TRANSCRIPT
TSBVI Tech Tea Time: Stories of Vision Loss Podcast
5/1/25

>>Charlotte: So I'm going to talk about the Stories of Vision Loss podcast. And first, I'm going to start with my story. So I'm Charlotte Simpson. I have a master's in conflict resolution and negotiation. I'm certified as an orientation and mobility specialist. That's my primary job. And I'm also certified as a low vision therapist. And so today I want to talk about my story The power of storytelling Stories of vision loss podcast and in the end your story and how all this applies to you and hopefully some takeaways that you'll take with you So my story, I was raised by a British father and a Texan mother. I have two brothers. I came to the University of Texas at Austin and did my undergraduate in sociology, philosophy, and French. And toward the end of that degree, I thought, what on earth am I going to do with all of these generic generic degrees. At the same time, I was working at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I didn't think of TSBBI as a career. I thought of it as just a job. I worked on the weekends. I worked evenings. And it was just, you know, to give you an idea, it was before the iPhone. So I answered an ad in the newspaper And got just a job to pay for my tuition. And toward the end of my undergraduate, I asked the question. You know, what am I going to do? What am I naturally good at that other people might not be naturally good at. And so when I have people ask me like. How can I focus my studies? I have them ask themselves that question. What are you naturally good at that other people, it comes easy to you, but maybe not easy to other people. And the feedback I kept getting throughout my life and at TSBVI was that I'm patient and I'm able to meet people where they are. And so I decided to go to graduate school and get my master's in conflict resolution. And so I moved to Austria. I went to the European Peace University. It was a mini UN program. And so it was 60 people from around the world. And I was lucky to be representing the US. So I met a lot of really interesting people all from different countries, all collaborating. To learn about conflict resolution and negotiation strategies. And then what am I going to do with that? I was going to go save the world. But then my dad died and I had to face some really difficult decisions, difficult questions for myself, some family stuff. And I got turned around and I thought, when was I last happy? How can I apply all of this I've got all these degrees now and I don't know when was I last happy so I reset. I came back to TSBBI. And moved in with my best friend as my roommate back in Austin. And I just started over. I thought, you know, let's just get back to feeling good. And so that's when I found orientation and mobility It was perfect. It was conflict resolution Internal conflict that people have conflict with families, all kinds of, you know, I got to be outside. I got to be moving around and help individuals get over a hurdle that they had a hard time with. In their lives. And so I got my certification in O&M. I didn't really like working with kids. I wanted to work with adults. And so I did my internship at the VA in Waco, so mostly with elderly veterans. And so I had seven years of experience with kids I worked with some adults and then I got a job at the Chris Cole Rehab Center in Austin working with blind adults. I worked there for nine years. I loved it. And then in 2019, I took a job out in the field. So now I travel all around Central Texas. I go out to people's houses. I work with people one-on-one wherever they are. So at home, in their workplace, with their families. And so I cover 30 counties and I'm on the road all the time. And now I have 21 years of state service. So time flies and here we are. What I've noticed in all of my time meeting blind people, visually impaired people, kids, adults. Especially in this current job that I've had for the last six years, going out to people's houses. A lot of the clients that I work with feel isolated. And so I'm going to move into the power of storytelling because storytelling helps with a lot of the feelings of isolation. And so When I would go to someone's house or these days when I go out to someone's house. I often get the question, have you ever met anyone with my eye condition? Um you know they if someone's first going through their journey of vision loss they they don't really know what to expect. They don't know what's out there. They're not connected to resources yet And they just wonder, like, have you ever met anyone Where I am because this just feels so, I feel so alone And I always say, yes, yeah, I wish I could introduce you to them and So part of my role whether intentionally or not is to connect people with Consumer groups, you know, the NFB, the ACB, support groups, local groups. I try to keep a pulse on everything that's out there in the local communities and offer information about that. Training centers like TSBBI and like the Chris Cole Rehab Center here in Texas and others around in other states that are helpful. I offer those sorts of resources and maybe those are helpful for someone, but maybe they can't travel out. Maybe it's not what they're looking for. And so sometimes with consumer groups, you get a political or