I thought maybe I’d switch things up a little bit this episode. So today we’re going to have a little bit of a math lesson.

Oh, wait, where’s everybody going? Hold on, it won’t be that difficult. I just want to share a personal story with you because of the recent cuts to the Rehabilitation Services Administration staff and the Office of Special Education Program staff. In both cases, virtually everyone has been eliminated and everything is without money and kind of in a state of chaos.

So here’s the math lesson. About 25 years ago, I experienced a vision loss myself, and at the time, I lost my job, lost my driver’s license, and many other things happened as a result of it, in large part because I was not able to find services quick enough, basically because I didn’t know they existed. And they existed through the Rehabilitation Services Administration, the RSA and a combination of state and federal programs, the programs right now where  we’ve seen a lot of reductions. And so at the time, family and friends were pointing me in the direction of social security disability, because none of us had any experience with blindness or vision loss, and it was just assumed that’s what one had to do.

We just didn’t know anything about working with a vision loss or some of the assistive technology that makes that entirely possible. So as a result of finding the RSA programs, however, I never did sign up for disability, and I estimate that over 25 years, I would have used approximately half a million dollars in benefits, had I chosen to use Social Security. Also, over those 25 years, as a result of the RSA programs, which spent probably about 15 to $20,000 to get me back on My feet with a master’s degree and a career change, I was able to get back into the workplace, and had probably spent $200,000 or so in federal state income tax, Medicare and Social Security during that time, for a net gain of about three quarters of a million dollars for the initial investment of 15 to $20,000 from disability services. So I’d like to suggest it was an incredible investment that the RSA made. I’m certainly very grateful for it.

So my point here is that in the long run, these cuts are definitely going to cost taxpayers money. There’s certainly not going to be any cost savings from them, because they’re able to keep people in the workforce, get them back into the workforce, and give them options other than social security disability with a vision loss, and this is to say nothing of the quality of life that one has when using the disability benefit, because financially, it simply keeps someone barely At the level of poverty. So I’m going to suggest two things. I’m going to suggest, if this is something that you agree with, that maybe you share your opinion with your state senators or congressional representatives, and here’s how you do it, you call them at 202-224-3121, and share your thoughts.

The other thing I’m going to suggest is, if you have found yourself in a similar situation and have not yet found the programs that I’m talking about for disability services, please call the APH Connect Center, and they will help you find those services in your state. And their phone number is 800-232-5463.

So if this math lesson makes sense to you, please take a moment to make those phone calls. See you next time.