Empowering People With Disabilities

Transcript of video:

Transcript – “We Are VR: Empowering People with Disabilities”

(CHARLES WHITE) We are VR.

(KELLEY SNYDER) We are VR.

(LISA HINSON-HATZ) We are VR.

(NARRATOR) We Are VR: Empowering People with Disabilities

(NARRATOR) Work means more than a paycheck. It offers the opportunity to lead an independent, self-directed life, for all people—including people with disabilities. If you’re a New Hampshire resident with a disability, VR New Hampshire can help you explore your career options, find employment, keep working, or advance in your current field. 

(FRANK EDELBLUT) My name is Frank Edelblut. I'm the Commissioner of Education for the State of New Hampshire. VR New Hampshire is one of many programs that we have at the New Hampshire Department of Education. With VR New Hampshire, we work with individuals that have disabilities to try and help create support structures so that they can move forward in their education, and in their vocational preparation, to be able to find good employment here in the State of New Hampshire.

(LISA HINSON-HATZ) My name is Lisa Hinson-Hatz, and I'm the Vocational Rehabilitation director at VR New Hampshire. Vocational Rehabilitation is a state and federal partnership that helps individuals with disabilities obtain and maintain employment. It also helps businesses hire individuals with disabilities to meet their workforce needs. Individuals with disabilities benefit from our services by working with a really talented counselor that can help pull out: What are their skills? What are their strengths? What is their background? What is their work experience?—to help them really define what they want to do in their future.

(KELLEY SNYDER) My name is Kelley Snyder, and I live in Farmington, New Hampshire. My vision impairment is called photophobia, which is an extreme acute sensitivity to light combined with a convergence insufficiency. So I have trouble with blurred vision and my eyes fatiguing easily. VR has helped me to start to get focused on getting back to work through getting my degree at SNHU. And they've also helped me get connected with SBVI, which is Services for the Blind and Vision Impaired, and they helped pay for my accessibility tutoring and my accessibility software. They've helped me with support groups and finding other resources as well. It’s opened up a tremendous amount of opportunity and doors for me that I didn't even know existed. 

(LISA HINSON-HATZ) We're very interested in helping people with disabilities get into a career pathway. Also, to really up-skill individuals and help them advance in employment.  

(NARRATOR) Depending on an individual’s needs, VR services may include: career counseling, educational guidance (for instance, tuition resources and other support), job training, job search assistance, or help securing assistive technology.

(LISA HINSON-HATZ) Individuals that are interested in services will call, set up an appointment, have an intake appointment where the counselor gets to learn all about them. They share their work history, they share their disability information, but most importantly, they share their strengths. They share the things that they really have great skills in—things from their past work experience, transferable work skills that are really going to help them in this next journey for them in their career pathway.

(CHARLES WHITE) My name is Charles White. I am here at Agility Manufacturing, Dover, New Hampshire. I'm an IPC specialist. I build PC boards. I put components in them. It's all good. I like the soldering, the moving about. I still have a lot of mobility with my hands so I can get into some places from being a past welder. For about, now, 25 years I've been in this wheelchair. I went to Vocational Rehab for assistance to work. I was tired of sitting on the couch. I did big interviews. They sent me to a few companies. When they told me to come here, it was like the next day. It was just what I wanted. My fingers were working, I was fusing things together and building, just building boards.

(LISA HINSON-HATZ) Work is important to all of us. All of us need something to focus our time on, focus our passions on. And individuals with disabilities are no different. We are all looking for that career that gives us that blue light or gives us that spark that helps us feel really successful and reach our goals. VR can be an answer to all of that.

(KELLEY SNYDER) So, VR has changed my life in that it's helped me to come out of my shell and start networking again, to open doors, to connect with people. Because that's what's been missing in my life are the connections. And the connections keep building and helping me to grow. It’s been a catalyst for change for me to grow as a person and to look to more of what I can do and not what I can’t do and find opportunities.

(CHARLES WHITE) This is what VR is. It's not about them. It's them helping you. 

(NARRATOR) At VR New Hampshire, we transform the lives of people with disabilities by helping them prepare for, obtain, and succeed in meaningful careers. To learn how we can help you meet your employment goals, call 603-271-3471 or visit education.nh.gov/vr.