social advocacy piece that is great, but maybe not what someone is wanting to do right now. Tips, tricks, hacks, those sorts of things are wonderful and there's a lot of stuff out there. But sometimes people just want to feel seen and heard And sometimes people need to take it slow. Maybe they're just starting out. So shout out to my introverts, my fellow introverts. You know, sometimes people don't want to go out to a support group or go to a big training center. They're just not, either it doesn't fit them or they're not ready for it, whatever the reason. And so I found that a lot of remote connection can be really helpful. And so I started thinking about podcasts and thinking about I'm a bit of a podcast junkie myself as I travel around in my car, I consume them like junk food. And so You know, remote connection is convenient. Sometimes it's the only thing available to people out there in rural Texas. Sometimes the local groups, there aren't very many local groups. It's low pressure. You can press play and press stop if you want to. It can feel safe because it can be controlled in that way. And this is what people do. This is what people are doing these days. Tiktok, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn. This is not a comprehensive list. Part of this presentation, I wanted to put together a handout of all of the resources out there, all the podcasts, all the YouTube channels. And there are just so many you know is going to ask people to put in the chat resources that they know. But again, there are just so many of these wonderful Resources. That you can just put it in the search engine and find what you're looking for. So I don't think that we really need to create an exhaustive handout. But, you know, even going out into rural Texas and teaching orientation and mobility Sometimes people say, oh, yeah, I've been trying to learn how to use the long white cane on YouTube. I've been looking for techniques on YouTube. And some O&M specialists would probably cringe at the thought, but I think great. That just shows that they're so eager to learn. And so finally, when I come out there in person, we can apply some of the things that they've been learning. You know, if someone is eager to get the information, they're going to get it. It's out there. Tiktok is a great uh resource these days. People are watching it all the time. And so with these stories and with all of these resources, I think these online remote connections offer representation Not only like have you ever met anyone with my eye condition, but also I was interviewing a guy for the podcast and he plays blind hockey, blind ice hockey And when he was telling me the story, his voice cracked because he was like, I can still play. You know, he was just so The idea that he could still be represented out there and still play was really touching for him. Stories offer empathy. While she had a hard time accepting the white cane too, you hear stories of other people having a difficult time with what you're going through and it just gives you that empathetic connection to give yourself some empathy for maybe you're thinking some harsh thoughts and you can just say you know what This is something a lot of people have a hard time with. It's okay. And then um and then Again, representation and empathy, being blind in a South Asian culture can be complicated, but he gets it. You know, that was another example. That I found through these stories is sometimes the cultural piece or the the family that you grew up in you know can you impact you as a blind person. And so if you hear someone else who has had a similar experience It's just nice to say, okay, they get it. It's not just me. It's not me. It's just the situation, the culture. The shame, the guilt, the feelings that we all have. One of my clients the other day said, I feel like I'm tied to society's definition of my success. And I thought that that was just so beautifully stated. And she was really concerned about this. And I think that storytelling It models success defined by self. And so she and I talked about that, the idea that you may feel like your success is defined by society's view of blindness. But you can define your own success and hearing other people's stories just models that success defined by self. Another thing I hear is you'll be cured one day. And I had another client say, I hate that. My family keeps saying, oh, don't worry, you'll be cured one day. And there's this idea that, you know, I want to put my life on hold until the cure comes. And that's just so, so frustrating. Stories can help someone internally process shame, any shame that they've put on themselves, shame that's put on them by other people. By society you know it goes all the way to the top Stories can help someone not feel so alone in that isolation. Hearing other people's stories generates options for you, things you may not have thought about. It illuminates other alternate paths. And it offers encouragement. It just offers encouragement Just a different outlook sometimes. Something that came across my feed that I had to add to this presentation was I was listening to a podcast called Betrayal and they had a bonus episode that was titled The Science of Storytelling for Trauma Recovery. And I thought that's just so perfect because Even though