From Blindness to a Promising Future

Robert Parsons is an inspiration to blind and low vision communities. Parsons has earned two master's degrees from Western Michigan University. He has come a long way since 2014 when a traumatic brain injury left Parsons living with blindness.

"You really can't imagine something until you have no choice but to face it. I think the reason I was able to adapt the way I did and push through some of the darker thoughts I could have had was because I was still riding on the high that I actually survived the attack," he says. "That's what carried me for a long time. So, when that euphoria fell away, I was already accomplishing so much that I didn't really have a reason to feel down about it."

Thanks to several surgeries and a spirit of determination, Parsons did not let vision loss hold him back in life. He learned how to read Braille and enrolled in community college.

"I started at the associate degree level … and just worked my way up degree after degree. Now I'm here," says Parsons, who will receive master's degrees in rehabilitation counseling and vision rehabilitation therapy from Western on Saturday, June 26.

SDCB can help you or a loved one with vision rehabilitation programs and services. Please contact us to learn more.

“Grad student who lost sight has vision of transforming rehabilitation for blindness and visual impairments”