Aaron’s Opinion

Michelle Steiner lives with an invisible disability. From the start, many people have told her she could not go to college, get her bachelor’s degree, get published, or have the job she wanted. She has been able to do all of that and more. Michelle graduated from Slippery Rock University with a bachelor’s degree in Community Programming.  She has articles published on The Mighty, Non-Verbal Learning Project, Dyscalculia Blog, The
the World as One Magazine, and Word Gathering. Her photographs were featured in Word Gathering Independent and Work Ready.  She works as a paraeducator in a school with students with disabilities. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two cats.  You can find her at her blog,g Michelle’s Mission www.michellesmission.com
Link to blog
www.michellesmission.com


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Dear listener,

Today we are joined by, Katherine Amadeo. Katherine is the founder of, Learning Blindness. She has had a fascinating life so far. We hope you enjoy today’s episode. Thank you. Help one person today help 1 million people tomorrow!

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Sam Atwood was born in 1976 with Glaucoma and had his first of 49 surgeries at 8 weeks old. Sam has been some degrree of blind all his life from high partial, to very low-vision, and is totally blind as of January 2025. Sam became totally blind when he made a decison to have both eyes removed despite some remaining light perception.
Sam has had a variety of jobs; beginning with his participation in a work experience program provided by Washington states division of blind services that put him behind the counter selling firearms. Sam’s most recent job was working as a case manager on an assertive community treatment team supporting clients with psychotic disorders.
Theatre, outdoor activites, pocket-knife collecting, reading, and most recently stand-up comedy have served to keep Sam entertained and mostly out of trouble.
At 49 and a self-described luddite, Sam is fnally working on developng a social media presence and youtube channel to promote his comedy and performance activities and share his experience as a blind person.

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My name is Clinton Aiken, I am 41 years old from Miami Florida. I have been blind now 13 years due to diabetic retinopathy, and God has humbled me, a little bit about me. I do work for FedEx Ground as a package handler come, I’ll call myself, Mr. blind boss because everything I have been through the past 13 years I have bossed up about it while being blind, I have had a kidney and pancreas transplant on February 7. It will be 11 years. I went totally blind in 2013, I am big on family. I love to have fun, help people, write short stories, enjoy life, live life, and just try to be the best version of myself I can be. I live my life by a model I have 99 problems being blind. It’s not one, that is my model because if I worried about me being blind, I would not be able to handle every other problem that I deal with along with me being blind. In this journey of my past 13 years, I have defeated diabetes, high blood pressure, dialysis, kidney failure, and I am in a boxing ring with blindness, being blind it may look hard, but if you put your mind to it, it’s actually easy, I prefer to be blind rather than inside it because I learned every day. I have to use my brain 24 hours a day to do everything that I want to do and I love it, it strengthens my brain. It makes me a smarter person. It’s called muscle memory. But for the most part, I am just looking to let my story be told so one day my story can’t actually inspire someone to do better about their health, if I could touch anyone with my story or about my story, I would love to touch the rapper Lil Boosie because he is a diabetic and he has a voice with that being said I would not want him to go through what I have been through and I would just like to tell him stay healthy, keep doing what you doing and you motivate more people than you think you, your music and everything you do motivates me to keep going on, but my biggest motivation to keep going on and never give up is my family. I wouldn’t know what to do without them. 

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Michelle Benczkowski is the Head Researcher and content creator at eleVIVO, a low-cost online platform helping people with low vision thrive through small, actionable steps. eleVIVO connects individuals to local resources, vision professionals, and open clinical research trials while sharing practical tips for navigating life with vision loss. With a background outside traditional healthcare, Michelle brings decades of experience as a teacher, mentor, and program manager in the equestrian world, along with a deeply personal approach to advocacy and storytelling. She is the author of Practically Impractical, a book honoring her first mentor, legendary horsewoman Barbara Johnson, and the many young women she influenced. Michelle also co-founded the Classless Act Army, a 100-member grassroots group promoting the band Classless Act, and now produces eleVIVO’s YouTube series Thriving with Vision Loss, highlighting people and companies redefining what’s possible after vision loss. When she’s not creating content or tracking down resources, Michelle enjoys sailing with her husband Michael and their lab rescue dog Rosie aboard their sailboat, Laurel.
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