a lot of people blindness is not necessarily trauma. You know it's still I think a lot of the things that Dr. Kate Truitt in this podcast episode was talking about She's an applied neuroscientist and clinical psychologist. And when she was talking about trauma recovery and the science of storytelling related to it, I could just see a lot of applications in the blindness world and the blindness sphere, as one of my friends likes to call it, the blind sphere So what makes something traumatic? Dr. Kate Truitt says. That any threat, either real or perceived. So even if it's a perceived threat to your belonging, your lovability, your ability to make your own choices, your ability to have agency, even those perceived threats can have a traumatic response in your body. And can live in your body. And so trauma can feel like I'm a bad person. I make bad things happen. I'm not deserving of love. And the more these stories exist in our neurobiology, the stronger they become. And so I think storytelling helps dispel some of these internal struggles that we might have. Another thing that Dr. Truett said was journaling is a way of telling our own story. Sharing our story can be incredibly healing and it can also be very vulnerable. So when you share your story, a lot of people have fears rejection or even further isolation through rejection so I don't take this storytelling lightly in my podcast. I know it can be a very vulnerable thing to share your story. And so I try to keep my interview style as Open and accepting and loving as possible. And so let's talk about the Stories of Vision Loss podcast. So I am the host and the executive producer, and I also have a co-producer and creative director, MJ Jefferson. Nj lives in California, so we collaborate remotely. And MJ is also an orientation and mobility specialist. And there is an episode, a bonus episode on the Stories of Vision Loss podcast where I interview MJ so you can hear our relationship and more about MJ and MJ's love for animals and things like that. So MJ also works at a guide dog school. On our website, we have about the show and we define it as stories of vision loss asks the question, how does vision loss fit into your story? Our goal is to capture and curate a collection of voices to ask the question, can you relate? And so, like I said, when I interview the guests on this podcast. I have no agenda. My interview formula is to first paint a picture of the guest. So I ask about hobbies, interests, career, family, whatever they want to share about who they are in the world. And then they know at some point in the interview, I'll ask, how does vision loss fit into your story? And some people mention it in the very beginning and we talk a lot about it. Some people thread it through. Some people, it's kind of an afterthought. And so it just depends. Everybody's different and vision loss fits into their story in different ways. And so some people who I've interviewed who were born blind and have always been blind have said like, well, I don't have vision loss. And so that's another way that it fits into their story is that that even the term vision doesn't

[Charlotte Simpson] 15:17:41
Apply and so um That's an interesting piece of the podcast. I want to highlight that I did not interview my clients through the Texas Workforce Commission and so there's no question of exploitation or anything like that. It's a hard line for me that I do not interview my clients. Which is good because it opens it up to international clients or international guests. And people around the world who want to share their story. And there's plenty of people out there so I don't need to interview my my clients or my students. Our goal on the podcast is to tell stories. And so we don't want to reinvent the wheel to share tips and tricks and to teach. There are so many resources out there. That have those things, the tips and the tricks and the strategies and techniques and teaching So our goal is just to tell the stories And then the last thing is that guests can share their tips and tricks, their resources, their creations. I love to highlight guests books and their podcasts and their career goals. But I also reserve the right to edit. So I love if people want to share their books. I love to promote people's work. But I also want to this podcast to be primarily stories, people's stories about their lives. And so here I'm going to go through, this is screenshots from our website. And so if you go to storiesofvisionloss.com, you can find this list of guests. And there are links to each of their episodes. So if you have any questions too about any of these guests, I can answer directly any questions you have. I'm not going to go through all of them because I have about 45 of them right now. But I do want to highlight a few that I think are interesting and have some good, I have some quotes from them too Um so The first five, Lance, Jessica, Bobby, Doris, and Jermaine. So you'll see on the screen there are three columns. The first column is the name of the guest. The middle column is some information about them, just general, either their career or some information that's relevant. And then the last column is their eye condition. I made a decision not to include the eye condition in the title of any of the episodes because I really