James Sims Doesn't Allow Vision Loss to Hold Him Back

James Sims began experiencing vision loss in his forties. After meeting with an optometrist, he was referred to an eye surgeon. He had multiple surgeries to address serious, long-term ocular issues. He explained, “I lost a lot of vision and quickly knew that I was going to need some services and some accommodations if I wanted to continue to work in the same field that I work in.”

With a master’s degree and extensive experience in marketing and communications, James connected with Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD) for services to help him continue his career with his onset disability. He was initially reluctant because he thought OOD could not support employment solutions in his career field. Amy Beavis, OOD Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, helped James become aware of the services that could help and assured him he could continue doing the work he enjoyed.

Amy linked James with Susan Walters at Matrix Vocational Solutions, a vocational rehabilitation provider, who helped James navigate the application process to find a job that would be a good fit.

After working with Amy and Susan, James landed a marketing position with PrimaryOne Health, where he worked for four years. He then accepted a Marketing Manager position at The Ohio State University. In addition to the full-time position he enjoys, James recently published a children’s book titled “The Incredible, Amazing, Fantastic Life of Mr. Smith,” which can be purchased through Amazon and other retailers. The book is about Mr. Smith, an ordinary dad with a big imagination, who shares a tall tale about his encounter with a seal and a hungry great white shark.

James’ message to others with disabilities is to “Keep an open mind. Just realize this: it’s a part of what is going on with you but doesn’t define you at all. Know what you can do, what your ceiling is, and what abilities you have. So just lean in and get to work."

Transcripts and MP3 files are available at ood.ohio.gov/podcast.

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Transcript

Kim Jump:  James Sims is our guest of the OOD Works podcast today. And James, I want to thank you for taking time out of your schedule to meet.  I’ve heard from one of our staff, Shane Harris, that you would be a great person to talk to with a connection to The Ohio State University. I’m really excited to dive in and find out just kind of about your experience. And let me just start off by asking, when did you first get involved with the agency? 

James Sims: Well, thank you for having me on your podcast. I’m really happy to come on and talk about my experiences with OOD. It’s probably been about six years ago. I first started experiencing some visual issues about seven years ago. And, then after some medical procedures, I kind of quickly realized that I was going to need some additional services. So, I engaged with OOD about six years ago. And, you know, my experiences what I thought it was going to be and what it ended up being were on two different sides of the spectrum.  It’s been something along the way. I’m glad to talk about it today.

Kim Jump: Well great. So, take me back, if you’re comfortable, with talking about what was happening with your vision, was it impacting your daily life when you first got connected or kind of what was happening with you?

James Sims: Yeah, I noticed, and this all happened shortly after my forties. I noticed I had some vision issues and was having difficulties driving and seeing at night and using the computer. Then I went to an optometrist who referred me to an eye surgeon. Through a series of exams, he kind of noticed I was having some serious ocular issues and some other issues that were going to be long-term and needed some serious medical care.  As a result of a few surgeries, and some other items going on, I lost a lot of vision and quickly knew that I was going to need some services and some accommodations if I wanted to continue to work in the same field that I work in. 

Kim Jump: For you, was that vision loss kind of happen quickly then once it began, or gradual?

James Sims: It happened quickly, over a twelve-month period. I remember vividly, the very last day that I drove my vehicle, drove my car, and thought, I don’t think I’m going to be able to drive anymore. It’s just not safe. So, over a twelve-month period and a few surgeries, I just was unable to drive and do some of the things that I had normally done with this acute onset condition that I had. I connected with OOD. And, man, what I first really thought, I thought, I didn’t know of any really good services. I thought oh man they’re going to have me doing things that are way outside of what I have been doing previously. I earned a master’s degree in marketing/communications, had taught at Franklin University and Columbus State Community College. I had worked in marketing and communications for most of my career and thought, oh man, this is over. I just had no idea of any kind of accommodations or services that existed.

Kim Jump: Ahh. So you were thinking that maybe, you’d even have to like change your profession?

James Sims: Oh, yes. When I first met with Amy Beavis. She was so patient and gracious because I just was like, hey, listen, I know you’re going to stick me somewhere and have me maybe moving boxes, or driving a forklift. None of those things – I couldn’t drive a forklift if I had to (laughs).

Kim Jump: (laughs).

