Blind Dispatcher Inspiration To Others

WLOX-TV, Mississippi Saturday, September 23, 2006
Blind Dispatcher Inspiration For Others
By Marcia Hill
Marcia Hill Reports On Man Who Lost His Sight, But Found A Career Helping Others In the dispatcher training class at the Department of Marine Resources building, you might not notice anything unusual. But a closer look gives it away - a working dog lies next to T.J. Faeser. T.J. is a dispatcher and he is blind.

“I graduated in 03, I lost my vision in March of 04. I was in my first semester of college when I lost my vision… I was working as a diesel mechanic, ” he says.

T.J. wanted to give that up to become a nurse. But when he lost his sight, he started dispatching for DMR last December. “I’ve always had an interest in being a cop, and a fireman also. And a dispatch, with not having my vision, that’s kind of a way to be in both of them.”

This class is helping him to meet the state certification requirement. DMR spokeswoman Lauren Thompson says, “The Department of Rehabilitation Services provided him with a laptop with special software that could translate Microsoft Word to audio, as well as he was provided with a hand held scanner which could scan the course book so that that could be heard as well.”

Instructor Robert Graham says, “He’s doing very well, he’s a very good student. I think he’s an inspiration to other people who might be sitting at home and might have some sort of mobility issue that they can’t get around, but they can know that there are jobs and there is a job out there that they can do.”

After a hard week of lessons, everyone passed their test and they are now certified. T.J. has such a positive attitude and he wants people with disabilities to remember that nothing is beyond their reach. “There’s always something you can do. There’s so many things out there for people. And technology, and there’s so much technology to be provided.”