I didn't want the person to be defined by their eye condition. And so The place you'll find that information. Is on this list of guests on the website. And so you know, it's nice to know the eye condition. If you have a student or a client who wants to hear a story of someone else who has Say LHON, Labor's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. It's kind of nice to know which of the guests have that eye condition so you can direct them in that way. But I made the conscious decision not to add it to the title of their episode. And so the first one I want to highlight is Lance. The first episode, Lance Varnell. Was a photographer and a hiker before he lost his vision in his late thirties, early 40s due to LHON, labor's hereditary optic neuropathy. And it came on very suddenly. He went from reading a book to not really being able to see much at all in about six months. So it was kind of a rare thing with LHON for that to happen. But that was his story. And prior to losing his vision, he took photographs of all of the counties in Texas, 254 of them. So he wrote a book A photographer's journey through the Texas counties And after he lost his vision, he… he published this book. And he has a beautiful mural of Texas of all of his work. And he's been published in the Texas Parks and Wildlife. And so his story is amazing. Just not only being a photographer and a hiker before losing his vision, but also having to go through all of that and where he is now on the other side He really values environmental impact and so he's Getting his education to do something in that direction. And I wanted to read a quote from his episode. He said, when I got the news, I mean, it was a pretty sudden thing. I mean, he tells me the doctor says. This is what I think you have. There's no cure. You're basically going to be with the bedside manner of a warthog, you know, this guy, you're going to be blind. So I was angry i had clipboard in my hand and I threw it down on the ground. And I think I kind of startled some of the people in there. So I was angry because a lot of this stuff flashed instantly in my mind, a hundred questions about the rest of my life, like in two seconds. And then I asked him, well, what are some of those questions? And he said, what is the rest of my life going to be like? How do I live blind? Will I ever work again? While i ever um what was I going to do? How was I going to live you know everything So that's a quote from his episode. And then we go on to talk about What did he do? How did he continue beyond that moment uh and He has a really compelling story. The next person is Jessica, Jessica Glazbrook. She is, and we disclosed this in the podcast, she's a friend of mine. We hike and camp together. And she has in this picture her guide dog nigel And in her episode, we were just kind of sitting together and chatting And she talks about her yoga. She's a yoga instructor. She also works at the Chris Cole Rehab Center. She's the outreach and marketing director there right now. And she talked about her interest in yoga and teaching yoga And she said. I think if there's one lesson to learn about yoga, it would be that caring for yourself is not what you think it is. It's not commercialized. It's certainly not the crazy fitness programs where you need to have shame. You know, it's the removal of the shame that allows you to begin to see that you're worth taking care of in the first place.

[Charlotte Simpson] 15:24:31
And so I asked her about her vision loss and how it fits into her story and how much she thought that blindness contributed to that shame. And, you know, I felt comfortable asking her that because she's a friend. And she goes on to say that she was born with LCA, so labor's congenital amaurosis, which is kind of like a juvenile RP. So she didn't experience the loss piece of the vision loss. And she said that She was able to do her core curriculum just like everybody else, which was a beautiful thing. She said she had an amazing team of TVIs. She had a team that put academics first, and she said her education was such a beautiful thing. But then she said, what ends up happening, though, is that you to yourself, she said, this isn't something that was done to me. This was done to myself by myself. When you put such an emphasis on your normality and your mainstreamedness and your, I look so normal in the public sphere. You stopped being able to take advantage of the education that's being offered to you non-visually. So she said. That so much of her teachers were right and what they were teaching her, she wished that she had paid better attention And that She was just petrified that a cane would make her look a certain way. And she said. You know, being in elementary school, I couldn't realize that you already look that way, but you don't have self-awareness at that age. And so I think Jessica's story is so wonderful as someone who's gone through the school system. As a kid and here she is saying, you know, hey, listen to the TVIs in your life because what they're saying is, you know, soak it up. And she's also beautifully well-spoken and a very well-read person so She's fun to listen to. But I'm biased. The next one I want to highlight is Doris Wynn Pollock. She is lovely. She's in her 80s and she has macular degeneration. And she