I am a person living with blindness but it does not define me. I am also a wife, mother, sister, friend, author and professional. I am a human being and, like all humans, I want to know how it feels to proceed through my life with dignity and meaning. I want to matter.

So often, as folks like me progress through daily tasks, we encounter barriers. Every time I log into the network to record my productivity, assistive technology bridges the accessibility barrier. When I cross the street the audible signals help me do so more safely. When I harness my dog to lead me to and from work, I know I am doing it because of others who, in the past, have blazed a path for it to happen.

Web accessibility has improved but it is also still, at times, an impassible wall of impossible heights. Service dog access is another mountain at times, as is the bureaucracy of installing audible signals in much needed locations.

Onward I climb. While I climb, I know there others like me who take on the difficult journey, too. We do make a difference. When one of us is ready to give up, we give her a boost, tell him to keep going, lend a courageous voice so those at the top of the cliff can hear our cry and make the changes.

I am waxing poetic here, folks, but this is what we do. While, many times, it feels like I am alone in my struggle, I am not. I don’t know if this is the intangible effects of faith or fate or the influence of the Big Man Upstairs, but whatever it is, when I overcome a personal barrier, it fuels the possibility for more good results and outcomes for others.