people
change agent
Jack Tyrrell is a young man who is not afraid to speak up for what he needs , writes Maria Whitmore from the Continence Foundation of Australia .
In November 2011 , twenty-yearold Jack Tyrrell was completing the second year of his commerce degree at Swinburne University when the unthinkable happened . One day the central vision in his left eye had gone . Two weeks later the same thing happened in his right eye .
His vision loss , the result of a rare genetic disorder , Leber ’ s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy ( LHON ), came swiftly and unexpectedly . LHON , which is estimated to affect between one in 25,000 to 50,000 people , is passed down through the mother , and generally occurs in males . The blindness is due to the degeneration of the optic nerve . There is no cure .
Legally blind , Jack had to re-think his future . He could no longer drive or continue his sporty lifestyle . He could no longer recognise faces , read books or use any of his devices .
Further compounding these losses , the sense of being cut off from the world of technology and all that had , until then , been at the end of his fingertips , was extremely challenging .
“ There were so many things I couldn ’ t do any more . Access to websites , all that information was lost to me ,” he said .
However , giving up study was never an option . Jack applied for Vision Australia ’ s Further Education Bursary , which would fund the adaptive technology he needed to use his computer and other electronic devices , and enable him to continue his studies .
Screen readers and adaptive technology alone did not make available all the information that other students were accessing ,
Jack discovered , so he raised the issue with his teachers .
“ Some of them were supportive , some not so supportive . So I would go to the next level - management or a higher authority - and they were much more interested in helping ,” he said .
Jack ’ s success in changing the way many of the university ’ s teaching staff delivered their course material has been the source of much satisfaction .
“ When people make moves to change things , you feel included – you feel that you matter ,” he said
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