still travels internationally and she loves art. She's a retired musician And she wrote a book called Living Life Fully with Macular DeGeneration. So she is very encouraging and I often recommend her episode to people who I encounter with macular degeneration because she has a really common and encouraging story. Okay, the next five. Juergen is in Germany. Laura Joe Julio is from Puerto Rico and he travels internationally as a professional drummer Jenny, I think out of these five, I wanted to highlight Laura. Because Laura was working in Hollywood on a visual effects team. She did the movie Life of Pi, if you remember that movie. She was working on the visual effects of that movie As she got her diagnosis for Stargardt's, which is a juvenile macular degeneration So she was an adult before she realized that she had Stargardt's. And she won an oscar. With her team of visual effects for this movie, Life of Pi, while she got this diagnosis. And she goes, see, blind people can do anything. So her story is also fascinating. The next five are three, Chelsea, Karen, Negroni. Casey and Dania, I think I wanted to highlight a couple of these Yeah, Arthuri Quandar, she, you're not supposed to have favorites, but I think she might be one of my favorite people in the world. She is an amazing Poised, beautiful woman. She's in her late 80s and she grew up in Harlem in the 40s And when I met her, I thought that she had macular degeneration or an age-related vision condition. But as I was interviewing her, she revealed that she actually has had this eye condition since she was young. I think she was born with it. And when she was eight or nine years old. In Harlem in the 40s had to go to something called a site conservation class. And it was just fascinating hearing her talk about carrying her huge large print books on the subways to and from school as An eight, nine, 10 year old little girl in harlem. Then in the 60s, she moved to South Carolina and she was a nurse. And so she was a black nurse and she married a black man who's a doctor. And they were right in the middle of all the racial upheaval in South Carolina in the 60s. And then she moved to Texas and her story is just absolutely fascinating. So she's one of my favorites. Karen Negroni is also wonderful. He is in Australia. And he is deaf and blind. He has a hearing loss and a visual impairment. It's similar to Usher's, but he told me that genetically it's not Usher's. And he talks about when he met his husband, and I have a quote here from his episode. He says, I think that, oh, I asked him about disclosing his blindness as he was dating Because it was a really hard thing for him. And he says, I think the awkwardness just went away. What happened in that moment was suddenly I went from awkward to hiding something about myself, which was so important. So all the cards were on the table. What I expected was rejection and I got the exact opposite. I was so blown away that this man was so kind that, you know, most gay guys would have said, you're wasting my time. I was just here for fun. I don't want to hook up with someone who has a disability. But I didn't get that from David. He was the exact opposite. It was like, I felt like we just connected over that and it still blows my mind that I went in with the mindset that I can't talk about my disability and I've got to hide it. I've got to hide it because in the past it happened where the second someone finds out that I have a disability, they detach themselves or disappear. So I was a little jaded. Then what happened, I was just like, wow, he's such a nice man. And so connecting with other people, being able to disclose your blindness and feel confident in doing so and knowing that the people who you want in your life with the relationship are the people who will stick around who are not going to detach themselves as soon as they find out this thing is just a part of who you are. The next five, Ken Sigal, he is in Kazakhstan and he talks about being an athlete John, Sarah, David, and Maribel. Maribel is also in Australia and she's lovely. She talks about her garden and she's an artist. I wanted to highlight, though, out of those people, John Samuel. He wrote a book he has rp He wrote a book called Don't Ask the Blind Guy for Directions, a 30,000 mile journey of love, confidence. And a sense of, I can't see, and a sense of belonging. There we go. And so John is, he has such a great story. He has traveled to Africa by himself to set up a cell phone tower business, multi-million dollar business. As a blind guy as a blind guy starting from scratch there on the ground. He is a South Asian man, so he talks about the cultural difference He moved to India for a time thinking that that might be better for him with transportation options. And then he moved back to the States. He talks about his education and dating. Now he has a couple of kids And another thing that he talked about in his episode was learning how to use a screen reader and how As he went from using large print into transitioning into a screen reader. He realized he needed to listen faster. And so he challenged himself to learn how to listen faster. And I thought that was a really good tip that he gave on his episode. In his story. The next five, John, Carrie, Dan, Deanna, and Brad. Brad is an O&M