PARAMOUNT, Calif. — At just 21 years old, Connie Cardona was diagnosed with a condition that will eventually leave her blind. Now, at 24 years old, she’s learning how to become a massage therapist despite her vision.

“I’ve always given myself that, ‘maybe I shouldn’t get into that because I can’t.’ But with massage therapy, I feel like I have more of a connection and ability to do it. Like, I’m able to do it and it makes me inspired to do it,” Cardona said.

Cardona is taking part in a nine-month massage therapy course for the blind at the Health care Career College in Paramount. Through the program, Cardona will learn about the bodies muscular, ligament and other systems and learning how to massage without her vision. After the course, she will have the opportunity to take part in a one-year apprenticeship through the Ready, Willing and Able program.

The program was created by the California Department of Rehabilitation in partnership with the Institute For Workplace Skills & Innovation America to help people with disabilities get trained and hired throughout the health care field.  

“What I’m really excited about is enjoying what I do and relieving someone’s stress,” she said.

During the month of December, there was a 40% gap between those employed with disabilities compared to those who did not, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Ready, Willing and Able program became available in May last year, claiming to have more than 100 participants trained and ready to be hired in the health care field. They just need employers to hire them.

Amita Garg is the campus director at the Health care Career College. She said more employers should look past disabilities when hiring.

“Massage therapy is an excellent career for those with visual impairments because the success on the job is not related to how well you can see. It depends on your sense of touch, your interaction with a patient, how intuitive you are and those are all qualities someone with visual impairments has no barriers to developing,” Garg said.

The college also offers courses for participants to become a medical biller and medical coder, among other positions across the health care field. In the meantime, Cardona might have found her path forward.

“It makes me think that there’s still opportunities out there for me,” she said. “I wasn’t giving up, but it makes me think of other things I could be doing, like opening my own practice.”