Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Episode Transcript

Transcript edited by Hannah “Asher” Sham

 

Intro & Disclaimer

Kylo: You’re listening to Let’s Talk!. Let’s Talk! Is a digital space for students at PCC experiencing disabilities to share their perspectives, ideas, and worldviews in an inclusive and accessible environment. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Portland Community College, PCC Foundation, or our community partners. We broadcast on our home website, pcc.edu/dca, on Spotify, on XRAY, 91.1 FM and 107.1 FM, and KBOO Community Radio, 90.7 FM.

Miguel: Hello, everyone and welcome to a brand new episode of Let’s Talk! All Access. Today on this very special episode, I am here with two of my friends who are participating in the Ability IT program with me. We are here to talk about our experience in the program. So, we have Amani and Todd, would you both like to introduce yourselves and let the listeners know what motivated you to apply to Ability IT?

Amani: Hi, my name’s Amani. Before entering the program, I had started studying for the CompTIA A plus certificates. I was already interested in a career in cybersecurity. But, I didn’t have a background in IT. So, I enrolled in an online class and then did a internship at a local tech recycling organization, “Free Geek”. I was working in their reuse and refurbishment department. Refurbishing laptops and desktops since that was a really good experience. Then I just happened to hear about the AbilIT program through Instagram, actually, while I was looking at college programs that I could apply to. So, I applied and was really happy when I found out that I was accepted.

Miguel: How about you, Todd? 

Todd: Like Amani, I also volunteered at Free Geek when I first moved to Portland. I’ve always been into computer stuff fixing hardware and some software issues and going through threads in Reddit and troubleshooting my own things. An interest in IT in general. Then, last year was December of 2024, I broke my ankle and after I got outta the hospital, and was recuperating, I was looking through jobs related to people who have disabilities. ‘Cause my background is in culinary and I could not do that with a broken ankle. So, I was looking through Portland Resources to find any kind of employment with people who have disabilities. That’s where I found out about Ability and Relay resources. I’m glad I got picked for it. This was the thing on my list for this year.

Miguel: That’s awesome! I should probably share with the listeners why I joined the program. For some of the listeners that know what I do, for others that don’t, I’ve done accessibility testing. But, I’ve always been interested in like learning how the interiors of computers work. So, one of the aspects that I really wanted to learn was like all of the different aspects of learning how to computer is put together, different aspects you can add, like in regards to learning how to add like extra hard drives or adding specific specs to your computer to make it work faster. I think that’s super fascinating, so I learned about the AbilIT program; I had an email sent to our PCC casual student list or employees list. I was like, “oh, this seems cool!”. So, I went on the website and I applied. I always love learning. So, that’s one of my good skills is I love to learn. So, when I applied, I’m like this could be a good idea for me to learn and see what opportunities can be out there. I knew some technicians in the field before and I was always curious of all the stuff that they did and setting up computers. Especially, when I worked for the community college, when they set up all of our office space, I was always intrigued of, “oh, how does this work?”, and how do you guys put in all the cables through the walls and stuff. So, that was my curiosity of why I ended up joining the program. I know we’re all studying CompTIA for A plus certifications. What was your experience in the first week of the program? Were you guys like intimidated? Not sure? 

Starting The Program

Todd: Overwhelming. It was a lot. I think once I saw the whole Comp TIA 90 question quiz and all of the things, that I’ve never seen anything about, described; I know I was kind of in a new world and had to plan accordingly.

Amani: For me, personally, I was excited, but a little nervous about all the material that I was going to be learning. Since I’ve never worked in the field and I just started studying IT in 2025. I knew that a lot of the material would be new to me, so that just made me a little bit nervous. But, I was really excited. 

Miguel: I would probably say the same sentiment here. Because, I was really nervous and I’m like, “okay, now I need to figure out what’s my plan of action to complete this IT program.”. Because, I also felt very overwhelmed in learning the materials. For the people that want to learn IT; I know you guys talked about like Reddit posts and looking stuff up online, I think that helped a lot at the very beginning just to understand the material. There’s a YouTuber called, “Burning Ice Tech” and they really do really well explaining down the sections. Just being able to have it be repetitive, because that’s the way I learn. I don’t know about you guys, but repetition of listening to info, and having it hands on, is very helpful; at least for me. So, what do you guys think of that?

Todd: I like “Burning Tech”. I saw him too. I was just trying to scan the information as many times over and over again, even if it didn’t make a whole lot of sense and kind of just get that burned into my memory. But, he and a couple other YouTubers, I’ve been scouring YouTube for other people explaining A+, and tech in general. When there’s a human interaction, like a human description, metaphors, or examples they can use, it kind of helps me a lot with getting that information in my head because it gives it a real world application instead of just reading a phone book or an encyclopedia and trying to imagine that all that’s gonna be photo printed in my brain. It’s good to hear it from another person who can kind of describe why it exists. 

Amani: Yeah. I share Miguel’s feelings about getting hands-on experience. That’s why I looked for an internship, because I was learning online and doing a lot of reading of my textbook, but I just knew that I really needed to be able to apply what I was learning in real time so that I could retain the information.