specialist if you're interested in learning his story as a blind O&M specialist. And then I think I wanted to highlight Dan. Yeah, Dan Bigley's story, Beyond the Bear. He wrote a book. He wrote a book called Beyond the Bear. And whoops. Sorry, I'm trying to read my screen. How I learned to live and love again after being blinded by a bear. So his story is in Alaska he met a woman, went on a date the next morning. You didn't want to leave her said. Okay, well, I told my friends I'd go fishing with them, so I don't want to leave you, but I got to go. And he left and went salmon fishing and was mauled by a bear. And so she just thought he didn't call her back. You know, she was wondering what happened too. I thought we had such a nice time. And then, uh. They eventually reconnected and she learned what happened. And so he was in the hospital and recovering for a long time, having reconstructive surgeries. And… Through years of time therapy and talking, they decided to in the end, get married. They have a couple kids and His story is beautiful. He's now a CEO of a nonprofit helping Indigenous kids in Alaska. And he still goes out fishing, salmon fishing out in Alaska. So he is a very, he really highlights community and connection in his healing journey. After being blinded by a bear. The next five, Natasha jane Kirk, Ann, David S. And Sheila. Kirk is a very good mentor. If you listen to his episode, he's very well spoken. In the blindness world. But I wanted to highlight Natasha Jean. She wrote a book called The Blind Eye and she talks a lot about domestic violence. She was born with high myopia, but her blindness really came with domestic violence when she had a retinal detachment due to the violence that she experienced and so She does a lot of advocacy for women who are experiencing domestic violence. And she also talks about prosthetic eyes because she was really not feeling good about herself until she found uh until she got her prosthetic eye and then she felt better about her appearance because she's into fashion and looking good. And so her story is a really A good story to listen to if you want to talk about domestic violence. She has some really encouraging words to share. She says, you were not born with that person. I like the way she put that. So the next five, Jerry, Josh, Hobie, Sam, and Bonnie. Josh has the Dented Puck Foundation, the Dented Puck podcast. He plays blind ice hoc And he is very passionate about it. And he talks about regaining his confidence through sports. And we talk a lot about different sports, but primarily hockey. And he encourages anybody who's interested to join a local chapter of any sport, but also to join blind hockey because he's trying to get the teams, get more players on the teams. He also talks about how blind hockey works and he goes through Each of the things that are adapted and how just how blind hockey works in general, if you're curious. Dr. Hobie Wedler is also fascinating. He's another of my favorites because he's just so multifaceted. He hosts a podcast for the National Industries for the Blind, where he talks to other blind people who about their jobs. So the Herd and Empowered podcast So if you have any students who are curious about what other blind people are doing out there as their career. That's a great podcast. And Dr. Hobie Whittler is just a really fun, well-spoken person. He has his PhD in chemistry. And his primary job, other, you know, the podcast is not even his primary thing He travels around. Working with distilleries, wineries, and other businesses to do some wine tastings and pairings and He explains chemically how how taste and smell works with why different pairings work with your smell and taste On the chemical level. So he's also a good guy to know if you want to learn about wine. The Blind Life and Sam Sevey. I'm sure you guys know about him. I actually got him to be on my podcast because I saw him standing in the lobby at a conference and he was standing alone. I kind of fangirled and took the opportunity to go and accost him and shove my business card in his hand and say, please, will you do an interview with me? And he was so gracious and he did. And so you can learn more about Sam Sevey His life, not just about his channel, which I encourage a lot of my clients to go and And watch his YouTube channel, The Blind Life. But you can learn more about him and his story on the stories of vision loss. The next five, Michael, Sarah, Prabhat, and Ashley David Tatel. Michael Hingson, you probably have heard his story. He's famous for being on the 78th floor of the Twin Towers. On 911. So he escaped the towers before they fell And he wrote a book called Thunderdog. I think he's written several books. But Thunderdog is a true story of a blind man, his guide dog, and the triumph of trust at Ground Zero. And in the Stories of Vision Loss podcast, he shares his story. So he's more than just that tragic moment that he is famous for. He talks about growing up using ham radios with his dad And he has a whole Vibrant life of why was he in the Twin Towers before, you know, at that moment He has a really interesting story. He was also featured on the This Is Love podcast. With Phoebe Judge, if you've ever heard her, she's the best podcast host, I think. And the This Is Love podcast, episode 20.

