How would you practice criminal law if it was difficult to see physical evidence or the witness you were cross examining? That was among the questions facing Christine Martin when she contacted Braille Institute in 2024.
A respected criminal defense attorney in Orange County, California, Christine, 34, has handled many cases—her case load ranging from driving while intoxicated to murder. Just when her career was taking off, she started losing peripheral vision. “Once I started bumping into stuff, I knew it was time to figure out what was going on,” Christine says.
Doctors at University of California, Irvine diagnosed her condition as retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a genetic disease. They said that she could eventually lose all her vision, though no one could predict when. “A friend recommended that I take advantage of Braille Institute’s services, and I got in right away,” she says.
Christine had overcome difficult teenage years in New Jersey, eventually deciding to change the direction of her life. She was accepted to Fairleigh Dickenson University, where she majored in law and liberal arts, founding the mock trial team. She was interested in becoming a lawyer, she says, so she could “be a voice for people who did not have one before.” She received her law degree from Whittier Law School in California, passed the bar, and immediately launched her practice. Having fended for herself most of her life, dealing with a visual impairment meant depending on a team from Braille Institute.
She has taken many classes at Braille Institute to help her maintain her independence, including cooking, how to apply makeup, and white cane training. Technology experts provided in-depth training on her laptop and phone, and helped her identify the devices she needed to remain an effective lawyer. She now brings a Victor Reader audio player into jails so she can take notes when meeting with clients. In court, she uses a CloverBook Pro, which is essentially a closed-circuit television camera with a monitor that enables her to zoom in on the officers of the court or on witnesses. “Braille Institute helped me acquire those through the California Department of Rehabilitation and then trained me on them.”
Still, there are roadblocks. “Any assistive technology that I provide myself, the court will allow,” Christine says. “But if I ask the court to provide something, they will deny it,” such as electronic filing of records. “They make me file in person and in print, because if they made an exception, they’d be giving me something extra that other defense attorneys wouldn’t get.”
A Braille Institute instructor is currently teaching braille to Christine, so she can prepare for the future. “When I’m stressed, there are times in court when I can’t see and need to read my notes. Braille really helps when I need to read something. My goal is to be able to type in braille when I’m in court.”
While new skills help Christine perform her job with a visual impairment, they don’t control how others perceive her abilities. When clients noticed her using a white cane, it raised questions. “People want to know if I can read documents,” she says. “We know that blind people can read at any stage. I tell them, ‘I use technology for that.’ That’s all they ask.”
As her vision deteriorates, Christine knows that she will be using more Braille Institute services. “There’s a lot more I need to learn, and Braille Institute has been so great to me. Most of the time, we don’t know what we need, but Braille Institute knows. Sometimes it’s just basic stuff that’s easy to miss. I didn’t know I had to change the light bulbs in my house to help with glare. That’s just one of many examples. Life would be much harder without the services Braille Institute has given me.”
