Summary: <a href="https://i2.wp.com/vrworkforcestudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/joe-ashley-visionary.jpg"></a>Blind Man with a Vision the Joe Ashley Story. Special thanks to Joe for his willingness to interview and share his story. <a href="mailto:joe.ashley@dars.virginia.gov">Joe Ashley</a> works for the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS). <a href="mailto:andrew.stowe@dars.virginia.gov">Andrew Stowe</a> is a rehabilitation counselors and works for DARS in Charlottesville, Va. Doug Foresta is a podcast producer. Thank you Doug for the new segment “Foresta Five.” Find out more about Doug at <a href="http://www.workforce180.com/podcast">www.workforce180.com/podcast</a> . Anne Hudlow is Executive Director of the WWRC Foundation and co-host of the VR Workforce Studio. Rick Sizemore is the Director of the <a href="http://wwrc.net/">Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation Center</a><br> <a href="http://vrworkforcestudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/joe-ashley-visionary.jpg"><br><br> </a><br> Transcript follows:<br> Transcribed by: Douglas Council, a current student at WWRC in the Business and Information Technology program. If you are interested in hiring a wonderful typist call 540-332-7162. (Different Voices are transcribed in different colors, a unique feature of Doug’s transcription skills.)<br> <br> This is the VR workforce studio, inspiration, education and affirmation “AT WORK”. The workforce and disability employment podcast from the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation Center, a Division of the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services. The VR Workforce Studio is published by our Foundation at wwrcf.org and is available in iTunes and at vrworkforcestudio.com. You are listening to the vrworkforcestudio.<br> He was at a teaching hospital and the gentleman said, “Well, you have retinitis pigmentosa. You’ll be blind by the time your thirty five and there is no treatment.”<br> Mom burst into tears and that was the start of the process of trying to figure out how I was going to deal with this over time…………..<br> Singers: vrworkforcestudio.<br> Music transition<br> Rick: On Todays Episode of the VR Workforce Studio; A Vision for Disability Employment.<br> Rick/Anne: Through the Eyes of a Blind Man.<br> Rick: Hi I’m Rick Sizemore, Director of the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation Center.<br> Anne: and I’m Anne Hudlow, Director of the WWRC Foundation<br> Rick: and we are bringing you the stories of people whose lives have been profoundly affected and, well sometimes forever changed by disabilities. Like our Inspiration Showcase Big Interview today…. Blind Man with a vision. Anne a question for you, you remember high school maybe college or some other leadership course where you had to close your eyes and imagine what it would be like to be blind.<br> Anne: Sure Rick. I certainly do, yea<br> Rick: I think at one time or another most of us have thought about what it would be like over time to lose your vision slowly.<br> Anne: On today’s episode, we’ll hear how Joe Ashley’s vision slipped away over time until he was completely blind. But our podcast is so much more than stories about people with disabilities these are Stories of how through vocational rehabilitation these unique and determined people have become independent and employed.<br> Rick: That’s right Anne. Stories of people who show everyone that individuals with disabilities have an enormous capacity to overcome the obstacles to independence and employment. And Joe’s happens to be a two for one, his story that is. He is not only a person with a disability who’s had to overcome challenges to be successful in his vocation, but he’s dedicated his life to vocational rehabilitation and helping others along the way to their goals of employment. Following our Inspiration Showcase Big Interview, Anne is going to take us on a trip down to the mansion and we’ll hear how Governor McAulif...
