Audio-Reader  − 15 July, 2002

My first professional job has been at a place called Audio-Reader, in Lawrence, Kansas. It is a radio reading service for the blind, a reading factory where volunteers go in and reading material comes out through the radio and on the phone. In other words, we read books, newspapers, magazines, grocery ads, smut and everything else to those who can't otherwise read them for themselves.

One of the ways I got this job was from my work reading for a blind student, a friend of mine, from Grand View College, back in 1998 and 1999. I never would have dreamed at the time that it would lead to my first "real-world" job.

I worked at Audio-Reader for four years, coming straight out of grad school, supervising a dial-in newspaper service called Telephone Reader. I supervised 95 volunteers and one staff member, directing the operation of this system. My hours were 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., as we had to get the papers going early. We would read an entire newspaper, the Kansas City Star, by 10 a.m. each morning.

I left after four years to follow my girlfriend to Portland, Oregon, as she begins graduate school.