Miguel: Yeah, those are really good points. Textbooks can only do so much! Especially in the IT field. Having that internship experience is definitely more helpful. So, like maybe one day we can all go to the “Geek Squad” and play with the cables and see if they’ll let us take some computers apart or put ’em together. I think that would be fun! 

Todd: Mm-hmm. “Free geek”. 

Miguel: Yeah. Do you have any advice for any people that wanna start in the IT field?

Todd: Clear your docket, have time on your hand. Because, it’s a lot depending on what your own background is. It’s more than I thought. 

Amani: For me, I would tell someone, who is interested in getting started in IT, to do a lot of reading. That is one piece of advice that I got from someone in the field is just to read and just consume the information any way that you can. Because, practically, unless you’re building your own computer, or doing your own labs, or IT simulations online, you won’t have an opportunity to apply a lot of what you’re learning or really see everything that you’re learning about, unless you are in a relevant role. So, I was told to just read books, read articles or even find other people, study materials to read. Because, just having familiarity with the concepts will help a lot once you do get in a role and then you can be like, “oh, I haven’t seen this before. But, I know I recall this.”. 

Todd: And having broken equipment you try to fix.

Miguel: Yes. The troubleshooting definitely helps. Do either of you two feel that you guys have learned any new tech skills so far? Like an, “aha!” Moment?

Amani: Yeah, I would say learning the different types of hardware that are part of any computer. Learning what their functions are, what their names are, how to replace them. Learning how to determine what computer components are compatible with a motherboard or battery. Troubleshooting networking and software, errors is another one. That’s a couple off the top of my mind. 

Todd: I think the troubleshooting procedure, Is an important thing that’s going to serve me well. ‘Cause it helps me slow down and look at things methodically and not just jump around with my ADHD brain at whatever shiniest things popping out, or the most exciting thing I want to dig into. But, really slow down, take a step by step process that’s been tried and true to get the most efficient outcome, I guess.

Miguel: Yeah, for sure. I was like super fascinated when like, Mariah, my job coach was describing how the inside of a motherboard looks like. ‘Cause most of this is so visual. So, for me, just having those little moments of like description are just so fascinating to me. “Wow, is that really how tiny those little ports are?”, to where the internet cables go, or where the hard drive is. That is so fascinating! I always find that super interesting to learn about and just have the connections, like this is when they talk about a “Wi-Fi card” or the “sound card”, or just the different areas where you put in the cables.

Todd: There’s a lot crammed in there. 

Miguel: Yeah, there’s so much in there! You’re like, “What? This all fits into one square rectangle place?” It’s really cool!

Todd: There’s some YouTube channels; it’s like a talk show of computer tech from the late nineties, like when Windows 95 just came out, and you see their hardware and all the stuff they have and it’s hilarious! All the legacy things they have. But, I think that’s a pretty good visual example. ‘Cause everything’s like shrunk like four times since then and it crammed way more things together. “Now you can send texts to somebody in another state!”

Miguel: “And, you don’t have to use a floppy disk drive!”

Todd: Yeah! All the things we take for granted and how much the hardware has accelerated since then. 

Miguel: Yeah. Yesterday, I was at Free Geek. And I felt like; Apple, the early ones that was made in the eighties, they were selling one there for a hundred dollars. There was an Atari, they were selling an Atari there as well. That was super neat! I was like, “that sounds so cool! Thanks for the buttons that I can feel again!” 

Amani: Miguel, were you attending one of Free Geeks-

Miguel: The Popup?

Amani: Yeah! 

Miguel: Yeah, yeah! I was there yesterday. Yeah! 

Amani: Awesome! So, did you go home with anything? 

Miguel: No, I was just there. I was there with Mariah to ask them about all the different ADA cables and stuff like that. Yeah. Because I want them to feel some of them. But, we were gonna have to go back and they’re gonna pick some cables out, so I can feel all of them. But, it was super cool to feel all the technology and those big monitors, that they used to use. It’s so wild how like monitors are so small now compared to like what they used to be. 

Todd: PRTs? Yeah. 

Miguel: Yeah!

Amani: I think that was a great idea to go to “Free Geek” and that is something that I would definitely recommend, to anyone who’s interested in getting into IT, is just checkout your local IT related businesses and see how you can get involved. Volunteering, if they offer internships, or if they can just show you like any IT components that they may just have on hand. I know “Free Geek” specifically has a lot of legacy devices, so if you wanna know like what a “Heat Sink” looks like, they have so many different models from a decade ago to now, and they have them in copper and different materials. So, I would definitely utilize the businesses in your community that can fill in some of the knowledge gaps for you.

Miguel: I love that idea. I can’t wait to ask them how those feel. ‘Cause, that’s like the next thing that I wanna learn. I wanna like feel the “heat sink” ones. Did you guys have any specific parts of the course you liked to learn about so far?

Todd: I like Maslow’s Hierarchy, the pyramid. That’s something I’ve gone through, I guess, through my life for the past few years; over and over again to find the most important things in your life and how you can self-actualize. But, first you have to keep a healthy balance of food and shelter. It’s something I look at when I’m really stressed out too, where it’s like, “all right, where am I at? Are enough of my other needs met before I can start studying for this?”.

Miguel: I feel you for sure. How about you, Amani? 

