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The Career Path • 93 because of my disability or anything like that. I don't think most of the people that I work with ever pay attention to it after a while. Maybe they notice it right away. I walk funny, but they just don't pay attention to it. My disability has been brought up [but not] in the last ten to fifteen years, though. The first few times it was brought up. Do I think I could handle the class? How would I handle this and how would I handle that? And I would try to give them an honest answer. Daniel I was fortunate when I graduated in 1972 to get a job right away. At the interview, about my vision, they said, "Marcia, do you think this would be a problem?" I said, "The problem is mine." They said, "Marcia, do you see a problem?" I said, "The problem will be mine because it is going to take me so much longer to prepare. That is not your problem, it is my problem." And so, luckily, I was hired. After that my vision was not brought up again at all. I was told that the standardized tests would be next week. They were to be standardized and they were done. I was just given assignments and they were taken care of. Marcia Were there any other people with disabilities hired in your school system? That's interesting: None. It's a big school system. Do you know ifany had applied? Oh, I'm sure they have. The only person I know is a young woman who had her doctorate in psychology, and she has fairly severe cerebral palsy. She was ambulatory, so she wasn't in a wheelchair, but she had a hard time articulating . Her gait was real funny. She was real bright, funny, but people were uncomfortable. Again it was, "Well, there are better people"-that kind of thing. I think she did some consulting, but she didn't get a real job. They brought her in for some special things. I don't know of anybody else. Unless somebody becomes disabled after they are hired-then I think there is a much, much better chance of working there. Meg 94. Stories from Educators with Disabilities Would it have been more difficult for you to get a job if you had come in with a disability? Yes, right, because she [the principal] has just never seen one. You just never see anyone. You never think of those things until actually someone questions it. That would be an interesting thing to know, if a school district has ever been approached by a handicapped person to teach. You just never see them hire any really physically handicapped person as a teacher. Vince If you wanted to go to another district to teach, do you think it would be easy to get another job with your disability? 1 don't think it would any more. At the time I applied for the job, I could have worked anywhere. There was such a shortage of teachers. 1 had seven or eight districts offer me contracts. Now, they just take the cream of the crop. 1 think that now my disability would be a real detriment. Like if you are overweight , or if you don't wear makeup just perfectly, it's a real detriment. 1think that if you're not almost a perfect person, you don't get a teaching job. I've been on several interviewing committees recently. This is really a growing area. So we did have to hire a lot of teachers. The people came with fantastic resumes and terrific dog-and-pony shows. One gal who was very softspoken didn't wear blush on her cheeks. The principal actually said, "1 wish she'd put some blush on her cheeks. It would make me more interested." I mean, you have to be really terrific. Joan I do foresee problems when I start to send out job applications. I'm a little worried about it. I'm preparing myself now for a long haul. I'm realistic that unless I come out of here with one hell of a blazing GPA, I'm gonna have a more difficult time getting a job than someone else coming out of my exact same program. The reason being obvious: professional doubts still happen. Is this person going to be affected? Is this disability going to be in the...

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