[Charlotte Simpson] 15:40:37
Interviews Michael Hingston as well. So I would encourage you to listen to that. As well. Prabhat Vikarimanayika, if I can pronounce that correctly. He is from Sri Lanka. He has RP and he is also beautifully well spoken and very encouraging. He grew up in Sri Lanka, went to school in New Zealand. Now he lives in Australia, but he's about six months in Australia, six months in Sri Lanka. And when we were set to interview, we had to postpone our first interview because his wife had a baby that day. So he didn't show. And I was wondering, hmm, I bet. I bet his wife went into labor, so I got to talk to him about being a new dad and his his experience traveling the world. And again, he's just very encouraging as a guy with RP. David S. Tatle, Judge David S. Tatle. He was Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement when she moved up to the Supreme Court. Judge Tatle took her spot in the federal court system. And he wrote a book called Vision, a memoir of blindness and Justice. I would recommend anyone who has RP to read his book. He's just he talks about his adjustment to blindness through time in the 80s where technology was not what it is today. And wanting to sit in a place of high respect and high power while also Not sure how much to disclose. He did have to use a cane eventually And it got to the point where he couldn't he couldn't fake it any longer. And so he talks about that process And that transition throughout his life. Again, as with a guy with rp So I would recommend his book to anybody and his episode. Because he's also fun to talk to. And lastly, the last four, Brianna, Wayne, Jean, and Kasai. I'm going to highlight gene. Jean Malgrum, she is a psychotherapist and a journalist and When she initially reached out to me to offer her story. She said, well, I don't know if I really qualify because I'm a monocular. So she can still see out of one eye, but one eye, she had a tragic accident when she was two years old. And she talks from a psychotherapist perspective about her own story and the arc of her own living through some of her mother's guilt of this tragic accident that happened. And processing all of it through time in some of these facing positions like she's as a journalist and as a psychotherapist, she's had to be face to face with with people that she's working with And going through that healing process of Feeling ugly or, you know, she didn't have a prosthetic eye until she was nine, I think. So from the age of two to nine A lot of that trauma really was baked into her belly and now she talks about how she processed it all. And she's just a beautiful Beautiful woman. We have some good conversation on that episode. And then Kasahi Hussain He was, he's from Iraq and he was playing volleyball in a stadium with a lot of people, including two of his brothers. When a suicide bomber came in and killed a lot of people and sent a lot to the hospital. He was taken to the morgue and when his father came up came to pick up his father They realized he was still alive and so he was still alive He was rushed to rushed to some care, medical care and surgeries, and he was introduced to the Doctors Without Borders Now he is on the board of directors of the Doctors Without Borders. He's about to complete his PhD. He says, God willing. And he also wrote a book called Can You Open My Eyes? So he's just a very good example of someone who just picked up where he needed to and positively moved through the world. He was the last episode that we released. And the next one is Steve Baskis. His episode will be released in next week, next Friday the 9th. And he was kind of, you know, similar to Kasai. He was in Iraq, but he was there as a US military when a bomb exploded and he was then taken to the hospital And had to move forward from there. So he is uh A sailor and a biathlete. He does skiing and shooting and he didn't do any of that stuff before he lost his vision so His story is really interesting too so hopefully you'll Stay tuned for him. So yeah, all of these people are so fascinating You can find the podcast on any major platform. We have a website and then stories ofvisionloss at gmail.com is where you can reach us. Mj and me. So please feel free to reach out if you have any questions at all about any of the guests. Or… or about the podcast in general. Or if you have anyone who would be interested in sharing their story, feel free to share that email with them. Finally, your story. What are some takeaways from today How can I help my student or client with their story How can you help your student or client explain their story you know have the power of telling their own story and how to explain it. To other people. Could journaling be a way to encourage self-reflection and ownership over their story? That could be a way that you could integrate storytelling and ownership. And then how can these stories shared today help someone with a connection? You know, is there anyone that I highlighted today or anyone you see on that list on the website that you might find connection with or recommend to someone else out there. And that is it. That is the end of my presentation. If we have questions. I'd love to see the chat.

>>Donna: Thank you so much, Charlotte. We're going to give some folks some time to get some questions over into the Q&A or into the chat. But thank you so much for sharing. And I think it's so important that our folks, kids, teens or what Or what have you, what age has access to stories from people that are like them and and their successes, obstacles, opportunities that they may not have thought possible As well as mentoring type opportunities. Because, you know, we seem to pigeonhole a lot of times students into careers either lovingly or by accident. And so having them see stories and listen to stories that could be like them and explore those other things I think is wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing that with us today.

>>Charlotte: No problem. I also, I was thinking about how the vision loss piece and how if you're an adult and adventitiously blind then. You think about adjustment to blindness as an adult, but how does this apply to kids who are congenitally blind? But there's an adjustment to their blindness that they go through vis-a-vis society and vis-a-vis all the other the expectations around blindness, not around them, but just around blindness in general. That may or may not be talked about a lot.