Amani: For me, I really appreciate the strong foundation that I’ve been given through the AbilIT program. Not only learning IT concepts, but being able to learn with others. I feel like, in the program, I’ve learned a lot from just talking about IT concepts that we’ve been learning with my peers and learning from them. Sometimes other people will have a good analogy of how to remember something and I found that really useful. I think the most difficult, part of the IT study for me was networking and virtualization. That took me a little bit more of dedicated study to really understand.

Miguel: So, I know that we spend a lot of time in the program, but shall we tell the listeners how our typical days look like for them to learn. So, in the morning we have Personal Development Classes and they talk about networking, connecting, resume, cover letters, all that good jazz. Then the afternoon we study for our CompTIA Certifications. So, sometimes we’re split up into groups and we take time to learn. Two days are in person and two days are remote, so we take time to learn about the different sections. At this point, a lot of us read all areas. Have you guys learned any new study techniques that have helped you guys so far?

Todd: I just crammed in through “Cybrary” and the CompTIA website, the quizzes. Take the quizzes, fail the quizzes, fail them again, and just keep- That’s how I learned the best is just by jumping on in and trying to apply what I know and then learning my mistakes. 

Amani: Yeah. For me, I would say flashcards and taking practice questions has been the most helpful, and hands-on labs. 

Miguel: The quizzes definitely helped me out. ‘Cause when I don’t understand a concept, I’m like, “let me go back and re-listen to the videos and see if I can understand where I missed specific concepts, like in the networking.”. I know that’s gonna be a hard one for me too when I get to that one. That’s one that I’m definitely gonna struggle on. So, probably just repetition and retaking the quizzes over, and over, and over again till it like finally makes sense or being able to understand. I did do a certificate on accessibility and web content, which is a little bit different. Because, it’s a lot more guidelines and basis. There is a lot of physical stuff that goes on to it, but I learned it more faster because that’s what I was doing for a job and so it was a little more helpful.

Amani: I have a question for you guys. What has been the most exciting skill that you’ve gained during the program? 

Skills Gained During The Program

Todd: Time management, I guess. Or, trying to recalibrate what I think about it. ‘Cause things seem to either take way longer or way less than I do, than I first imagined. Time management’s always an issue for me, especially when you’re balancing endless swaths of knowledge and project deadlines kinda on the same day. 

Amani: Yeah, that’s a good answer. What about you, Miguel? 

Miguel: I would honestly agree with Todd; time management. Because, in my undergrad degree, I tend to procrastinate a lot. I think the one that helped me out was putting it into my calendar. Because, I literally open it up every single day and I’m like, “okay, it’s time to study!” or “we have class at this time.”. So, having those times in there along with like my work hours, it puts a little more into perspective where I need to allocate my time and energy. I think that’s something that’s important, at least for me. Moving forward, in my life, is actually putting all of my stuff on my calendar. Even though that’s gonna be super tedious, but it’s honestly been more helpful in the long run. ‘Cause then I can go into my calendar and see I gotta do this for Tuesday, and it has to be done. I can be very forgetful just because of all the stuff that I have going on. I sometimes try to balance a little too much and it doesn’t work, because I forget to write it all down and I will tend to forget certain things. So, I think that’s what that skill that I’ve personally have learned from this is to have a little more connections with like my Reminders App and calendar, and just sit a couple of minutes a day and get those completed and put into there. ‘Cause I think that’s what’s been working for me the most.

Amani: Yeah, I think the advantage of using a calendar like a time-based calendar is seeing, I actually don’t have time to do all the things that I thought that I wanted to do. It just keeps you realistic. How would you guys say the program prepares participants for real IT environments?

Miguel: For me, I believe the main thing that I’ve taken out of this is the connections that I’ve made with you guys. I really take those to heart. You guys are amazing people with like such amazing different backgrounds. Todd had done culinary and all sorts of things, same with you, Amani. I’ve definitely felt the connection with you guys and I am really grateful that I get to study alongside you guys. Regardless of where our IT jobs take us, both of you can know that I will always be here to write a recommendation letter, or sit as a reference and I can make that connection for you if there’s a specific job that I find. So, having those type of connections into the program– especially, because, for me, I can be very social but one of the things that I struggled with in my undergrad was not making a lot of friends at the end of my bachelor’s just because I did my online degree through an online program. So, that was pretty difficult to make those connections, so that’s one of the other reasons why I joined. ‘Cause I wanted to just make more friends and go out there again. It’s really hard as an adult. You can make work friends, but it’s just not the same as being able to have something to bond over our frustrations of infrastructure, of networking, or trying to understand a concept in building a computer, or whatever. Maybe your printers or the different sections. I think, that’s for me, what I take the most from this is the experience learning from you guys. Because, I always feel like I’m always learning something new and just being able to conceptualize it and ask you guys, “Hey, how did you guys understand this material?” or “what did you guys use?”. I always feel like I’m always learning. What about you guys?

