Inspirational Stories

Dick Barbuto When a person suffers from a disability/impairment/issue (or whatever the correct term is these days) there is a tendency to feel that all must somehow accommodate you. After all, you’re the one with the disability, right? Wrong. Having a disability means that you must also take the time and extend the effort to […]

This article is a compilation of things that have happened to me while eating in restaurants. You would think that might be a review of some of the things regarding accessibility that are governed by federal and state law. Nothing could be further away.  I would like to address in a humorous way some of […]

There are some fun things about vision loss or impairment that you should know about. Here are ten fun things by Dick Barbuto 1. Everyone looks great. Women are beautiful and men are handsome. Wailing children are not great unless you are also deaf. 2. You can barge into a room and become the immediate […]

When I was growing up I occasionally saw people using a long white cane.  I am not sure how I came to know that the person was blind but somehow I did.  I also thought that anyone who used one on these canes was totally blind.  I now use a long white cane and I […]

I am a 63 year old criminal defense lawyer who has low vision due to diabetic retinopathy.  I have no vision in my left eye and on a good day the vision in my right eye is 20/400. Approximately seven years ago I awoke and I could not see out of my left eye.  Incredibly, […]

This week at work I received a call from an 87 year old man who wanted to get a second opinion on treatment for his advanced dry age related macular degeneration (AMD). He stated that he had been seeing a macular degeneration specialist who had told him that there was nothing more that he could […]

I am 59 years old and I developed Stargardt’s disease when I was 11 years old (even though they didn’t know what it was back then), and by the time I was 16, I was legally blind (20/200).  I worked for the National Park

Claude Monet (1840-1926):

Marla Runyan is an American woman who has made a name for herself as a successful professional distance runner in a variety of national track events, the Paralympics, marathons, and the Olympics. At the age of nine, Marla was diagnosed with Stargardts disease, a juvenile form of macular degeneration. She became legally blind and now […]

A teenager preparing to enter university life for the first time. A 26-year-old who composes music on computers and would like his own radio show. A cancer survivor. A military veteran. Grandparents. A mother of three. A builder of custom motorcycles. A Crow Tribe member skilled in signing, story telling and sharing her heritage. A […]