Steve Dresser had a solid career working for 30 years as a computer programmer for the state of Connecticut. But after he retired from the position in 2002, he started his own business: Jennco Productions, which is dedicated to producing high-quality braille materials from electronic documents.
Blind since birth due to retinopathy of prematurity, Steve attended a school for the blind, where he learned braille, until he was a freshman in high school. He then attended public high school followed by the University of Connecticut.
âI spent a lot of time goofing off at the radio station, because thatâs what I wanted to do more than anything else, but there was no degree program in radio,â Steve says. âI started off as a physics major, but it took about one semester to convince me that wasnât going to be for me. I knew engineering would involve too much drawing, so I ended up majoring in sociology.â
After graduation, Steve spent three years working as a drug counselor, but he says the job burned him out quickly. One day, while listening to the radio, he heard an ad for a nearby computer school. He took the test and scored 90% â and one-third of the test involved flowcharts, so he couldnât complete it.
âI figured if I could get 90% taking only two-thirds of the test, maybe I should think about this,â Steve says. âSo I went to that school and took the nine-month course, and that was all the training I ever got.â
A talent for computer software
Back in the 1970s, computer coding was very different than it is today. Steve says someone had written a computer program to teach a computer printer to punch holes in the paper to create braille, but he often didnât get any braille materials to work with. Nevertheless, he learned his way around the computer systems of the day and supported his family, earning a pension that let him retire at age 55.
While he was still working, Steve was already doing some braille transcription for the state affiliate of the American Council of the Blind: the Connecticut Council of the Blind. He didnât consider it a business endeavor because he didnât want two full-time jobs â he wanted to leave time to spend with his family.
âI decided this would be a great way for me to learn how to use the Duxbury Braille Translator,â Steve says. âIn 1994, I started learning that piece of software by reading all the books I could find. So, I really cut my teeth at the Council, producing their newsletter.â
When his late wife, Marcia, got a job in Massachusetts and they moved there in 2002, Steve decided it was time to retire.
âI thought I could take this knowledge of Duxbury and turn it into a business,â he says. âThe advantage was that if the business worked out, then that would be great. If it didnât, then I could just do what I want. I had my pension, so I wasnât under the gun to earn a living at it.â
Doing what he wants â for a fee
Steve quickly became successful as a braille transcriptionist. Jenncoâs first contract came from Ann Morris Enterprises, which at the time was well-known for selling products to the blindness community. Ann gave Steve a contract to produce a braille version of her catalog, which contained about 1,000 items, he says. Eventually, Ann sold her business to Independent Living Aids, which Steve continued working with for a while.
Another of his projects was brailling program guides for SiriusXM satellite radio. But Steveâs most longstanding contract was with the Perkins Library, which he was a subcontractor for from 2007 to 2017, when they brought the transcription work back in-house. When he first started, he had skills with the Duxbury software that others didnât, making him a real asset.
âBecause Perkins is a nonprofit, they can afford to do braille transcription â but itâs not something you really make a lot of money doing,â Steve admits. âThe irony of braille transcription is that if you charged what itâs really worth, you could price yourself right out of the market because itâs so labor-intensive. Itâs kind of a labor of love for me.â
After his wife passed away â who was also blind and served as Jenncoâs proofreader, because Steve has always been a stickler for accuracy â he started doing less braille transcription. At the suggestion of a friend, he began working with Slate Roof Press, a poetry cooperative in western Massachusetts. His friend really wanted her poetry books recorded, so she and some of the cooperativeâs other poets read their own work, and Steve edits and cleans up the recordings before theyâre released as CDs or downloadable .mp3 files. Slate Roof Press is Jenncoâs only contract right now â in a way, bringing him back to his first love of radio.
âThatâs one of the joys of being retired,â Steve says. âYou do what you want, when you want. If someone wants to use my services, Iâd be willing to do it. But Iâm not in a hurry to chase anything, because I like the idea of not being under a whole lot of pressure.â
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Steve has even more to share about his career experiences. Listen to the Career Conversations interview!