Amani: I wanna say thank you for the sentiment that you expressed, that you really appreciate the relationships that you’ve built. I feel the exact same way. I really have enjoyed getting to know everyone that’s in our program. The more I get to learn about you guys, I’m just like, “you guys are so awesome!”. We have just so many talents and interests reflected in our cohort. But, I found that everyone has been so supportive and it’s just a really positive community of people. It is nice that we all share neurodivergence so that we have that in common. We just have an understanding of what it’s like to kind of navigate a workplace or a job when you have a disability or a neurodivergence. I feel that we’ve all given each other a lot of grace and understanding, but we are a really supportive group, so I really like that as well. I think the program prepares us for real IT environments, or the obvious answer is, by giving us IT skills. But, our IT instructor has spent a lot of time instructing us on is how to have the right mindset for working in an IT environment. How to really troubleshoot and find the next steps for what is like a plausible root cause and how to identify credible sources when you are looking for plausible reasons. So, I really appreciate that. 

Todd: Yeah. They don’t guide you. They slightly guide you, but you’re on your own. Which is probably what it’s gonna be like really in the IT world is; instead of having a set instruction manual of what to do next, you’re gonna have to start diving in and doing as much research and learning about the problem as possible on your own, just based off of whatever, critical thinking skills you have. 

Amani: Yeah. I would actually say, in my experience, that we get a lot of guidance. But, we don’t get the answers. So, for example, if you’re stuck on an IT problem and let’s say you have a laptop that you’ve connected to an external monitor. But, the monitor isn’t reflecting your laptop screen and if you ask someone in the program to help you, they won’t do it for you. They will tell you to Google it, and if you’re still having trouble, they may give you a hint of where to look, or help you talk through what could be the issue. But, they won’t give you the answers. In the program, they really try to cultivate a mindset of troubleshooting; “what do I know?”, “what information is lacking based on what is working?”, “What do I know about what the problem is not related to?”, and “where do I need to divert my attention?”, basically. 

Miguel: Yeah, those are really good things that we definitely learned. I’ve always had to tell myself that whenever I have an issue with the computer, I’m like, “let’s be curious again”. We were kids and ask questions and try to find answers to it. So, I always feel like I’m the secret investigative journalist trying to figure out why is this not working and how can I fix this issue and save the day type of thing. I don’t know if that’s probably a silly analogy, but it’s one that I came up with! 

Todd: Especially when you know that it can be fixed. These things happen every day, so it’s more of a puzzle than a problem. You just kind of have to figure out the right way to approach it. 

Miguel: Oh, yeah. For me, like having just the cheerful attitude. One of the things from Personal development that stuck with me from the very beginning; I don’t know if either of you two remember the video on the gal who talked about when people have the mindset of “I can’t”, and the people that say, “I can’t yet”. So, I think having the mindset of, “I don’t know this yet.”. “I don’t know this”, but adding the word “yet” to the end. Now that I’ve been through some of the sections in the program, I’m like, “I can’t do this yet.”. So, that’s definitely been helpful for me to just bring up those little positive moments of learning and having those connections with you guys. I feel like every time we be able to fix a puzzle or like, when we were trying to fix that station that wasn’t working at the beginning of the term. I thought it was just so much fun to figure it out and why it wasn’t working and looking up the numbers on the keyboard to see what type of keyboard it was and the mouse. I think it was just super neat and helpful for us to just have that hands-on experience for that. 

Amani: Yeah. A growth mindset is definitely another mindset that we’ve really been pushed to adopt in this program.

Transferring Skills

Miguel: Do you guys feel that some of your other skills, that you’ve learned before, have transferred into here? Like maybe with the other participants, or just learning. I knew coming in that I’m a horrible note taker and I admit that; I’m like horrible! I write notes and then later I wanna read ’em, I’m like, “what was I trying to write? Makes no sense!”. But, I honestly, I’ve gotten better over the years. It used to be much worse! At least now they’re eligible that I can kind of remember what I was writing about. Don’t ask me about my middle school notes, ’cause those were atrocious. Those were definitely atrocious! So, learning, for me, it’s okay to not know the answers to everything. That’s been kind of hard because, “how am I gonna figure this out?” But, having that mindset, “if I try it these three other ways, there may be a solution that I may not have even thought about.”. So, that’s something that I’ve definitely grown on as a person after being in the program. I’ve learned these are my good skill sets of me being a good listener, and that can definitely help when people are in the field and they’re upset, because their computer’s broken and they can’t find their document, or whatever. What did you guys think? 

Todd: Well, I think my past experiences with working in kitchens, and also working on my car, where you’ve got an old piece of equipment and it breaks down, but you still have to figure out how it works. And, there could be hundreds of ways it went wrong, but there’s more than likely a usual culprit, or usual suspect. 

Miguel: Yeah. 

Todd: So, I think once you figure out what the problem is and how it’s used, you can sort of zero in on the first steps you should take to resolving it. I don’t know if that makes sense.

Miguel: It totally does. What about you, Amani?

Amani: I don’t really have a cut and dry answer for that, actually. I did know about hardware and how to replace or update internal hardware components due to my refurbishment internship experience. But, I think a lot of the transferable skills that I brought to the program were more related to the professional development training than the IT training. Just building interpersonal relationships and creating an inclusive environment and community building; that was something that I knew that was important to me, as well as, the IT training part of the program. Because, this is the first time that I have been in an environment where I’m with other people that are also neurodivergent and have an opportunity to see them multiple days for weeks on end. It was important to me to build relationships with my fellow trainees. Because, I just value having people in my circle who can relate to navigating the world with a disability. That’s one of the reasons why I created a group chat for our cohort, so that we could just connect with each other outside of the classroom as well.

