By Alexa Huth: For Complete Post, Click Here…

In the span of 6 hours, I went from a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University without a physical disability to someone who was rapidly losing eyesight. I suppose my retinas didn’t crumble in that time span; that’s just when I found out what was happening. After a year filled with surgeries, I went back to complete my degree with far less vision than when I started. I pushed myself through that last semester and secured a job as a technical editor when I graduated. The big question was, how would I even work?

Trial & (Many) Error(s)

Over the next 12 years, I have used trial and error to keep working. It’s been a struggle, and I’m sure there are easier paths to take. Trust me — doing a web search of “I’m going blind” is disheartening. Seeking solutions to stay employed when you already feel defeated is asking too much. Well, it was for me, at least.

Eventually, I stumbled onto a system that’s a rough combination of word processing software, text-to-speech, and a grammar app because easily seeing commas is a thing of the past for me. So, while the way I work has changed, the output has not. That’s thanks in large part to accessible technology and employers who understand that there isn’t just one way to get things done.