My Journey to Become a Certified Salesforce Administrator with a Vision Impairment

If you are blind or have low vision you may think that you have limited choices when it comes to a career. I want to share that this is not true and that with the right access you can be successful in a wide variety of careers.

In this post I want to share my journey to become a certified Salesforce Administrator with a vision impairment. First a disclaimer, I passed the certification exam and I am currently a certified Salesforce Administrator however I decided due to personal reasons that a career as a Salesforce Administrator or anything above that was not the best fit for me. I still believe it is important to share my journey because I hope it will encourage people who are blind or are facing vision loss to consider a career in technology and in the Salesforce ecosystem because it is very accessible.

A little about me

I am visually impaired. I want to share my vision impairment because it plays an important part in this journey. I am completely blind in my right eye. I have some limited vision in my left eye. I use a very high lens prescription so my glasses are very thick. I am not able to efficiently use screen magnification so I fully rely on a screen reader to access information on a computer. 

I graduated from college in 2011 with a degree in Political Science. I wanted to be a paralegal as I was interested in immigration law at one point. I also thought of being a journalist. I was not able to find employment in these areas and after some time I decided to go a different direction.

 I found that the biggest barrier to employment for me was that the software companies used were not accessible for me as a screen reader user. I remember I went to interview for a position at a law office, but the typing test was not accessible.

As the years went by, I realized that I needed to make a change because I really believed I was able to work if I could find a company that had accessible software. I did not know where to begin looking but I knew I could not give up.

Introduction to Salesforce

I first heard of Salesforce about five years ago, but I did not really look into it because I guess I thought it would be like every other company with inaccessible software. Around that time, I was listening to the Blind Abilities podcast and the episode featured the Blind Institute of Technology and a Salesforce training program that was available. This caught my attention, but I thought it was not right for me, so I put it to the side. 

In 2022 I began to gain an interest in computer programming. I found Free Code Camp and was able to learn basic HTML, some CSS and Python. I will be going back to learning Python and JavaScript when I have some free time. This new interest in programming and finding how accessible it was gave me a new and hopeful view on things.

I am not sure how I got back to Salesforce again but I did and I began to really look into it. I found out about Trailhead and decided to sign up for an account at the end of October in 2023. I think the first thing I noticed was that it was accessible for me and I was able to complete the tasks. I looked into the Salesforce Administrator role and found it to be interesting so I did the Beginner Admin Trail. 

I also want to point out that Trailhead actually includes instructions for those using a screen reader. I am thankful that Salesforce provides this free resource to help others learn to use the platform and that they actually care about accessibility. I came to quickly love the platform and I gained hope that I could actually do the job of a Salesforce Administrator or at least work for a company that uses Salesforce even if I just worked on the front end in customer service or something.

Joining the Blind Institute of Technology

When I really became interested in the Salesforce Administrator role I began to see if I could find any Salesforce Administrators who were visually impaired so I could learn from their experiences. I found an article that featured the Blind Institute of Technology and this caught my attention. I enrolled in the BIT Academy Salesforce Administrator course in January 2024. This course is provided remotely and is open to anyone with a disability.

A Salesforce mentor

I joined the Salesforce Workforce Navigators program for people with disabilities. This program provides helpful workshops and resources for job seekers with disabilities. The program also provides mentorship opportunities and matches job seekers with Salesforce employees. I learned a lot from my mentor and I am thankful for this program.

Obtaining my Salesforce Associate certification

I took the Salesforce Associate certification exam in April 2024 and passed it.

I was able to take the exam remotely from home with a live proctor on video. The exams are completely accessible with a screen reader.

Obtaining my Salesforce Administrator certification

I obtained my Salesforce Administrator certification in July of 2024. Some resources I would recommend for extra review are Get Force Certified and Focus on Force. These sites are very accessible for screen readers.

Some extra thoughts

I think it is important that I share that a Salesforce Administrator does a lot more than configure settings or add users. The role has really expanded during the past few years. Now an Administrator needs excellent business analysis skills and needs to have a good grasp of AI and Flow and adapt to an ever changing platform. It is a very complex role to fill.

If you think this a good fit I would recommend this career path. I hope that my experience is helpful to you if you are considering a career in tech as a blind or visually impaired person.

This post was adapted from a series of articles I wrote on my LinkedIn page, you can read more here.