Born and raised in Philadelphia, Jayne Surrena went to school for painting then went on to get a master’s degree in art education. She has been painting and teaching and showing her art for decades now.
In the early pandemic years, Jayne started noticing changes in her vision. She was ultimately diagnosed with retinal dystrophy, a condition that had been impacting her vision in more subtle ways for years and had progressed. “I honestly thought everyone saw the same way I did my entire life.”
The news from the retina specialist was not what she wanted to hear. “There’s nothing we can do about this.” She also felt disregarded by that first retina specialist. “I felt so in the dark about everything and just very isolated. I went online to look up the terms they were using,” Jayne recalls.
Being the resourceful person that she is, Jayne kept looking for help. She contacted a local library for the blind and through them learned of another retina group at the University of Pennsylvania and Salus Eye Institute, a comprehensive vision center offering low vision and vision rehabilitation services.
With this new team in place, Jayne finally feels supported. “It took over a year, but I now feel understood. At Salus, issues I felt silly or self-conscious bringing up are just part of a normal conversation. For instance, I have extreme light sensitivity, so I put dark lenses over my glasses. At first, I was using what I called ‘Terminator’ glasses. And the folks at Salus said ‘we know you don’t want to be walking around with that.’” Together, they came up with a solution.
“I feel like Salus is Hadley in a big building. I go to my retina specialist for eye health. But Hadley and Salus…it’s the day to day; the human side.”
Jayne’s vision had gotten to a point where enlarging the font on a computer screen just wasn’t working well enough for her. “I had to leave my job because I can no longer relate to the computer screen.”
She’s now learning how to use the text-to-speech feature. “It was kind of hard for me to accept, to be honest,” Jayne explains. “I have to kind of get used to it. The slate kind of got wiped clean very quickly.”
At Hadley, Jayne has picked up tips on living with low vision. From taking notes to cooking to finding dropped items, she feels that Hadley really understands what has become more difficult due to her vision. She also appreciates the way Hadley information is delivered, in short videos that use simple graphics.
“What you have is perfect for me. It’s simple. It's clear and concise and has simple drawings, which, as an artist, I love.”
Another benefit Jayne finds at Hadley is that we send out workshops in large print, too. Jayne’s mom has macular degeneration, so Jayne shares the printed material with her. “We are both just so grateful.”