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My name is Barrington Brown
and I'm fourty-four years old.
My vision loss came through
being a diabetic for about
thirty-five years.
When the doctor first told me
about losing my vision I was,
I 'spose I took it very stoically.
I tried to be proactive as possible
as towards how I can lessen the
effects to my daily living.
I like to think I'm a person
that can do anything with
or without my loss of vision.
I was very proactive in
finding the CNIB.
I called them myself and asked
about what kind of tools
they could offer me to help
incorporate my vision loss into my
daily life and still continue to have
a quality life that I would feel comfortable in.
One of the first people I, I met,
was Michael Ventura and he is
a Home Specialist and also was an
Environment Specialist here
with the CNIB.
And he was great. He was the
first one to suggest for me to
take up Braille as a way of continuing
my, my love of reading.
I now have to use my fingers
as my new eyes.
And by learning to read the Braille
on a page and read word for word,
even the periods, the commas,
the shortened terms,
those were very difficult.
But, as more as I practiced,
it became easier for me
to read Braille on paper.
I had a turning moment when I
decided to go out by myself
for the first time.
And what I did is that I chose
to go downtown by myself.
That means leaving my home,
taking the TTC , the public TTC,
and walking amongst everyday
Torontonians in the middle of downtown.
And the sounds, the smells,
even the people talking, really hit me at first.
I listened for beeps, horns,
how close I was to people,
to their voices.
My life right now I
would say is very involved.
I still like watching movies.
I watch movies,
I still go to the cinema.
Granted, I can't see what is going on
but I find that now,
I'm very in tuned with
the story line.
What I'd say to a person
who feels that, that
either partial or complete vision loss
would deter their life,
I would say that it doesn't
have to be deterred.
It, as long as you remain focused
about what you're doing,
you can have a very fulfilling life
and even career.
Resources like the CNIB,
can and do assist people make sure
that vision loss does not have to be
an end of their career
or enjoyment of life.
I see myself getting involved
here at the CNIB more.
Maybe one day I would like to be
even a Braille teacher myself.