James Sims: I didn’t want to do those things. She was just so patient with me. She was like, no, no. Just relax. Let me walk you through our services. Let me do our intake with you. Let me show you what’s available. And, our goal is to get you working and back to the things you love to do. I told her, okay, I trust you. Let’s take this journey together. And, it’s been wonderful. It’s been wonderful.

Kim Jump: Yeah, that’s great. She was probably very knowledgeable about the technology. Technology, that you as someone that wasn’t as familiar with having experienced vision loss. It was all kind of a whole new world to you. I’m guessing that some of those technological kinds of connections, resources, were probably helpful.

James Sims: Absolutely. I had zero idea about what kind of accessibility accommodations were available. She quickly introduced me to Zoom Text, which I use on a daily basis. She introduced me to some Microsoft Keyboard strokes that allowed me to navigate the computer. We did an assessment of how I could access just my daily life. She connected me with transportation services and has just allowed me to just continue to do the things that I’ve been educated to do and has just been wonderful.

Kim Jump: It sounds like that was really important to you. To be able to continue. It’s like you didn’t want to, and who would, who would want to have their life radically changed? I’m just guessing it’s probably very empowering for you to know, that no, you didn’t have to change your whole profession and then skill set. And, then all of the skills and experiences that you had built up over your career.

James Sims: Correct. I just didn’t know what I didn’t know at that point. Just dealing with the trauma of being in the situation and having this visual loss was a whole set of things I was working on. In addition to learning how to navigate my new world.

Kim Jump: Sure. Yeah. At that time were you working?

James Sims: I was. I was working for the State of Ohio. I had to step back from that position for a while. And then, took a few, probably sixteen to eighteen months off to make sure, to learn what I needed to learn, to navigate my new world, and to begin to learn my new accommodations. 

Kim Jump: mhm.

James Sims: OOD’s goal is to get people back to work and that’s exactly what happened. Once I was comfortable and my vision was stable, and my surgeries were behind me, I worked with OOD to begin to head back to work in the profession that I love.

Kim Jump: Yeah, that’s great. What about at your home? Did you take advantage of any of the services to help you support greater independence in your home to? 

James Sims:  I did. 

Kim Jump: Good.

James Sims: I was able to find some ways to label some items. My vision, you know everyone’s vision loss is, what I’ve learned, is on a spectrum. So, I have… although I’m legally blind, I have some vision. So, I am able to navigate and still do the things I like to do around the house. Larger screens, magnification and those kinds of things help out on a daily basis. 

Kim Jump: Yes. That’s great. You know, you got to this point, as you explain this, surgeries were behind you and you were ready to get back to work, then kind of what happened?

James Sims:  OOD connected me with Susan Walters at the Matrix Companies, who was assigned to me through her organization to help me navigate the application process to find a job. 

Kim Jump: mhm.

James Sims: She has been and continues to be a wonderful resource, friend, blessing, along the way because she’s helped me navigate. She’s done everything from helped me review my resumé to help me navigate some of the jobs. Some of the software, although the Zoom Text software is helpful, it at times, it doesn’t really in a fashion that you would normally read and having her, having Susan around has just been an amazing opportunity for me to find jobs. To look at my resumé, to bounce ideas off of and to ultimately to get positions, get offered positions, and continue to work.

Kim Jump: That’s great. That’s wonderful. At that point, were you kind of working with her to, to just watch open positions once you had your resumé kind of in good shape and you were feeling ready?

James Sims: Yeah. We looked for open positions too. When I first started applying, I had some specific criteria. I wanted to go back to work on kind of a part-time basis. I had a list of specific criteria. I wanted to work in a non-profit setting. I wanted to do something that was going to be a benefit to society. I worked in a previous position and thought, this is a really good position for me, but going forward, I want to do something different. So, we were able to find kind of a half-time job, that allowed me to continue to use my skills in marketing in a position that was in healthcare, for those who are marginalized and underserved. It was a really, really good fit at the right time.  Susan and Amy helped me secure that position. I worked there for four years before transitioning to my current position.

Kim Jump: That’s great. I love when people know what they want. I think that’s great because then, I think it helps the staff to try to put the puzzle pieces together to make sure it is going to be a great fit for you. I’m just guessing that given life changes you’d experienced, I can see where part-time, and that set-up would be a nice way to kind of transition back.

