Deborah Kendrick
When I began writing about jobs held by blind and low-vision people in the early 1990s, I was repeatedly delighted with each newly discovered profession. That delight was triggered again this summer when I met Ramon Fontanez. If you or a loved one has ever had a medical experience requiring the services of a trained occupational therapist, you already know the vital role these skilled medical professionals play in restoring function and enabling patients to maintain independence. If you aren’t familiar with what they do, sit back and get ready to learn.
Ramon (Ray) Fontanez was born with congenital cataracts, and his optic nerve never fully developed. By the time he was ready for school, it was clear that he needed to enroll in a program for kids who are blind or have low vision. He first attended public schools in Manhattan, and in the ninth grade, he was enrolled at the Lavelle School for the Blind in the Bronx. With vision measuring perhaps 20/200, he uses print but with considerable magnification and at close range. For mobility, he uses a long white cane for identification, although he does not need his cane in familiar surroundings or at his job.
After his 1990 graduation from Lavelle, it was time to plan for a career. A course in data processing at Westchester Tech didn’t hold his interest, and after a year, he turned to his original interest: occupational therapy. LaGuardia Community College offered a two-year program toward certification as an occupational therapy assistant, and Ray knew soon after enrollment that he had found his chosen profession.
There were some bumpy spots during his training. He needed to repeat a course because a computer glitch led to losing a night’s work on a paper, and he faced problems because he did not yet know that, as a student with a disability, he could ask for extra time for tests. Persistence prevailed, however, and he soon became a certified occupational therapy assistant.
His first jobs were in nursing homes, contracts with varying timelines and benefits, so he eagerly took an initial cut in pay for a full-time position at SUNY Downstate Hospital. That was almost a quarter-century ago, and he has never regretted the decision.
His commute from Queens to Brooklyn can be an hour and a half long, but paratransit has made the trek much simpler and shorter, so he usually takes paratransit to work and the longer train ride back home. His is a traditional Monday-through-Friday workweek, full-time with four weeks paid vacation time and other benefits, and his satisfaction and pride in a job well done are quickly evident.
On the Job
Ray sees patients who range in age from 20 to 80 years old, and the range of conditions leading to their need for occupational therapy is equally broad. He works with patients who have had knee replacements, hip replacements, or shoulder replacements. He also works with patients who have had strokes or who have been in various types of accidents. Sometimes, a person needs to learn how to use only one hand or one leg or to begin using a walker or a wheelchair for mobility, and Ray works with them on the best ways to do those things safely.
He frequently teaches people to use adaptive equipment like raised toilet seats, shower benches, or wheelchairs and figures out ways for each individual to use those devices safely and efficiently. Techniques and tools for simple daily tasks like pulling on pants, taking off a shirt, or donning socks are skills he teaches on a regular basis.
Patients usually recognize that he has a visual impairment, but Ray doesn’t have a prescribed method for drawing attention to his visual disability. He needs proximity to see objects, but it’s rarely a focus of conversation. Patients know, and it may come up in conversation, but he says it’s just not a big deal.
Colleagues recognize his visual impairment as a kind of advantage, so whenever there is a patient who is blind or has low vision, Ray will be working with them. Besides teaching a blind patient how best to get in and out of a chair, walk with a walker, or put on socks when bending down to the floor is not an option, Ray might also casually impart some useful tidbits about magnification and audiobooks. Another characteristic that is a minor asset for him is his Puerto Rican heritage. Although he was born in New York, his first language was Spanish. He’s not as fluent in Spanish as he would like to be, but he says it is a useful skill when he meets a Spanish-speaking patient.
That Pesky Paperwork
In the early days of his career, the 1990s at nursing homes and the early 2000s at the hospital, maintaining patient records was more complicated than it is today. For every patient he spends time with, he is required to make notes of the progress made and tasks covered. Because it was not possible for him to write those notes by hand into paper charts, he adopted a practice early on of typing notes and then transferring them to the paper charts. Sometimes, colleagues were annoyed, feeling that his habit of typing was holding them to a similar standard. Today, with all notes and records being maintained electronically, he is using the same tools as his coworkers. The proverbial playing field has been leveled.
At work, he accesses patient notes and enters his own notes on a Windows-based PC, using Microsoft’s magnification application. Since everyone now reads diagnoses and adds notes electronically, his methods are pretty much the same as those of his coworkers.
Benefits and More
Occupational therapists work in a variety of settings. Some work for agencies providing in-home care, some for agencies traveling from one nursing home or clinic to another, and some, like Ray, work full-time in a single hospital setting. He says he personally prefers the hospital setting for a variety of reasons. He enjoys working with people of all ages, from 20-year-olds to 80-year-olds, and helping them regain their independence. He especially loves seeing the progress a patient has made when they come back to the hospital after 10 or 12 or more weeks, to visit and share the joy of their progress.
Of course, finding work we love and then being compensated for that work to maintain the desired quality of life is a win-win combination for any employed person. Ramon Fontanez has found that combination. His work is rewarding and always interesting, and it has enabled him to maintain his own independence and chosen lifestyle. He owns his own co-op in Queens, supports his 14-year-old daughter, and enjoys about four weeks of paid vacation each year. Some of that vacation time he devotes to his favorite volunteer and membership organization, his New York City chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. He joined the chapter in 2008, enjoys helping where he can, and usually participates in state and national conventions.
Technology at home consists of an iMac, an iPad Pro, and an iPhone 14. For playing games or watching movies, Ray especially enjoys using his xReal glasses, which enable him to see the images from his phone up close, mirrored in his glasses.
Another recreational pastime is attending Vacation Camp for the Blind in Spring Valley, NY, where he has taken his daughter for many years, and where he got one of his first jobs as a camp counselor fresh from school.
Asked if he would recommend his career to others who are blind or have low vision, he says, “I like helping people, and it’s wonderful to see the patients and how they have improved when they come back to visit. It’s a great job.”
