Gaby A. was in college majoring in Radio, Television, and Film in hopes of launching a career in the film industry, when she began having trouble seeing. “In 2000, I had a gut feeling that something was wrong with my eyes,” she says. “I went to a movie with my church youth group, and while everyone else was walking to their seats, I stopped because it was so dark. That’s when I got the inkling that something was not right.”
A year later, Gaby was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye disease with no cure. But it was at an early stage, and so she forged ahead with her education and career plans.
During college, Gaby had freelanced as a news writer for an independent Spanish-language television station in Los Angeles. She left college to continue working at the station, and by 2006, she was a full-time producer for Telemundo, the international Spanish-language television network.
Gaby oversaw the early morning news show, starting her day at 1 a.m. so she could prepare all the segments for the morning’s show. “My job involved everything,” she says. “I had a team of anchors, reporters, a writer, an associate producer, interns, an editor, and the guests, with the adjacent tech people, audio and graphics people, and the assignment desk. As the producer, you have to guide the ship, and make sure it doesn’t sink.”
As her vision slowly declined, Gaby says she “had to tweak things on her computer,” including changing the contrast so she could better read and view images. She also needed better lighting. “I was trying to survive with a condition that I didn’t understand. I didn’t tell the station that I was diagnosed with this condition, since I was still able to see well enough to perform my job. At some point, I might not have been able to do the job.” But that day never came, since in 2009, during the Great Recession, Gaby was laid off.
Gaby went back to school to complete her bachelor’s degree, and then her mother developed stomach cancer, and Gaby became her care giver. “I realized, I’m losing more sight and I’ll have to take care of my parents,” she recalls. “In 2013, when my mom was a little better, I made the conscious decision of looking into Braille Institute.”
With a referral from her ophthalmologist, Gaby began taking classes, including one about sensory awareness. She also began taking Orientation and Mobility (O&M) lessons. “That was the first time I held a white cane,” she says.
While helpful, the classes and training took an emotional toll, since she now realized fully that she was facing a life of blindness. She took a break from Braille Institute, partly to care for her mom, but returned three years later when her vision worsened. “I needed to give it another chance,” she says. She learned the popular screen reader software called JAWS, took other assistive technology classes, and resumed O&M training, among other classes and trainings. “I decided I’m just going to learn whatever I need. When I first started at Braille Institute, I thought I had lost my independence. Now I feel I lost my independence as I knew it, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t have independence as a blind person.”
Independence also meant regaining employment, and in December 2024, she was hired as an Independent Living Skills Instructor at Dayle McIntosh Center, which provides services for the disabled in Orange County, California. As part of her job, Gaby frequently refers her consumers to Braille Institute and communicates often with our occupational therapists. “Now I see the purpose of the pain I went through—to help people who are in the position that I was once in with knowledge and understanding,” she says. “I tell my consumers that even though they may not visualize it, where they are is not the end of the road. The road has just changed direction, and in that new direction is where Braille Institute is.”