James Sims: Yeah. Yeah. It was. It’s just the healthcare organization that I went to was very accommodating.  My visual needs, they provided me with the software and hardware that I needed and were really great. So I’ve had really great experiences with them and it was just a good fit at the right time.

Kim Jump: Yeah. So, you did that for about four years or so and at that point were you just feeling like you were wanting to move into something full-time?

James Sims: Yeah. At that point, I was ready to move on to something full-time. So, once again, I contacted Amy. Amy put Susan Walters and I together. We engaged on a journey to find a position full-time that met my work criteria, what I wanted to do, salary expectations, and that kind of met with my background as well.

Kim Jump: Yeah.

James Sims: After working with Susan, I was offered a position at The Ohio State University as the Marketing and Branding Manager for, this is a long title, the College of Arts and Sciences Center for Career and Professional Success. So, in that capacity, my role is to help market the career services that are available to the College of Arts and Sciences students at The Ohio State University. All of the e-mail marketing campaigns, the social media, a lot of the writing content, graphic design that is primarily what I do. Some video development. It’s a really good job. I have progressed in the career and I’m really happy there. I will tell you that the University has been utterly amazing in terms of accommodations for whatever disability needs that I have. That’s from day one.

Kim Jump: Excellent.

James Sims:  I was a little worried. I will tell you a story. When I came on, the Disability Office asked me, okay what size monitor, we can give you kind of a 27 or give you a 32. And, I thought, you don’t have to buy me a 32-inch monitor. The lady said, listen, we will get you whatever you need to perform your job, to the best of your ability. So, don’t try to save us $114.  Whatever we need to get you, we can get it for you. They provided a monitor for me. I still got an iPad that OOD provided to me that does OCR character recognition. It reads. It does a lot of things. I’ve got the extra larger keyboard. They’ve been amazing. I just found out that OOD provided, awarded The Ohio State University, an award simply because of they’re going above and beyond to help those with disabilities successfully perform their jobs. I can attest to it first-hand that the University has been nothing but just stellar, really stellar in helping me transition onboard and perform successfully. 

Kim Jump: That’s wonderful to hear. Yeah, The Ohio State University, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center were the recipients of the 2022 Governor’s Inclusive Employer Award. We think of accessibility for students. Inclusion of students with disabilities not only that, they’re an employer that cares about inclusion. How much that must have meant to you as a new employee to have that kind of welcome and that kind of support of your accommodations mattered from day one like you said.

James Sims: Absolutely. When you come on to a position with a new organization, you really want the focus of your time, and your talent, and your attention to be on the job. Learning the actual job. You don’t want the idea of accommodations getting in your way. That’s exactly what The Ohio State University did. They said, hey listen, we’ll take care of your accommodations. You just focus on learning the job. Learning The Ohio State University’s system. It just allows me to push all of that to the side and actually get to the job at hand.  

Kim Jump: Yeah. It sounds like the job to continues to check some of those boxes that were important to you when you went back part-time. It’s like you build on that, it sounds like.

James Sims: Absolutely. Absolutely. I earned a master’s degree in marketing and communications and spent years teaching at both Columbus State Community College and Franklin University. So, having the ability to have this job, supports student success. It’s something that’s important to me. I don’t have direct student contact as an adjunct or faculty member, but the ability to share student stories, student profiles, career fairs with students, and resources for students is something that I enjoy doing.

Kim Jump: That’s great. Any teachings still these days? Or, do you feel like you kind of get that need met through what you’re able to do through the student contact?

James Sims: You know, I don’t teach nowadays because I have a whole other, a whole different passion that I’m doing the other hours I have when I’m outside the University. I wrote a children’s book and published a children’s book.

Kim Jump: Cool.

James Sims:  I did that over the last, it’s been three years in the making. 

Kim Jump: What’s it called?

James Sims: I will give a plug for it. It’s called “Incredible, Amazing, Fantastic Life of Mr. Smith.”  Yeah, the “Incredible, Amazing, Fantastic Life of Mr. Smith.” It’s a story about a dad who tells tall tales to his son.

Kim Jump: Fun.