Miguel: Yeah, that’s a really good networking opportunity for us to keep connected. When you told me about the group chat, I’m like, “sweet! I’ll be part of it!”. So, I really appreciate you doing that for us. That was awesome! 

Todd: Yeah. 

Amani: I’m so thankful that both of you guys have joined and that it’s been used.

Todd: I’ll keep it up too if it’s still being used afterwards. ‘Cause, there’s a whole lot of certifications to get through. 

Amani: Yes, it’s true. 

Miguel: Oh, yeah! I personally, would love to do Networking and the Security Plus Certifications. I don’t know if you guys wanna do those, but like I was thinking of doing those as well.

Todd: I’m planning on it. 

Amani: Yeah. The Network and Security Plus our part of the industry standard for someone who is in a cybersecurity role. So, that is definitely part of my goal as well. 

Miguel: Yeah, that’s cool that we all have similar goals. Because, starting this, I was just really bummed out, ’cause I had just finished college and my bachelor’s degree and I had to apply to like more than a hundred jobs since last June. My technical abilities and accessibility testing were like helpful and maybe I should get an IT certification to match that or see if that would open up more doors for me in the long run. So, for me, understanding accessibility has, honestly, been helpful and frustrating at the same time. 

Accessibility of Information

Amani: Can you go into a little bit, like what’s been helpful and what’s been frustrating for you? 

Miguel: Yeah, yeah, of course! One of the things that I, personally, find difficult is the amount of information thrown at us. Like on the videos, without having other forms of specific breakdown of information. By that, I mean if there was a video it would be cool if there was also a blocks of texts or maybe if there was like an audio component to it. So, for example, for me sometimes, like I don’t wanna listen to a video, or listen to it via audio, or be able to download it and add your notes into it as well. I think that would be really helpful. Not just for me personally, but I think like you guys would get a good understanding of it as well. Some of the stuff that’s been a little more frustrating for me is the access to certain web platforms. Unfortunately, in the accessibility field and in the universal design, sometimes they bring it in at the end of the project versus at the very beginning, like in the web development stage or development of the product. So, unfortunately instead of having those skills, and having readers installed or like proper HTMO, semantically labeled, and alternative texts put on pictures and stuff like that, or being able to navigate a website multiple ways. Like navigating through a search bar and there’s another way you can navigate it through specific blocks of text, or information gathering. Unfortunately, a lot of times, it’s thought of an afterthought, so that can be really frustrating. Because, the sad reality is even as a tester I can be like, “Hey, there’s all these issues.”, companies move very, very slow. So, change takes quite a few years. So, even having that skillset, I’ve learned to be more patient with myself and not get frustrated. But, sometimes it’s been really hard when something’s just accessible with the mouse and not the keyboard. I spend an exuberant amount of time just to try to be able to, access the same material and sometimes it’s really hard. For me, that’s what’s been the hardest.

Amani: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I think, that is certainly frustrating and that there’s going to be organizations that, until they have someone with a specific disability that is not as prevalent; a lot of the times it takes that person, applying to their program or like really becoming part of their world, for them to adopt accessibility strategies that are inclusive for that particular disability. So, I definitely hear you that it’s frustrating, but I also wanna commend you for not just thinking, “oh, I can’t do it”, and not applying, or not trying. Cause that visibility is so important.

Miguel: Aw, thank you, Amani. I appreciate that. I won’t lie, there’s days that are like really difficult, sometimes. I’m like, “man, what did I get myself into? What was I thinking?”. But, I know that with me learning these skills, I know they’re gonna be helpful with other aspects of my life, like going into the IT field. I know when, in the field, if people have questions of, “how are you gonna check printers?”, or “how are you gonna check these cables?”. Then I can tell them, “I know the shape of the cable”, or “I know what they’re called”. I was able to memorize ’em and find in accommodated troubleshooting way, to learn those skills. I believe, and I know, that that’s gonna be helpful for me in the future. So, yeah. I know it’s hard, but it’s not anything that I can’t learn or have the opportunity to understand a little better. 

Amani: Yeah. It’s always hard to be the first, But, you will be one of the people who will make this program more accessible for future blind applicants, and that’s a really significant thing. 

Miguel: Yeah. I really feel that. My goal always is to not just help the blind, but everyone else. So, I hope you guys have felt a little more supported with me in the class. I hope I was able to transmit that throughout these last 13 weeks. 

Todd: Yeah. I think you’ll be a great teacher after this too. Because, you perceive the information in a different way than we do. So, you’ll be able to explain it in a way that would be new to somebody else who maybe isn’t even vision impaired. But, you can understand it from different angles. So, I think you can convey that information in a different way. 

Miguel: No, I think so. Because, if I can learn this networking concept, or I know these computer parts are super tiny. But, if I can learn that maybe I can help other people and troubleshoot their issues in the long run, regardless of them having visioned or non visioned. In school, they used to ask me like, “Hey, Miguel, can you help me with this visual task?”, I’m like, “oh, man. I don’t know.”. Because, I didn’t know that a lot of the buttons on the computers had like little pictures on them. I know like the recycle bins, the trash bin, or like the safe bins, like a little folder.

Amani: Oh, yeah! Like “icons”. 

