Work and live in Dublin for visually impaired?

paulore

Hello there, I'm Mike, a twenty-something who currently lives in Germany.

Thanks to LASIK eye laser surgery 3 months ago, my life changed significantly. I can only see well when it's sunny outside or inside with LED light. My original plan was to get eye laser surgery first in Germany and then go to Dublin to work and live there. Now I'm quite devastated because of all the complications and I don't really know whether "Project Dublin" is still possible for me. My eye doctor says that everything is about the dry eyes. Thanks to LASIK, my current vision is 60 percent, 90 percent before LASIK with glasses. So I've lost 1/3 of my vision.

Is there even work possible in Dublin with my eyes? In Germany, I've done a lot of computer work with translations and as an eBay seller but that's not possible at the moment.

Thank you very much indeed for any advice what to do because everything is a bit depressing for the time being.

My current situation:

1. Use of eye drops at least every 60 minutes
2. My best-corrected vision went down from 90 percent to 60 percent (June 3, 2013)
3. Without Bepanthen eye ointment since the beginning of April 2012 no sleep possible at night. Eyes dry out with normal eye drops after 1 hour at night and everything is blurry. Massive dryness since week 3. Before that time everything was bearable.
4. Poor contrast vision, so that computer work is very challenging. All the characters look a bit washed out. Black is not black and grey hard to recognize.
5. Right eye since week 3 massively worse and no eye doctor knows why
6. Poor dim light vision: where there is no sunshine or LED light, I see hardly anything. I need 2 MEGA BRIGHT lights to read a newspaper / book. When the sun is gone, several inside lights must be switched on even though it is still quite bright outside.
7. Night Vision: I don't go out on the street when it's getting dark because a car could hit me, what almost happened to me several times because I can not see properly in dim light/dark.
8. Poor eyesight despite with best correction. From 50 cm it's quite blurry: my own mirror image, computer screen, daily newspaper, books, cell phone, etc. street signs such as "Goethe Street" undecipherable after 10 meters. At ALDI, LIDL & Co. I feel visually impaired, because the light is not quite as bright and I need bright light to see the products properly.
9. Ghosting / halos / starbursts also strongly present. Blurred vision on television & Co. TV station logos cause double images. Text characters twice (ghosting) with iPhone and similar devices.

DublinArnie

Just out of interest, did the surgery WORSEN your vision?:eek: So you took a risk and it went wrong?

paulore

Yeah, I basically lost 33% of my vision as of June 3, 2013.

With glasses before LASIK: 90%
After LASIK with best correction: 60%

All the eye doctors told me it's about dry eyes. However, that seems a bit simplistic.

Of course, I would do anything to undo the surgery

DublinArnie

paulore wrote: »

Yeah, I basically lost 33% of my vision as of June 3, 2013.

With glasses before LASIK: 90%
After LASIK with best correction: 60%

All the eye doctors told me it's about dry eyes. However, that seems a bit simplistic.

Of course, I would do anything to undo the surgery

Oh, so sorry!

paulore

Thank you.

I'm German, I live in Germany, and wanted to go abroad. The worst is that my plan "going to Dublin to work and live there" is quite uncertain at the moment.

cloudatlas

paulore wrote: »

Thank you.

I'm German, I live in Germany, and wanted to go abroad. The worst is that my plan "going to Dublin to work and live there" is quite uncertain at the moment.

Very sorry to hear what has happened to you. Perhaps you should contact organizations in Ireland for the visually impaired and ask them what employers have to do to accommodate your needs in the workplace. Also to get advice on what companies you should be targeting and how to present the facts of what has happened to you when the question arises.

Gongoozler

Hey get in contact with the national council for the blind in Ireland - NCBI and assistireland.ie and they should be able to give you some guidance with regards working conditions.

Mrs OBumble

If you weren't visually impaired, then we would be saying "there are truckloads of jobs in Germany, and not very many in Ireland, stay at home and work, come here for your holidays".

The only exception to the above is if you're an IT developer in certain fields.

Frankly, I can't see the the eyesight problem makes the advice for you any different. Sorry.

bassey

I work for a large utility company with a guy who's practically blind, he's on a computer all day, perfectly able to do his job with software that reads his screen etc. so I'm sure there's places who could accommodate you if they wished

Camrat

How does the rest of this scam go again.....

Last edited by paulore; 07-06-2013 at 21:18. Reason: He couldn't see it dude....

syklops

Theres shed loads of IT jobs in Ireland if you have the right skills.

What are your skills?

joedared

I have visual problems and I have met the employment officer with N.C.B.I. (twice) waste of time. Looked at my C.V. which was about 2 pages long and then he asked me to make it longer!! I never was given the names of any companies that may employ someone with visual problems.

syklops

joedared wrote: »

I have visual problems and I have met the employment officer with N.C.B.I. (twice) waste of time. Looked at my C.V. which was about 2 pages long and then he asked me to make it longer!! I never was given the names of any companies that may employ someone with visual problems.

All, or at least most companies will employ someone with visual problems if they can do the job. I know a programmer who works for one of the government departments who is completely blind. I also know a guy who worked in a call centre who was partially deaf, and before there are any jokes made about call centres, he was one of the best on the floor.

doglover89

Hey there,

My advice would be, as someone who is totally blind myself, that I see no reason why you couldn't live and work in Ireland.

I'm currently on the job hunt, but my partner, who is also blind, is working and has been since he left college. There are numerous people who live and work in Ireland with a visual impairment or total blindness.

What kind of area would you be looking to work in?

As others have said, jobs of any kind here are scarce enough, just like they are anywhere else - but your visual impairment shouldn't be more of an issue than it would be in another European country.

Hope this helps.

FloatingVoter

Gongoozler wrote: »

Hey get in contact with the national council for the blind in Ireland - NCBI and assistireland.ie and they should be able to give you some guidance with regards working conditions.

This. I know people who work for NCBI and they are honest straight talking people who would be happy to help you with any questions you have.

Linky : http://www.ncbi.ie/

Mrs OBumble

doglover89, thanks for the post, I suspect it's encouraging to lots of people. But it is almost two years since the original post, so I suspect the poster has moved on by now!