Opening the Door to New Possibilities
Posted In Categories: Living with Vision Loss
“It’s incredible how small my world was,” Chris Lechner says about the way he felt when he lost his vision due to diabetic retinopathy in his early thirties. In early 2022, guitar lessons at Vision Forward helped to open up that world. At those lessons Chris was invited to consider more training at Vision Forward. He thought, “I’m taking to this. Maybe I can do more,” and says, “It was a nice, happy snowball effect after that.”
Before he lost his sight, Chris loved working with technology and building computers. After losing his vision he says he “could barely use a cell phone.” Then he met Luke Scriven, Vision Forward’s Assistive Technology Specialist, and “took to it like a fish takes to water.” Chris learned how to use JAWS, software that turns computer text into speech output. With training on phone technology, Chris is now back to helping set up phones
and computers for others. With Luke he also learned to use a Pearl OCR (optical character recognition) camera to read his own mail.
In August of 2023 Chris reentered the work world. He is now part of a team that assembles items for the military at ibvi, a Milwaukee-area non-profit that creates and grows employment opportunities for people who are blind or visually impaired. ibvi has become more than a workplace for Chris. He and a group of co-workers formed a band in March of this year playing a variety of musical styles, including classic rock covers. By the end of March, the group was preparing to play for the April ibvi work banquet.
During his training at Vision Forward, Chris worked with Rose Visser, an Occupational Therapist whose specialized training helps clients with an array of daily living skills. He received training on the PenFriend Voice Labeling System, which he uses to label his musical equipment and important documents. He also learned many cooking adaptations and says one of his favorite dishes to cook now is eggplant parmesan.
When asked about his experiences learning to adapt to the loss of vision and being willing to connect with Vision Forward, Chris said, “There’s always hesitation. It’s incredible how small my world was, and my world opened up after that.” “I’m just having so much fun with life now. Not only have I gained skills, but confidence, honestly.”