- When I did experience substantial sight loss, it definitely impacted my personal and professional relationships.

I had to come to an emotional and psychological acceptance to embrace my blindness and learn to live with new technology, with adaptive skills, and also go on an open journey with my family and friends.

It definitely, just like any hardship, it filters out who's your true loved ones and who aren't.

I did lose some friends.

I did lose some respect from some family members just because they saw me as less once the sight loss was substantial, and even when regaining my independence and embracing my blindness and living my life fully again, I tell people I went darker psychologically than I did, will ever do physically.

So even when learning those new tools and techniques and technologies, it was integral to my recovery really that I have peer support through other blind peers, such as people like James, who's been in my life since 2013, learning how to live life as a blind person takes accepting blindness.

- [Narrator] A Slice of the Community is made possible by the support of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.