James Sims: I wrote the book for two reasons. Just because when my son was younger, I loved reading to him. He loved story time. It was hard finding stories that featured African American characters. So, this has an African American dad and his superpowers that he keeps his shirt and tie on the entire story. But I spent time doing that because I thought I had this story in my head, you know these stories first in a series. But I’ve had them in my head and I’m not going to let this disability keep me back. So, when I was working part-time, the rest of the week, when I was off, I would write the story and edit it and work on the design. Then try to find a publisher and do all the things necessary. To answer that other question, I replaced teaching with writing this book. Currently, in my spare time, working on the second book. 

Kim Jump: Well, that’s great. Where can listeners find it?

James Sims: Listeners can find it on Amazon. They can go to Barnes & Noble. Find it online. Or they can go to https://j3books.shop/. That’s on a Shopify App.  If you want to get a copy, I would encourage you. I encourage you, if you want to read to your children, read this book. If you don’t want to read this book, just read to your children in general. 

Kim Jump: That’s a great message. I love that. We’ll make sure that we put links in the show notes and make it easy for people to get to that. That’s great. I noticed what you said to about not wanting your disability to hold you back. You had this vision of this and you weren’t going to let that stop you.  

James Sims: Yeah. My son is sixteen now. I thought one day, one day. And, one day is here. Let’s go. Start writing. It took a while to get it. But I’m proud. I got it from concept to completion. Then we had our first book signing earlier this summer in a bookstore downtown and did some stuff in German Village. It’s been amazing. I don’t know, to be honest with you Kim, I don’t know if I would have gotten to this point if I hadn’t had the disability. 

Kim Jump: Oh, really?

James Sims: I don’t know because this disability has made me focus. Has made me do kind of an assessment and really kind of narrowed down really what do you want to do. What do you want to be? What do you want to spend your time doing? What’s important to you? I think part of that is COVID because we all had some time to reflect. We were all in the house and everything was shut down. I think part of this disability made me go, I know I don’t want this disability to be a reason why some of these things didn’t get accomplished. 

Kim Jump: Yeah, that’s great. I will definitely be getting it. That’s very cool. 

James Sims: Ahh good. 

Kim Jump: Tall tales are just fun.

James Sims: They are fun. I would always just make up stories and tell him. So, I’ve got half a dozen of stories that the ones I used to make up and tell him and then put them into a book. It’s been pretty cool. 

Kim Jump: Yeah. Did you do the design work for it as well?

James Sims: You know, I found a graphic designer who is utterly amazing to do these illustrations. When people look at the book, they go, yeah, I really love the story, but the illustrations are amazing. I’m like, I know. (laughs). But the story is really good too. You know how it goes.

Kim Jump: (laughs). Well, that’s great though. I can’t wait to see it. As soon as we get done, I’m going to look it up. That’s really cool.

James Sims: Take a look at it. 

Kim Jump: Yeah, yeah. Anything else you would want to say about your work responsibilities there at The Ohio State University? 

James Sims: I would tell you that I’m really grateful for my position. Just in terms of the disability, I’m grateful to the University for allowing, providing accommodations. And anytime I run into an issue and say, hey I can’t access this form or this website is a little difficult, the staff from every facet of the University are tuned in to say, oh we got you. There’s never any, well, you should just go ahead. No, they are always responding to me with positive reinforcement of no problem. We will make this accessible for you. Here’s a workaround. In addition to talking about that, I will encourage anyone, who has a disability that’s brand new to you, or, you have a disability that I can’t, I can’t, or I’m not sure. My message of encouragement to folks is to just say, just give it a try. Just meet with someone from OOD. Connect hopefully with someone from Matrix like Susan Walters, who is going to be an amazing advocate for you. Keep an open mind. Just realize this is, it’s part of what is going on with you, but doesn’t define you at all. Know what you can do, what your ceiling is and what abilities you have so just lean in and get to work. 

Kim Jump: Yeah, lean is. That’s a great message. I appreciate the shoutout. Besides working on book two, anything else that’s on the horizon for you James?

James Sims: Well, you know, besides working on book two, trying to get a sixteen-year-old prepped for college.

Kim Jump: Oh yeah, and that. (laughs).

James Sims: That’s my other full-time job. That’s about it. That’s about it.

Kim Jump: That’s great. Closing thoughts?

James Sims: I’ll share that I just really try to keep an attitude of gratitude. That I am, I don’t focus on the disability. I am grateful for the vision that I do have and the abilities that I do have. I think that’s a message that folks should put in their pocket and carry it with them.

Kim Jump: Yeah, thank you for that.