Miguel: Like little icons. So, I was trying to explain to them one time, “oh, you go to the save icon, do you?”, they’re like, “what’s the save icon?”. So, I’m like, “the little folder!”. I know I was probably laughing at it out, but I didn’t know that I was troubleshooting and helping them at the same time. 

Amani: Yeah. Well, we’ve talked a little bit about what a typical day in the program looks like. But, one thing that we didn’t mention, that I just want to share with the listeners, is that towards the end of the program, you start meeting with a employment consultant that helps you find an entry level IT job. Well, it’s not necessarily entry level. It depends on your experience, your knowledge base, and what certifications you’ve earned. But, there is someone in the program, who’s part of the program staff, who helps you find a job and that, is really helpful as well.

Todd: Getting a year of support too is going to be good for me. Because, I’m not wrapping up everything right now. I’m going to take a couple months to recollect and then be able to use those resources in the future. 

Miguel: Yeah. I know we have a year for this and we can all hold each other accountable or, help each other out in different ways after the program. So, I feel like that’s really important as well.

Future Plans in IT

Todd: Do you guys have any plans of any specific IT direction you want to go in? 

Amani: Cybersecurity, for me.

Miguel: I was thinking of applying for an IT job at Amazon. Just because I already worked there. I think that would be cool. But, then I asked the other day at work, I’m like, maybe I can ask them if they would allow me to like dabble in it, so I can get some experience? So, I hope they allow me like to fix devices or going through like some of their networking settings and be able to practice some of the skills we’re using. ‘ Cause, hopefully they allow me to, if not, that’s okay. But, even just having that experience, will help in the future. Honestly, I would love to be, part of like a technician team. I think that would be super fun. When I met a couple of technicians at my previous job, they were super kind, very helpful. So, I think I would love to start there and maybe doing like an analyst role later on. But, I think that would be super cool. Maybe do different gigs on helping others; setting up their network in nonprofits, or stuff like that. I think a lot of people could use that. Because, I thought it was like, “oh, setting up computers must not be that complicated.”. I was listening to the videos, I’m like, “oh, wow! This is a lot more complicated than I thought it was!”. 

Amani: Yeah. 

Todd: Lot of networking stuff. 

Miguel: Yeah! I was like, “wait, what? If you have more than multiple computers; okay, you gotta do all these different steps now. Okay! That’s good to know!”… What about you Todd? 

Todd: I’m not really sure yet. ‘Cause I could say “anything”, but I’d have to get my toes wet with it. I dunno, something with maintenance, maybe. Maybe it would be the infrastructure of networking. Like getting to know an area and how to maintain it and find the problems. Basic day-to-day functioning. Keeping the ship afloat sort of thing.

Amani: I think a helps desk role. Maybe a managed service provider where I would just have exposure to a lot of different types of IT tickets; is probably where I’d like to start.

Miguel: I think you would be really good at that. 

Amani: Thank you. 

Accommodations

Miguel: Yeah, I think you’d be excellent at that. For the accommodations, how do you guys feel about asking for accommodations? Are you guys hesitant? Are you guys nervous? 

Amani: That is a good question. The topic of heavy discussion in our program. We did learn about “AskJan .org”. That website has a lot of resources for an array of different disabilities and can help you decide a possible accommodations. It kind of lists accommodations by disability and has helpful advice on drafting accommodation request letters as well. Personally, I have requested work place accommodations before.

Miguel: I know some people were like, “no, I don’t wanna disclose my disability or ask for accommodations.”. I’ve asked for them before in my different work environments. For me, people have been very transparent; if they can or cannot offer an accommodation. But, one thing that I learned from my journalism teacher that I always carry is “question everything”. I know it’s a silly thing, but I feel like asking questions; the least they can say is “no”. So, asking never hurts. ‘Cause you just never know what they’ll say. 

Amani: Yeah! 

Todd: You need to advocate for yourself sometimes. Because, it looks bad if you don’t. So, you might as well be up front. 

Miguel: Right? Yeah, I’ve learned that experience of like always asking always asking, “what do I need?”, and it’s okay. And I always tell people this, “it’s okay to ask for accommodations. It’s okay to ask for what you need in a different format.”. That’s totally okay. One thing that I’ve learned to troubleshoot is; if this format doesn’t work for me this way, let me see if I can figure out a way to convert into a format where I can completely understand it. So, that’s one of the skills that I’ve learned. Honestly, it’s helped a lot. What do you guys feel has been the most rewarding thing about this experience?

Amani: Well, Miguel, before we move on I just had a thought about requesting accommodations? One helpful piece of advice that we heard in the program was, if you happen to start a role without having requested accommodations; by the time that you are getting to requesting an accommodation, you kind of have a feel for the norms and the expectations of your workplace. It is really helpful to not just say, ” oh, I have a disability and I’m struggling with this…”, but also pre plan solutions or have ideas, that you can present on just present solutions. Because, one thing that our instructors taught us was it’s better to present solutions to go with a problem than just presenting problems.

Todd: When I ask too, being clinically scatterbrained, it helps me get on my first step too. When I know what to ask it means that I’m organizing my own thoughts too. So, it helps me get my first step out of the way, in order to initiate whatever issue I’m having. If I can put it into words to communicate that to somebody else then I can help understand it myself.

