):
And see, that was the thing too. I wanted that experience,
but also to the college that I was going to
go to. It was here in Houston, but you know,
being a young twenties and being a female and where
the college was located, safety was a concern for me.
Is somebody that's visually impaired because it was one of

(01:12:10):
those things where if the area was good and there
weren't the issues that that college has, Like for example,
there's people who've gotten stabbed on the campus there. Recently,
somebody was essayed in their car at knife point and

(01:12:30):
it's never happened to me. But even when I went
to the commuter school, I used to go to lunch
by myself every day. And one time I took the
we call them the metro rails here, so the rail
stops in front of the college, and I had a
safety situation happened to me. I got on the rail,

(01:12:52):
and I didn't think anything of it, you know, and
you're you know, somebody being blind or you know, low vision,
they never know it's gonna happen. But I had a
lady who followed me, and at first I didn't think
anything of it. You know, I thought she was just
getting on. We were going in the same direction. We're
both going the same way to have lunch. I go in,

(01:13:13):
and you know, the greeterer knows who I am, you know,
the hostess, because I would eat there most of the time.
And she followed me in, and the greeterer was like,
excuse me, ma'am, are you coming in to eat?

Speaker 3 (01:13:26):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (01:13:26):
No, I'm with her. And I was like, I don't
know this lady from Adam and Eve.

Speaker 5 (01:13:33):
And so.

Speaker 6 (01:13:34):
And then the other thing is she had a syringe
in her hand, so Lord knows what could have happened.
So that's why I didn't do the whole living on
my own independently.

Speaker 5 (01:13:45):
With the university.

Speaker 6 (01:13:47):
But then now that I'm thirty three, I realize now
that maybe I should have had that experience to really
go through that. But at the same time, safety was
a big concern for me.

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
Absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, everybody has those those crazy experiences.

Speaker 6 (01:14:07):
Yeah, and you never know, Oh you can't see it,
you know, and some people can really feel it, right,
they can feel when somebody is behind them, they can
sense it. But I just didn't think anything of it,
and so some people could be in my situation, and
that's just the scary part about it being, you know,

(01:14:32):
being in that. So that's why I went to a
commuter school. Sure, but with the commuter school, with the
same experiences we both had, I had an intermix. Some
professors were understanding and then those ones that like again
that I feel, that had that you know, entitlement because
they had a pH d, thought they were better than

(01:14:53):
everybody else.

Speaker 5 (01:14:55):
Bad experiences with.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
Them, yea, and that shouldn't have been Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
Yeah, that's that's always the way it's going to be.
And I think, until as I've said, until many more
blind people pursue higher education, I think it will be
a recurring, a recurring story of things, you know, and.

Speaker 5 (01:15:14):
Some people won't.

Speaker 6 (01:15:15):
They won't do it because again they don't have that
discouragement and then when they hear things like you know
what we're talking about, they're like, oh my god, I
don't want to experience that. Oh my god, I'm scared
to experience it. You know, maybe it's just not for me,
because you know, some people do feel that way that
college is not for them.

Speaker 2 (01:15:34):
And it is not for everybody. Not everybody needs to
go to college. So that's that's understandable, you know.

Speaker 6 (01:15:40):
Yeah, and that's the biggest thing, you know. And like
again when we mentioned states, yeah, there's no accessible state.
But at the same time, like I said, going from
one state to another, I noticed services were completely different
in Louisiana than they are here. And they you know,

(01:16:01):
like like for example, I was, you know, for like
the convention, some people were saying they didn't have accessibility
in the hotels. And that doesn't surprise me. That doesn't
surprise me at all. With my hometown and blindness and
visual impairment. When not having you know, brail label elevators

(01:16:24):
and the employees not willing to help that that does
not surprise me.

Speaker 5 (01:16:29):
I've lived that life.

Speaker 2 (01:16:31):
Right, absolutely, absolutely, So I just wanted to ask you,
do you have any final questions? You just have to
ask me to really see if I'm worth my sweet
as a podcaster.

Speaker 6 (01:16:43):
Yeah, I'd like to do another one again at some point.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
Well, I tell you what I agree with you. I
agree with you. I think you should get into podcasting yourself.
I think you should. We should connect offline, but you
should let me know who I need to speak to next,
and you should keep passing the conversation onto more people
around the world who are deserving and are and are
going to be desiring of this of this privilege to
be on a show like this.

Speaker 3 (01:17:07):
So absolutely yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:11):
So anyway, well you did a magnificent job sharing your
story and all your knowledge and all the fun stories
along the way.

