CareerConnect

The AFB Family Connect website offers you an opportunity to connect with other parents of teens with vision loss by reading their experiences with raising a child with a visual impairment. You can do this from the comfort of your own home at your own leisure. At Family Connect, you also have the opportunity to share your own experiences with preparing your child for transition. As we have worked to prepare your teen for transition, you may have felt sad to realize that your teen may not hold the job you had dreamed for him, or you may have felt excited to realize your teen has developed the skills she will need to transition smoothly into college.

The first way you can connect with other families is by reading the FamilyConnect Message Boards. The message boards cover various forums and topics for discussion. For instance, there is a Parents of Blind Teenagers forum, an Education forum, and forums on various eye conditions. The purpose of the message boards is to facilitate discussion amongst parents of children with vision loss about topics that are important to them. Another way you can connect with parents is to read the FamilyConnect Blogs, which are written by parents of children with vision loss. The blogs are different form the forum in that one person authors each blog post and you can either comment or ask questions to the author about that post’s topic. CareerConnect also has message boards and blog posts you can access to further connect with other families about preparing your teen for work. Inspiration is surely to be found as there are many personal success stories of adults with vision loss who are successfully employed on the CareerConnect website.

As we continue to work together to plan for your teen’s transition, I encourage you to check out the message boards and perhaps, write your own blog post. Sharing your perspective may be just as good for you as it is for another parent to read it.

Sincerely,
(Teacher Name/Contact information)

Activities

Directions

Complete the activities and return your responses to your teen’s professional to review and respond to.

Optional Activity

1. Log into the Family Connect website.
2. Locate a message board of your choice and post a message.
3. Read a blog topic of interest to you. Offer your support or ask a question to the author of one of the posts.

For additional information on preparing your teen for transition, read Interviews with Blind Teenagers

Reflection

From completing this activity, I learned….
I would like more information on….
I have the following questions for my teen’s professional….
I am going to do the following things to prepare my teen for transition….