Amani: Absolutely. And sometimes writing it out helps with that too.

Miguel: Yeah, that’s a big one. I tend to write stuff down before I say out loud. Sometimes I’m like, “does that sound okay to say out loud?”. 

Amani: Yeah!

Miguel: Also like bouncing ideas off of each other and like learning what works, or what others have done in the past. Maybe that can be helpful as well. 

Amani: Yeah. And finding a safe mentor within the workplace. If you find someone who has the role that you would like to be in one day, or has a skillset that you feel you could improve on, or even if they have a weakness that you also share, and if you feel that they are trustworthy. Approaching them to learn from them is always a good strategy; something else that was suggested to us in the program. 

Miguel: Yeah. Fortunately, I’ve been really fortunate to have found good mentors throughout my life in different areas. They’ve been definitely super helpful in my learning experience, even though most of them are not blind themselves. But, they’ve been super helpful in just life and going through college and university. Just different aspects of my life, where I’ve definitely needed help. It’s been helpful having a mentor to be there, bounce ideas and sometimes you just need them to like get you going sometimes and you’re like, “okay, I got this. I can do this.”. 

Amani: Yeah!

Todd: Good to be with like-minded individuals. 

Miguel: For sure! Yeah! That’s so helpful in the long run for all of us! ‘Cause, when you have people that think similar towards you, you just feel empowered and feel like, “yeah, we can all do this and get this all done!”. I know the days where I am sometimes super burnt out and I’m like, “man, what am I doing?”, some days. Then I think of you guys and I’m like, okay, I can do this!”. You guys kinda gimme that spark.

Soft Skills

Amani: Yeah. One other thing, that we have been taught in this program, is that technical skills alone don’t just guarantee workplace success. Soft skills remain really important in any work environment, even if it’s IT, as well. What are some soft skills that you guys have learned about. Not for the first time, but just have practiced or learned something new about within this program? 

Miguel: I’m horrible keeping up to the LinkedIn. That’s just me. But, it was good just to go back and refresh my brain of; adding a proper headline, keeping up with their current jobs. I think that’s what’s been helpful. Having those conversations with people making sure that they’re professional. Keeping the professional tone. I always struggle with professional tone, but that’s something that like I’ll continue to work on. 

Amani: For me, we did some exercises around time management and strategies on how to prioritize when you have multiple competing priorities, so that was really helpful. I don’t remember what the name of the concept is called. But, we looked at a diagram and there were priorities that were urgent, priorities that were not urgent, priorities that are important, and priorities that aren’t. So, I thought that that was helpful as well.

Todd: The soft skills; back to what I was saying before with advocating for yourself, communicating whatever’s going on, so a little snowball doesn’t turn into an avalanche. Communicate what you need, understand it yourself, and then not get like overwhelmed or really stressed when you’re getting diverted off of whatever path you imagined. So, communication is a good one. Just to kind of see what other people are thinking outside of your own head. If you can get the feedback from people that maybe you weren’t imagining you’d get is probably more helpful.

Miguel: Yeah. I’m always my worst critic. ‘Cause, I’m like, “oh, no! How dare you write it this way?”, or “how dare you think of this concept in this direction?”.

Todd: Yeah, what I was talking about with Amani earlier; some of the things that I was discounting about this program she got a lot of use out of. It’s good to get different perspectives on things. Reorient myself. 

Amani: I’m just thinking about how teamwork and collaboration show up in IT Jobs. I feel that in most workplaces, if you have a good size team, you will be interacting with people with a different communication style, different thresholds of frustration and patience. We also did a lot of work in this program; practicing and thinking about different ways that you could respond to a supervisor or a colleague who is maybe difficult, or difficult to work with or, needs a lot of collaboration or handholding. Just how to be peaceful and efficient team member. So, I don’t know if you guys have any other thoughts about teamwork and collaboration in an IT job? 

Teamwork and Collaboration in IT

Miguel: I feel like it’s just important to learn how to work in a team, in general, regardless of what job you go into. But, yeah. I think it’s helpful like in an IT job. Depending on where you work, but you probably work with so many different types of people and backgrounds. I’m pretty sure it can be very stressful, especially trying to fix someone’s computer over the phone. Different issues that arise like that. Definitely having the skillset to understand how your coworkers work and maybe work alongside of them is definitely helpful.

Amani: Staying calm under pressure if you are in a support role and someone’s really frustrated and maybe yelling at you, or just being unnecessarily rude.

Miguel: Definitely. It’s good practice, honestly, to have that, and just learn. Learning the basic skills to help you keep yourself under control and keeping yourself professional in a neutral place. That’s helpful. I think that helped me out because I do horrible with conflict and I just wanna walk away sometimes. I’m like, “no, you can’t do that.”.

Todd: It takes practice 

Miguel: For sure. It definitely takes practice. 

Todd: I used to have to kick people out of the Art Museum. This was a job I had over a decade ago. But, it was like, I do not know how to tell people to leave. How to command somebody to do something. But, you find your voice. Try to find the connection between a stranger and you and how you would wanna be talked to.

Amani: Yeah, I can see how that would be intimidating. 

Miguel: Yeah. Tell us about that! 