Speaker 5 (01:17:18):
Oh of course, of course.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
But of course, Ashley, if someone wants to get in
touch with Ashley Jackson, how can you be reached?

Speaker 6 (01:17:27):
Well, oh, there's a lot of ways you can reach me,
so mainly you I use Facebook. So what needs to
happen is, if anyone wants to get a hold of me,
go ahead and search for Ashley Jackson on Facebook. You're
more than welcome to send me a frame request, just

(01:17:50):
you know, send me a message ahead of time, because
I do get a lot of fram requests, and sometimes
I don't know who people are. You know, just let
me know if you're somebody who listened to this podcast
and that you're interested in connecting and maybe networking, I
will definitely go ahead and accept your friend request. I

(01:18:14):
actually have two facebooks, so one thing I will say is,
do not add the one that has my middle name.
That one is not accessible.

Speaker 3 (01:18:22):
To well people are.

Speaker 6 (01:18:26):
They're gonna get confused because what happens is when they
type it in, they're like, I'm not sure which one
to add.

Speaker 5 (01:18:32):
He wait, you know what.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
We're gonna do it this way. Click you know what, guys,
I'm gonna put her link. I'm gonna put her Facebook
profile in the description. Click that one.

Speaker 6 (01:18:40):
Yeah, that's gonna be the best way so they don't
get confused because.

Speaker 4 (01:18:44):
I didn't bring it up.

Speaker 3 (01:18:46):
I had talked about the confusion. No you didn't. Now
you can know you didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:18:49):
Now you confu.

Speaker 6 (01:18:55):
And see this is another thing eron about me that
you're gonna know that I can be a clown So
these things tend to happen when you talk to me.

Speaker 2 (01:19:04):
Well when you but actually that's something totally different. That's
not clowning. When you're when you when I just gave
you a chance. I just gave you the chance in
the universe. I said, tell me your Facebook. You're supposed
to only mention the good one. And then when you
mentioned the one that doesn't work. That's not clowning. That's
called being a liability. See, you don't want to You
don't want other side of people to think blind people
are our liabilities. So stop being a liability and let

(01:19:27):
me put let me put the right Facebook link in there.

Speaker 5 (01:19:30):
Please, Yes, that'll be easy.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
Well that's what I thought until you started making up liabilities.

Speaker 3 (01:19:40):
Oh man, you're a blast. You're so funny.

Speaker 6 (01:19:42):
You are awesome. You I'm telling you, you are awesome.
We have got to connect offline.

Speaker 2 (01:19:51):
This is this has been really crazy online. I wonder,
I wonder what you're like offline. This is, this has
been really crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:19:57):
This is, this has been a willing to find out.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
Well now I'm I'm really I'm really I'm really depressed
now because now I have to go see you give
me all this extra work. Now I have to go
find the wrong actually Jackson profile. I got to find
that one, and I'm going to send that person a
PM and I'm gonna make sure to send it a
complaint and make sure that they know.

Speaker 6 (01:20:23):
Just make sure when you send the complaint put it
on the three by five.

Speaker 3 (01:20:27):
Card with I promise it'll be time time twel It'll
be thirty. It'll be thirty points.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
It'll be I promise, actually it'll be thirty point font
because that's the funt that blind people go because you know,
when blind people reprint stuff, they can see it, you know, So.

Speaker 5 (01:20:52):
I'll make sure it's the huge fought.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
Yeah, I'll make sure.

Speaker 5 (01:20:55):
I'll make sure it's the capital huge font.

Speaker 3 (01:21:02):
This is okay.

Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
Before people get scared, click the link in the click
the link in the description, and have a great day, everybody. Actually, seriously,
from my heart to yours, it's been an absolute honor
to have you on that.

Speaker 5 (01:21:17):
It has been a pleasure. It is a pleasure talking
with you.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
You're You're an absolute blast, and anybody would be very
lucky to have you as their counselor helping them in
the grey state of Texas. So seriously, and by the way,
So by the way, don't hang up. But until next time,
Ashley Jackson, you are forever welcome here on Aaron's Opinion.
And until next time, everybody, stay safe out there, and

(01:21:43):
don't forget only click the only click the Facebook link
that's the right one. We don't want to add to
people's confusion. And until next time. Help one person today,
help one million people tomorrow. You've been listening to never
napping and always advocating with Ashley Jackson right here on
the Aeron's Opinion podcast, the podcast for blind people where
we speak about critical issues in the blindness community and

