At the age of around 18 months, my parents rushed me to the doctor after I fell down a flight of 30 steps. I was diagnosed as being blind as the result of a rapidly growing brain tumor. I had surgery and the tumor was successfully removed—I would live, but I didn’t escape unscathed. Besides being blind, I had no sense of smell, and no endocrine system, which meant that I had no thyroid, no adrenal function and the list goes on. It could have been much worse. It was…
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While sitting with a good friend one day enjoying her company, she asked me about my phone and to how much I was able to use it. She wondered if she were to send me a web link to something, would my phone read it to me. At the time of our talk, I just responded with a simple explanation that my phone reads any text on the screen, and that I can navigate all of my phone’s apps, settings and features. It was a rather short conversation and we…
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I vividly remember the incessant hammering of the MRI machine, the seven vials of blood drawn on two separate occasions, the car rides to and from the appointments, preliminary testing by an ophthalmologist that seemed right out of a sci-fi novel, and my parents leaving the pediatrician’s office in tears after hearing the initial findings and dire possibilities of disease. We weren’t prepared for the psychological sh*tstorm that would ensue after the diagnosis of optic nerve hypoplasia was delivered at the age of 9. I began to really suffer psychologically…
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Trigger warning: this post contains mentions of drug/alcohol use, suicide and self-harm My name is Ashley. I’m 21 years old and I became blind at the age of 17 from a drug overdose. On November 1, 2016, I attempted suicide and was officially dead for 17 minutes. Ever since then, I’ve been learning how to be a blind person and cope with the reality of what I did to myself. As the years have gone on, I have started to understand and accept myself. I have begun to realize…
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My name is Gabriella Mendonca and I am a digital content creator. A singer. A college student majoring in communications in digital media. A daughter. This is my story – because my disability does not define who I am. I was born with vision, but lost my sight at the age of 18 months due to a tumor on my optic nerve. Losing my vision has never stopped me from achieving my goals and chasing after my dreams. I have always attended mainstream schools instead of the schools created for…
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Hi my name is Clarke. I’m blind, and I’m also a visual artist. Art is my life – from an early age, all I ever wanted to be was an artist. My mum used to say that I could draw before I could walk. For me, it was escapism because, from the age of 4, I started to lose sight in my right eye. I was going to the hospital every week, getting patches and drops in my good eye in an effort to help, but it never did. I…
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I’m Giorgio and my family and I run a pizzeria here in Toronto called Frank’s Pizza House. I’m married with six kids – and there’s never a dull moment, I can promise you that. My goal has always been to make pizzas and share my passion for pizza-making until I can retire. Now, in addition to that, I’m looking forward to many new adventures because I’m losing my vision to advanced glaucoma. It’s sounds bad, but it’s not – I was diagnosed with glaucoma in my late teens. Now, at…
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I’m Nikki Watson, a blind horse rider and general horse enthusiast – I’m 53 and I live in Devon in the UK with my husband Hal, my guide dog Quincey, and our three horses Florence, Peregrine and Mr. Mayo. I was born with a recessive form of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), therefore I have never had good eyesight, and have been totally blind for a long time now. This has caused me a few problems with my equestrian aspirations. But while some people might think you can be blind or you…
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During a recent Zoom meeting with our team, a colleague joked that her biggest concern in the current crisis was that she was having a hard time getting wine delivered. While we all laughed at her comical cry for help, the underlying message was a wake up call for me. That colleague, like many of our colleagues here at Perkins, is blind. If anyone should have been clued into what she, and others in our community, may be needing help with during this crisis, it should have been me. Yet…
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“Pow!” This is the sound heard when my aluminum baseball bat strikes an oversized softball that beeps. I quickly drop the bat and run toward first base as fast as my legs can carry me. I slide into the buzzing base a split-second before the fielder can get me out. “Yes!” I exclaim, knowing I’ve just scored a run for my team. This might sound like an ordinary softball game with some odd beeps and buzzes involved. It’s anything but that. The above description is an example of myself playing…
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