Hello Everyone,

Welcome to The Invisible Vision Project.

My name is Xin (Carol) Sun. I am a young adult, and a university student, who happens to be Visually Impaired.

I live with multiple vision conditions throughout my life; but my vision started to deteriorate in the recent years due to a condition called myopic Degeneration (I was diagnosed in the summer of 2015). I have high myopia almost all my life, and I started wearing glasses since I was 5. As a result, I also have other eye conditions which include: astigmatism, strabismus(‘crossed-eyes’), amblyopia (‘lazy-eye’), nystagmus(involuntary eye movement) and with the combination of all of these listed, I am also night blinded, I cannot see anything at night or in the dark.

Due to the deterioration of my vision, I am classified as having Low Vision. Therefore I use a number of visual aids in my everyday living and schooling. I have a magnifier, and a monocular-scope for reading and distance viewing. I use a screen-reader software called Zoomtext and also a CCTV when using my laptop. In addition, I am also a White Cane user, because the cane will guide me to wherever I need to be safely and efficiently, especially at night when my vision is at its poorest. Currently, I am learning Braille, because Braille is another useful skill and tool for the Blind and the Visually Impaired like myself.

What motivated me to start this project mainly have two reasons: 1) I desperately need a solution to overcome the fear, anxiety and anger that I have of being visually impaired (believe me, the feeling is emotional, and it’s real). and 2) I wish to share my story with all of you, and hopefully to inspire and help others who are also struggling with vision loss. More importantly, I wish to challenge the social stigma and prejudice on people with disabilities (like being visually impaired) and to emphasize on the idea that disability should never be a barrier in achieving happiness in life. Happiness is not something that can be seen through sight, but it is definitely something can be felt in the heart.

By: The Invisible Vision Project