(01:22:05):
all other issues from across the universe and galaxy. Ashley Jackson,
you today, great job, and we'll get to you in
a moment, all right. Before we do that, though, one
two four zero six eight one nine eighty six nine
Aaron's Opinion six at gmail dot com, at Aaron's Opinion
on Instagram, I did forget to mention that in the intro,
which is why you need the which is why you

(01:22:25):
need the business card. Aaron's Opinion podcasting community. That's the
name of both the Facebook group and the WhatsApp community
that you're welcome to join Aaron's Opinion podcast, Please continue
to rate and review that beautiful Facebook page that is
certainly growing a lot. And of course we want to
take this time to thank all of our listeners this
week from Mexico, the United States and Canada for taking

(01:22:47):
time out of their busy lives to download this and
many other episodes of Aaron's Opinion. Obviously, we do know
in the podcast space that if we get you know,
Mexico for instance, obviously downloaded and played and listened to
more than one episode, right if they get forty eight downloads,
or in the United States, obviously you listen to more
than one episode, probably more than likely. Anyway, thank you
so much to all the great countries in Mexico, United States,

(01:23:10):
and Canada for downloading these episodes this particular week. We
couldn't do it without you. And of course we want
to say thank you for following along on TikTok if
you choose to do so, and following along on the
Patreon page as we do tend to upload things occasionally

(01:23:30):
to those pages, not often but occasionally we well, and
of course consider following along on x and on YouTube
at Aaron's Opinion TV like the video and comment below
and tickled about notification to know when we premiered the
next video on YouTube.

Speaker 3 (01:23:43):
When we premiered the.

Speaker 2 (01:23:44):
Next video on YouTube, that's exactly when you'll be able
to download the episode right here on Apple or Spotify
or wherever you like. Thank you so much, as I
would like to say, if you need the business card
to know how you can get in touch with the show,
let me know.

Speaker 3 (01:23:57):
Ashley Jackson.

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
Well, first, before I say the name Ashley Jackson, let
me say the name Brandon Hennis. Brandon Hennis, thank you
again for giving us three episodes, and thank you for
connecting us with Ashley Jackson. Brandon Man, we couldn't have
done this without you. You are truly a character, and
well so is Ashley Jackson. So thank you, Brandon Hennis.
We couldn't have done it without you.

Speaker 3 (01:24:16):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:24:16):
All right now, Ashley Jackson, thank you for coming to
the podcast today and entertaining us with so many great stories.
People falling asleep, people being discriminatory, people being rude, and
people being silly. And of course you are forever welcome
here in the Aaron's Opinion family, and I wish you
nothing but success. In other words, keep being successful. And

(01:24:38):
keep helping people, right, keep helping and educating people there
in Texas, and you are doing great, great stuff, absolutely,
and don't forget, and don't forget everybody. Please be sure
to know that you can not only be friends with
the real Ashie Jackson on Facebook Facebook, but you can
even be friends with the fake Ashley Jackson too, because
she gave out the wrong information, so I guess it's

(01:24:59):
the right information.

Speaker 3 (01:25:01):
Okay. I got a huge kick out of that part.
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
It's like I'm trying to help you here, you know,
but then again it's like, okay, anyway.

Speaker 3 (01:25:10):
Ashley, You're forever welcome on the podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:25:12):
Seriously, all the best to you, and I really hope
that you get into the podcast space yourself, all right. Anyway,
We also want to take this time to thank all
the other podcasters and radio networks and things like that
for syndicating and playing and downloading Errand's opinion each week.
We couldn't do without you either, And of course thank
you to all of the great listeners or all of

(01:25:33):
the great guests rather who continue to share your knowledge
with us each week on the show. We couldn't do
it without you, And of course thank you to you
at home, whether you're listening in Mexico, United States, Canada
and many other countries. We can't do it without you either.
We know there's millions of choices out there in that
podcast catalog, and we thank you for choosing Eron's Opinion.
All right, everybody, we are definitely going over seize next

(01:25:55):
week next time, in the next episode that we put out,
we're definitely going over seas. Then we're going back stateside,
and we're going overseas again. So we have a lot
of stuff coming right and coming up right around the corner.
And of course, until then, please remember that you're listening
to the Aaron's Opinion Podcast. My name is Aaron Richmond.
Have a wonderful day, everybody, and we will certainly be
back soon. Thank you so much, and until next time,

(01:26:18):
don't forget Help one person today, help one million people tomorrow.

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