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Meet John
John Debose was born and raised in Cleveland, and isn’t someone who is content with sitting around. He gets bored easy, so he likes to fill his days with activities.
An avid golfer, he noticed something off with his vision when he was missing easy putts and wasn’t able to read the green.
After getting his eyes checked, John was diagnosed with glaucoma. He now describes his current vision as “blurry.”
His sister is the reason John came to Cleveland Sight Center. She attended a presentation at her senior facility where one of our outreach specialists talked about CSC programs and showed various products from our store. She recommended her brother connect with CSC.
Since walking through CSC’s doors, John had an exam in our clinic, orientation and mobility training, vision rehabilitation training (including making his home more accessible and cell phone training) and recreation services. By taking advantage of these services, he’s grown more self-confident.
Through this newfound independence, John has started attending our weekly piano classes. He loves learning a new hobby and even bought a keyboard to practice at home! John may have been a music lover beforehand, but he didn’t consider himself a musical person so he is even surprising himself!
Not only is John learning new skills, he is meeting new people and building friendships along the way.
“You're going to increase your community at Cleveland Sight Center. It is a great way to learn and get to meet people at the same time,” John said.
John also participates in the weekly yoga class and said that being involved with recreation has allowed him to relax, learn and be social.
“It gives you the ability to go do something you enjoy and relax,” John said. “You get the learning experience. And most of the time, you get to meet somebody in that class. That's beneficial, and then you can relate. And spiritually you can grow because we are all growing and going through the same things together, like a support group.”
John would like other people to know that just because vision changes, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy life. Activities are still enjoyable because there are modifications for most things.
“Which is just life, you know, life changes as with time, so no matter how your vision is, you're going to go through some changes anyway,” said John. “I’ve learned to use other aspects of my senses, like hearing, that I didn’t rely on before. But you know, if those senses are available to you, you might as well use them!”
