Jeff Townsend of Creswell, Oregon, has always been interested in technology. For many years, he loved playing online games. He taught himself programming as a hobby. And in the past, Jeff has had jobs that involved teaching and testing software as well as writing technical documentation.
Now Jeff’s exploring job opportunities that involve using artificial intelligence and other technologies to help people who—like him—are blind.
Jeff lost his vision suddenly, in 2023, as the result of a complicated illness. After a mild case of Covid, Jeff developed pain in his eyes that lasted for several weeks. It took a while for his doctors to recognize he was having a stroke, and when the treatment proved complicated, Jeff had to be put into a medically induced coma.
Six weeks later, Jeff awoke to find that his optic nerves had died, and he had no vision or light perception at all. He initially thought, “I’m now an anchor around my wife’s neck,” he says, and he had no idea what he could accomplish without eyesight. “But I got over that pretty quick,” he recalls.
After being in bed and unconscious for so long, Jeff also had severe muscle atrophy—and even standing up was an achievement. “Every tiny little hurdle was big for me,” he says. “And then everything was simply accomplishment, accomplishment, accomplishment.”
The good news, Jeff says, was that this mindset made it easier for him to accept his new reality and move forward. He’s since learned that many people want to hide their vision loss, or don’t want to start using a white cane. “But I didn’t need convincing,” he says. “I started using it because I really needed it.”
After Jeff built up his strength and other skills in the hospital, a specialist from the Oregon Commission for the Blind visited him once he got home. They also put him in touch with an organization that offered a free iPad to help him stay connected, and they recommended Hadley as a place to learn how to use it.
Now Jeff has not only learned how to use VoiceOver for his iPad, he’s also listened to several episodes of Hadley’s “Insights and Sound Bites” and “Hadley Presents: A Conversation with the Experts.” Jeff says the podcasts have helped him feel like part of a community with others who face many of the same challenges in life, and they’ve helped him realize he's not alone in the world, “Even though I’m the only blind person I know.”
Jeff especially enjoys the episodes that talk about bloopers and mistakes people have made. “It's very entertaining to me,” he says, “and it’s also very welcoming to see that everyone has their own issues.” He loves the ultimate lesson that he takes from those stories: “Don’t be embarrassed about it, just work through it.”
Over the months, Jeff has taken dozens of workshops, including Web Browsing, Zoom, Adjusting to Vision Loss, Games, Guide Dogs, and many more.
He’s now working his way through Braille for Everyday Use as well as the Producing Braille series—and he’s enjoying learning to read and write at the same time. “You can learn braille in the book,” Jeff says, “but writing it really cements every character in your head.” He also appreciates the braille label maker and the slate and stylus he received for passing milestones in those programs, and he likes using them to mark items around the house and to create flash cards that help him improve.
Jeff is an avid learner who not only spends hours studying—he also takes time to leave comments after almost every workshop. For these valuable ratings and feedback, Jeff has received a Hadley Heroes award—along with our appreciation.
Congratulations, Jeff, on your remarkable journey, your studies, and your impressive goals—and many thanks for the ideas and feedback you share.