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 VA Operator Named Blind Worker of the Year

VA OPERATOR NAMED BLIND WORKER OF THE YEAR

All the phone operators at the Stratton VA in Albany, New York are blind.

Right outlook aids sightless woman Blind Worker of the Year overcame disability and thrives in job handling calls at Stratton VA

By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer

Patricia Starson had 20/20 vision when she was 17 years old, but her doctor told her she was going blind.

Starson has retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited eye disease that progressively damages the cells on the retina.

Starson, now in her 40s, was named 2008 Blind Worker of the Year by New York's Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The association helps people adapt to visual impairments and places them in jobs. Starson is a switchboard operator at the Stratton VA Hospital.

Starson doesn't dwell on her vision problem. The Rotterdam woman with reddish hair has a sense of humor and get-it-done approach to life.

After high school, Starson worked as an aerobics and fitness instructor in North Carolina and at Schenectady Racquet Club. As her eyes began to fail, customers had no idea that Starson had trouble seeing the weight machines in the gym. Eventually, she quit work and went back to school to get a college degree. She did it while raising a daughter on her own.

Starson's night vision failed first. Then she became sensitive to light. Some portions of her visual field disappeared entirely, though she still has spots where she can see. Most colors look gray. She gave up her driver's license in 1991 and was classified legally blind in 1995.

Starson learned to read Braille and to use adaptive technology that projects her textbooks onto a screen so the text is big enough to see. She took the Stratton VA center job in 1997.

"I didn't expect it to be as rewarding as it is," she said.

The call center handles about 40,000 calls a month. The operators, who are all blind, page doctors who are needed for consultations, connect patients to the medical services they are looking for, and call the proper personnel when an emergency code is broadcast on a patient floor.

Starson, who is a supervisor, sits in the basement communication center with one hand on her computer and the other on the keys of her telephone. She wears a headset with a microphone boom. In her left ear, she hears the voice of the caller and a British voice that repeats every key she touches on her telephone. The operators call the voice "Mr. Brit"

In her right ear, she hears synthesized voice of JAWS, the software that reads anything her computer cursor lands on.

When a caller asks for the on-call orthopedics doctor, Starson scrolls through her telephone directory on the computer. As she tabs through the different fields, JAWS repeats the name of the field. When she finds the category that lists departments, she types "ortho" and JAWS spells it back so Starson knows she hit the right keys. She finds orthopedics extension and "Mr. Brit" repeats the numbers as she presses the buttons on the telephone and hits transfer.

The process takes just a few seconds and she moves on to the next call.

"I love my job," Starson said. "I like a fast-paced environment and I love multitasking."

Occasionally, a VA worker recognizes her voice as she walks through the hallway with her cane. The reaction she usually gets is, "I didn't know you were blind."