October is Disability Employment Month. Designated by the U.S. Department of Labor, Disability Employment Month is an annual celebration of the contributions of working people with disabilities across the country. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Value and Talent.”
Bernadette Gillick is a neuroscientist and researcher at UW-Madison specializing in brain stimulation on infants who have suffered a stroke. In November 2025, she was involved in a car accident that resulted in the loss of much of her vision in her right eye. This caused a major change in her job duties; her vision loss meant she no longer had the visual precision to safely work with infants. “My job responsibilities changed significantly,” Bernadette says. “I needed to shift to more of a training and oversight role with my trainees and staff instead of doing the primary research.”
Bernadette says her boss pushed her to visit the university’s disability services offices, which in turn pointed her to the Council to receive vision services. “One of the first things the disability advisors told me was ‘It’s okay to need help,’” Bernadette says. “I hadn’t realized that I did. I thought I could just push on and get through everything. But my vision isn’t coming back, and they connected me to the Council to learn the skills necessary to use some of the accommodations I needed.”
As Bernadette learned, appropriate accommodations are critical for people with disabilities to succeed in the workplace. Bernadette began working with Access Technology Specialist Jim Denham to learn how to best use her computer without straining her eyes. “I learned a lot of the keyboard shortcuts to use both the keyboard and voice-to-text, so I could reduce how long I had to look at the computer screen,” Bernadette says. She also worked with the disability office at the university to change the lighting in her office to reduce eye strain even more.
It is important that people with disabilities advocate for their own needs in the workplace. Bernadette returned to work only a few days after her accident, even as her eyes were still swollen shut. Realizing that she could not perform her job in her current state, and under the guidance of her boss and the university’s disabilities office, she advocated for and was granted a medical leave. “I took that time to repair my body and prepare what workplace accommodations I needed,” Bernadette says. “Once I came back, I advocated to be able to take breaks throughout the day to rest my eyes.”
Today, Bernadette says she’s doing much better in her work than before she used her accommodations. “I’m still a little slow sometimes, but much faster than I was before!” Bernadette says. “After decades working in the professional world, I’m now much more conscientious about my time efficiency. I only have so much energy to work with my eyes open, so I have to be intentional about what I’m doing and what I need to get done. Visiting the Council was one of the most pivotal meetings I’ve had since my vision changed. It wasn’t easy to go in and say ‘I need help.’ Everyone was so understanding and encouraged me to continue to play an active role in my own life as I move forward with my vision loss.”
According to Vision Serve Alliance’s Big Data Report on working-age adults, less than 30% of Wisconsin adults 18 to 64 who are blind or low vision are employed for wages, compared to 65.6% of working age adults without vision loss. Over 72% earn less than $35,000 a year. Working-age adults who are blind or low vision and do not have jobs are more likely to experience a variety of negative health outcomes, with higher rates of diabetes, depression, heart disease, cancer and other conditions.
Disability Employment Month is an opportunity to remind ourselves and our entire society that people with vision loss, like Bernadette, can succeed on the job and continue to make valuable contributions in their fields when they have the right accommodations and are able to advocate for their own workplace needs.