It’s September, y’all! And you know what that means….
Happy CVI Awareness Month! This month is a great opportunity to raise awareness for this growing public health crisis. If you’re on social media, feel free to share this image. Let’s spread the word!
This was originally published on the Everyday CVI Facebook page, but I’ve decided to give it a permanent home here on the blog as well. May it serve to encourage you on your CVI journey and/or help raise awareness about everyday life with CVI.
“But she seems to be doing great.”
“What? She doesn’t look like she has special needs.”
“She doesn’t look blind.”
“Why would she ever need a cane?”
“I don’t understand; can she see? It looks like she does.”
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These are things family, friends, and strangers have said about my daughter that has Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI). It’s beyond frustrating for me to listen to other people comment on things they know nothing about – but that’s the thing: THEY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT.
We don’t owe the world explanations, but when I can shed some light on my daughter’s CVI in a constructive way it makes the world around us just a little bit more enlightened, more aware, and potentially even more inclusive. So while the focus of EverydayCVI.com is to share helpful tips and strategies that provide my daughter the visual access to improve her functional vision, today I’m sharing something a little different. It’s a glimpse into our world – not of our visual adaptations, but of what CVI sometimes looks like for our family.
Do you know Parent CVI Advocate Jessica Marquardt? If not, you should! In 2018 she launched Kaleidoscope: The Cortical Visual Impairment Podcast, where she discusses the growing public health crisis within the world of vision impairments (spoiler alert: it’s CVI!), sharing stories of neuroplasticity and visual perception.
Jessica launched this much-needed podcast the same month my daughter, Rosalie, was diagnosed with CVI – so listening to Kaleidoscope has been an integral part of my journey as a CVI parent. I have eagerly devoured each new episode, taking heart that I am not alone and gaining insight, tips, and inspiration from others directly impacted by CVI. When Jessica asked if I would sit for an interview I felt honored and, of course, said yes!
I created Everyday CVI to share the ways our family embeds CVI strategies into our everyday life, so most of what I write will focus on tangible items and how we have used them specifically. However, I have found my free time tied up lately as I have been taking care of some other “everyday CVI” work that all CVI parents need to address on an ongoing basis. I’ve been in the trenches of CVI advocacy.
It recently dawned on me that the practical ways in which I have been advocating for my daughter to receive appropriate vision services is very much a part of our “everyday” with CVI…so why not write some of it down to share with others? As always, I cannot promise that anything I share here will be relevant or helpful to any reader’s specific situation, but at the very least I hope that sharing our story’s recent progress will serve to inspire other parents to NEVER STOP SEEKING THE APPROPRIATE RESOURCES AND/OR ACCOMMODATIONS YOUR CHILD WITH CORTICAL VISUAL IMPAIRMENT NEEDS.
Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? I’ll do my best to summarize our CVI advocacy journey thus far with a few practical suggestions thrown in the mix.
Everyday CVI 