Todd: The museum was closing, so it’d be the last 10 minutes and then everybody wants to stay till the last minute. “Okay, you guys, seriously, have to leave right now.”. So, yeah. It’s a little nerve wracking at first, then you get used to it. 

Miguel: Yeah, I can be very soft-spoken sometimes. So, I’ve had to learn to speak up and use my outward voice more. Because I can be really quiet. I think I’m being loud, but I’m actually being very quiet. So, learning to speak up that’s helpful. I always feel so bad for people that work in any type of field that have to tell the public, “Hey, you guys need to go now! It’s closing!”.

Todd: Yeah. Get announcer voice. Be interesting, but not overly aggressive.

Amani: Well, Todd, when you were talking about having to kick people out of the museum. It reminded me of an article, I read last week, about a Florida hospital that had filed a lawsuit to evict a patient who refused to leave her room five months after being discharged. She just was like, “no, I live here now.”, and she just refused to leave. I don’t know if you guys saw that. 

Todd: What? No! Five months is a long time. Yeah. 

Miguel: That is a lot! 

Amani: I don’t know if this is the same one. I was gonna say she was charged with trespassing and a judge ordered her to be removed from the premises. But, I’m not certain that’s the same article.

Miguel: Five months! That is a long time, wow! 

Amani: Yeah! 

Miguel: That is so wild! Like why would you wanna stay in the hospital? 

Todd: And get charged like $2,000 a day? 

Amani: I’m not sure what the patient’s situation was. If they were houseless, or maybe it would be the case where like their hospital stay was being covered by insurance, or it wouldn’t be them paying. But, yeah… 

Todd: When I was in the hospital, they let me know what my last day was! They’re like, unless you have $650 in cash every day we’re gonna help relocate you. Which they did. It was a good experience. But, that’s crazy. I can’t even imagine being able to have five months as an option!

Amani: Yeah. They coined a term called “The Hospital Squatter”. 

Todd: You can sit here, there’s tv. I’m gonna hang out for a bit! People know my name… 

Amani: You don’t have to cook your own food! 

Miguel: Right! 

Todd: Yeah. I wish I could sometimes.

Miguel: I can’t believe five months! I had tonsil surgery and they’re like, “no, you’re out the same day, buddy!”. They like had me go through like anesthesia and I came off of the surgery and I remember they were trying to help me off the ER room and I’m just like, “where are we going?”

Todd: Insurance doesn’t want you there either, unless somebody’s advocating their heart out for you. Insurance doesn’t want you there. 

Miguel: Yeah. I was there for maybe 45 minutes and then the gal was like, “how are you feeling?” I was just numbed, like, “I don’t even know…”. Apparently, I was talking about guide dogs. I don’t know why. 

Todd: Under anesthesia. 

Miguel: Yeah. Under anesthesia. Maybe that’s what kept me relaxed, was puppies!

Todd: Instant room change. You count to 10 and then all of a sudden I wake up and I’m somewhere else! 

Miguel: Yeah! It was so weird. I remember, “Oh, I’m not sleepy. How are they gonna- Oh!”. 

Todd: Yeah. All of a sudden it’s three hours later.

Amani: Miguel, is there anything that we missed or that you want us to talk about more?

Miguel: Is there anything you wanna leave the listeners with? Any stories you guys wanna leave them with or any fun anecdotes, or any fun experiences?

Todd: Just get a bunch of broken equipment and do your best to see if you can fix it. See what you can and can’t do and you’ll learn 10 times more than you thought you could when you started it. 

Miguel: Perfect! How about you, Amani? 

Amani: Yeah, I think Todd’s advice is really spot on. You could get broken equipment and try to fix it or just low cost refurbished equipment and use that to try to disassemble and assemble computers or radios even, just different devices. Just test out your troubleshooting skills. I think that is it just really getting hands-on experience is really important. Because, it is one thing to know a lot of information in your mind, but you have to be able to just get started and apply it. You can also use personal IT projects to build a portfolio that you can present to prospective employers if you don’t have formal IT work history, as well.

Miguel: That’s very insightful. 

Amani: Do you guys have a message that you would give to someone who is unsure about entering the tech industry?

Todd: Dive on in. Start making mistakes, if they’re not too expensive. 

Miguel: Don’t be afraid to ask for help and have fun throughout the, journey because it’s definitely one that you can enjoy if you really wanna have that experience. 

Amani: Yeah. And I would say don’t give up too easily. IT is not something that’s even for people who have a knack for mechanical engineering, or understanding connections. it’s not easy. It takes work, takes studying, and it takes you pushing past frustration and sometimes taking a break when you need to and coming back to a problem. So, I would say if you’re committed to entering the tech industry, just go for it and don’t give up.

Miguel: All right then. Well, thanks, listeners, for joining us on another episode of Let’s Talk! All Access. Hope you all have a great day.

Outro & Credits

Asher: Thank you for listening to Let’s Talk!, Portland Community College’s broadcast about disability culture. Find more information and resources concerning this episode and others at pcc.edu/dca. This episode was produced by the Let’s Talk! Podcast Collective as collaborative effort between students, the Accessible Education and Disability Resource Department, and the PCC Multimedia Department. We air new episodes on our home website, our Spotify channel, XRAY, 91.1 FM and 107.1 FM, and KBOO Radio, 90.7 FM.