This story was written by a staff member of The Independent, Clark College’s campus newspaper, as part of a collaboration with The Columbian called Voices From Clark College. It is also being published by The Independent at clarkcollegeindependent.com.
High school senior Jake Ergler works at a coffee shop and dreams of becoming a chef of his own restaurant someday.
He’s also a visually impaired student at the Washington State School for the Blind.
Ergler job-shadowed at the College Burger food cart on the Clark College campus on Jan. 16 to help fulfill his graduation requirements and to experience a real job.
College Burger Manager Liz Batchelor showed Ergler how the business is run. Ergler practiced taking orders and using an older cash register. The register in his coffee shop uses Wi-Fi and an iPad, Ergler said.
Ergler works three nights a week at The Lion’s Den coffee shop at the school for the blind as part of the “Go Out and Live Successfully” class that each senior must complete.
“Currently we’re working on job-shadowing,” Ergler said. “We’re going out and practicing interviews, interviewing skills, how to look for jobs.”
With the right tools — such as talking thermometers and scales — blind people can easily cook, said Heidi Batchelor, co-owner of College Burger and Chewy’s Really Big Burritos.
Tactile tools, stickers and a “certain amount of bumps and textures” help with cooking, said Ergler. Braille stickers can be used to label measuring cups, jars and containers. “Every student has their own ways of distinguishing what they’re using,” he said.
“It’s amazing the amount of sight you can have with your fingers,” Liz Batchelor said.
In The Lion’s Den coffee shop, Ergler and the other workers use pingpong balls to measure the amount of liquid in a cup. “You put the pingpong ball in and you pour the liquid into the cup, and when the pingpong ball rises to the top, it’s full. That way, you’re not sticking your fingers into the liquid,” Ergler said.
Teaching a blind person how to cook means having to explain the surroundings in detail, such as telling him, “two steps to your left is a trash can and a freezer,” Liz Batchelor said. “I’m so used to it that I don’t even think about it.”
Liz Batchelor grew up around two blind aunts. The aunts lived together for 45 years, raising a family that included adopted and foster children. “Everybody looked well-fed, so they must have figured it out,” she said with a smile.
Heidi Batchelor’s 11-year-old daughter, Sofia, is also a student at the Washington State School for the Blind. Her extracurricular activities include speech club, guitar and singing lessons, track and swim meets, said her mother. This year, Sofia will try downhill and cross-country skiing with her school. Blind people “can learn and do anything,” she said.
In addition to Sofia, Heidi and her husband, Donny, have two sons, ages 15 and 17, who also work in the food carts.
“As a family business we want to have blind/visually impaired employees in our food carts,” she said.
