Returning to civilian life can be challenging for many service-disabled veterans. They face numerous obstacles, from health issues to finding employment.
Military veteran Matt Dempsey appreciates the flexibility of working from his home. He currently leads a team of 508 specialists for Pearl Interactive Network’s Technical Accessibility Services (TAS) department. His team is responsible for making electronic documents and videos accessible to people with disabilities. He began working for Pearl nearly three years ago, and was promoted to Team Lead after only a year with the company. But his journey to success was not an easy road.
Dempsey is a Marine who was honorably discharged from the service, due to a knee injury. Over the years he held a number of jobs involving manual labor. The prolonged physical demands of the jobs resulted in further injury to not only his knee, but his back and neck as well.
“I could not work eight straight hours non-stop without breaking it up into segments to rest,” Dempsey explained.
The physical challenges of the various jobs where Dempsey worked over the years took a toll on both his personal and professional life. His past injuries contributed to his disability, and he eventually hit a low point. Suffering through a tremendous amount of pain, Dempsey, with the help of his friends, family, and pastor, worked through rehab at the V.A. to manage it.
Realizing he could no longer perform physical labor, he made a decision to enroll in college. Dempsey ultimately earned his B.S. degree in computer science in May, 2013. He finally found his “home” with Pearl in September of that year.
“Working for Pearl has been satisfying and rewarding,” he explained. “Not only does it allow me to be productive, but what we do – enabling services for those who are vision- and hearing-impaired – also allows them to become productive. We’re helping others as well as ourselves.”