Caleb C Thomas

Graduated the Audio Description Institute - Part of American Council for the Blind's Audio Description Project 

This was an incredible experience that really rooted and supplemented my understanding of Audio Description as a service and career path. Working with like-minded people on group projects and learning from each other's experiences and approaches was invaluable. 

Worked for Aira Tech Corp (Visual Interpreter for the Blind)

I cannot adequately express the ways in which I was changed by this time in my life. I developed a passion for visual description which continues to this day. I learned to think on my feet, to problem solve in out-of-the-box ways, and furthered my ability to deliver information in a clear, succinct, personalized manner. I also further learned the beautiful power that is created when people with, and without, disabilities work together. When we are able to mesh our strengths and weaknesses with those of others, we all get supported. We all can grow.

Worked for Gramling's Feed Store (Customer Service Specialist)

On the surface I was "just" tending the garden area, hauling bags of feed, and weighing up bags of seed. In reality, I was learning from vivid examples of community. Everybody's got to eat, and at Gramling's was had the ingredients to cultivate you own food, for over a 100 years it was a place where the community would come together regardless of station. I saw inter-racial, inter-gender, inter-economic, and inter-generational co-mingling every single day. It's a beautiful thing to have been exposed to. Additionally, I was responsible for most of the lettering/design on signage and packaging - which made sure my creative itch remained scratched. 

Began writing and performing stand-up comedy

When I first took the stage I felt like I found a pressure relief valve for my brain. It was as if some part of me had been filling up with steam my whole life and finally it had somewhere to go. I decided that day it was something I was going to do for the rest of my life. No matter what. Since then, I've been able to perform in 24 cities across 8 states and growing, I've been able to connect and laugh with thousands of people, and I've learned to believe in myself, my dreams, and my capacity to better myself. Additionally It has honed my skills with timing, tone, inflection, and increased my understanding of what I am capable of with my voice. In August of 2017 I did my first volunteer benefit show. It was at a homeless shelter, and it opened my eyes to the fact comedy could truly mean something to people and could be a way of benefiting the communities around me. Since then, I've performed in jails, halfway houses, nursing homes, and anywhere I can help bring marginalized and differently abled people together. I am committed to creating spaces where people with differences of all kinds can come together to benefit from each other while we laugh.

Worked for Rotary Youth Camps (Camp Counselor)

Rotary camp was the place I decided I definitely would be an advocate and a friend to the disabled community for the rest of my life. Over the Summer I was exposed to, and enriched by, people of every size, race, gender, and with every mobility and cognitive ability. I saw the beauty of coming together, allowing our differences to be the puzzle pieces that connect us, not the barriers that isolate us.