Sharing the Gift
Maurine Speaking at WSB’s Ottenheimer Cafe
A Patient and Purposeful Life
It is not Maurren P.'s blindness that you notice first, but her professionalism. Wearing her LightHouse for the Blind polo shirt neatly tucked into dress pants, Maureen enters the offices of World Services for the Blind, her Alma Matter, with her shoulders back and a pretty smile on her face.
She asks politely and briskly, "Where am I going?". Maureen familiarizes herself with the campus again before heading to the Ottenheimer Cafe to speak to her current clients. Her first message was to encourage them to keep working no matter what. The first year I taught, I did all of it remotely. It is challenging to teach AT (assistive technology) remotely. Keep at it."
Maureen has learned perseverance through her life experience. She was born 4 months premature, weighing only 1 lb and 4oz, and was given too much oxygen in the incubator, which left her blind. She grew up in Wharten, Ohio, where she knew only one other blind person. At her public school, she was the only blind student in the district. Twice a week, she was taken to Braille instruction where her lessons were translated. Despite not knowing what to do with her, her teachers thought she was an expert in computers. Therefore, she enrolled in an afternoon business prep program for her senior year.
After working in customer service jobs for several years in North and South Carolina, there was a period when she had few opportunities. She met Jeri Ann Morrow, a client (now instructor) at World Services for the Blind, while training for a guide dog in 2017. Jeri-Ann had just started her Assistive Technology Instruction program at WSB. "I was surprised!" she said. "This is a thing?" she wondered. "I could teach other blind people this? "”
The guide dog program did not work out, but WSB did. Maureen emailed WSB and "things fell into place." Maureen entered WSB's Assistive Technology program and attended Jeri-Ann's first class in January of 2019.
She began working at Lighthouse for the Blind in February 2020. Graduates of World Services for the Blind have an employment placement rate of 85%. Currently, she is an instructor in Assistive Technology for all ages, but her focus is on adults. She teaches the blind and visually impaired how to use screen readers, screen magnification, iPhones, iPads, modifications for MacBooks, and Microsoft applications.
Maureen says she must be able to teach any piece of technology. In particular, she enjoys assisting elderly people in writing to their grandchildren, using voiceover, and using zoomtext. "I want them to be successful from an individual perspective," she said. She also works hard to help others achieve their vocational goals, saying, "I never want them to stop learning, and I want to be a part of it."
It’s been a roller coaster year, with constant changes in technology being a challenge. But Maureen says she is exactly where she is supposed to be and loves where she is today, wearing a Lighthouse for the Blind shirt, promoting World Services for the Blind. We can learn a lot from Maureen Parks about patience, professionalism, purpose, and hard work.