Never say never - How a blind electrician made his dreams come true

 

Electricity itself is a scary thing if you stop and think about it.  The thought of something that you can’t see that could kill you before you even know what hit you is very unsettling to most.  But to the men and women of our trade, the thrill of turning on that Main switch overshadows the fear of what we can’t see.

 

I broke into the business in 1980, pulling BX out of a fire remodel at a bowling alley in Baltimore, MD.  This little taste of the trade was all I needed to know this was what I wanted to do with my career.  As many young people starting out in the business, I attended a 4-year apprenticeship program, graduating from it in 1986.  After 10 winters working in the cold, I decided to move to sunny Florida in 1992.  I passed the Block and Associates Journeyman’s exam in 1993 and then passed the Block and Associates Registered Masters exam in 1998.  Due to a lot of out-of-town work and the procrastination some of us have, I never registered my results with the state and after five years was no longer eligible to register.

 

In October of 2003, while on a jobsite, I noticed several specs or floaters in my left eye.  This would be the start of some major eye problems caused by complications of diabetes.  On April 15, 2004, my first retinal detachment was operated on  and was unsuccessful.  I’ve not seen anything out of my left eye since then.  I continued working in the field throughout that summer as a field superintendent/foreman, running and managing projects as I had for 10 years or so.  In October of 2004, my right eye started to have problems and on October 21, 2004 a retinal surgery attempting to repair a detachment in that eye was also unsuccessful.  A total of six operations to my left eye and four to my right eye all had basically the same result leaving me totally blind with only very minute amounts of light passing through my damaged eyes.

 

After being an electrician for close to 25 years and using my eyes every day as we all do, I was now faced with what seemed to be an insurmountable challenge.  The things we all take for granted like driving to work, reading a set of drawings, using a tape measure to lay something out, or even getting the right amount of cream in that last cup of coffee before you go to work was now something I had to figure out.  Like electricity to most, now what I couldn’t see was a fear I had to deal with every day.  The dangers of basic life and uncertainty of my career direction flowed through my mind daily for the first few months.

 

Through all of my eye operations and treatments, my boss stood by me encouraging me to continue to grow and making a place for me as part of the office management team for an electrical contractor in Clewiston, FL.  I learned how to use a computer, which before I lost my sight, was a four letter word to me.  Starting at square one, I taught myself to type and learned the keys fairly quickly.  Now I use a screen reading software called JAWS, which basically reads anything on the screen using key stroke combinations to move the curser around the screen.  It took a lot of training but I’ve got a pretty good handle on it now and can navigate through most programs without too much trouble.  About a year and a half ago I purchased the 2005 NEC on CD-ROM and learned how to get around it fairly good as well.

 

Before I lost my sight, I had dreams of possibly going out on my own, opening an electrical contracting business of my own and continuing to grow naturally in the trade.  Well, needless to say, the circumstances with my eyes could now hamper the dreams.  But with the love and support of my family and friends, I decided to try to pursue some of those dreams anyway.

 

One of the toughest things about my situation is the fact that our trade is such a visual industry.  I remember joking with co-workers for years about the thought of a color-blind electrician.  The thought of that now seemed to pale in comparison to being a totally blind electrician.  The one advantage I had though was my many years of experience, my drive to always keep learning, and two things that God blessed me with.  The first is patience.  This is a must for anyone who is blind because you are always either waiting for a ride, learning a completely new way to read using a computer, and even trying not to tell yourself “if I could only see.”  The second is the blessing of a wonderful memory.  My memory has always been good and made me very successful running work as a job foreman and field superintendent.  Unfortunately, when your sight goes, some of your memory does as well because the sight of different things will trigger your memory, but I’m working on this every day.

 

I contacted Mike Holt via E-mail late in February of 2007.  Wanting to pursue my dreams, I asked Mike if he thought he could help me obtain study guides to attempt to pass the Certified Unlimited Masters Electrician’s Exam.  Because I can’t just go buy a book and study it now, I wasn’t sure if these study guides would help.  Mike’s enthusiasm and energy encouraged me as well as his positive attitude toward my request.  His staff responded to my requests quick and to the point.  I received the DVD package as well as the NEC and Contractor’s Reference Practice Exams in the mail within a couple of weeks.

 

As I said earlier, I just can’t crack open the book and start cramming.  First, I had to take the books to a local print shop and have the bindings cut off of them.  Then with the help of my Mom, we scanned the pages individually on our scanners transferring the text on the pages to PDF and Word files on my computer that my JAWS could read to me.  The first two or three hundred pages that I scanned in Word were very difficult to navigate.  A lot of editing was necessary because of the way the scanner processed the pages.  After about a month though, we had transferred the books into something I could study.  I thanked God for my patience throughout this scanning period.

 

I applied for the July 6, 2007 technical exam to be held in Kissimmee, FL.  I decided that the best way for me to study was to rely on another God-given talent, my memory.  I listened to the DVDs every morning for the better part of five weeks prior to the exam.  These DVDs were not only very informative; they were sometimes funny and very interesting.  In the evenings, I would try to go over the practice exams and quizzes trying to memorize what I could, learning a lot.

 

As my exam date got near, the butterflies started to churn.  Because I would have to have a reader to read the questions to me then fill in the proper answer on the answer sheet, I felt working with someone would be beneficial.  But like all of us, I didn’t want to tie anyone down having to read the practice exams and such to me, so I just continued to study as I had been.

 

The exam was a tough one.  I had had success in the 90s and was a good test taker when I could see, but this was nothing like those tests.  The State allowed me twice the allotted time as someone who could see and I needed every bit of it.  When I left the testing facility, I was unsure of my result and the proctors told me it could be up to a month before the results came out.  Two and a half weeks later, I was notified that I had passed this exam and I was ecstatic.  I then targeted the business portion of the exam.  Studying in the same manner, I set a date of August 29, 2007.  Again, I was allotted twice the time and again I used every second.  No waiting for the result this time though.  Two minutes after the exam was completed I had my result… I passed!

 

I continue to learn every day and hope my story can encourage the readers of this newsletter to always strive to learn something every day.  Education in our trade is so very important and I think the apprenticeship programs throughout the state and the country are vital to the trade.  Being book smart will not make you a good electrician.  But the combination of the experience of the field coupled with a solid foundation of education of the trade will make you a great electrician.  Never say never and always remember that whatever you may be going through, chances are there is someone worse off than you.

 

Knowledge is power.

 

Sincerely,

 

John Wellslager