Latest / Podcasts By Donna Jodhan / Remarkable World Commentary Episode #76: The Cost of Vision Loss

Transcript

Remarkable World Commentary Episode #76: The Cost of Vision Loss · Podcasts By Donna Jodhan

• 0:13
  Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J Jodhan, LLB, ACSP and MBA invites you to listen to
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  her biweekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary.
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  Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts,
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  insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners.
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  Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids,
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  especially kids with disabilities.
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  Donna is a blind advocate, author, site loss coach,
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  dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur,
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  law graduate, and podcast commentator.
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  She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge,
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  skills, and expertise in access technology and information.
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  As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles,
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  she just wants to make things better than possible.
• 1:07
  Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello, I'm Donna and welcome to my Remarkable World commentary first podcast
• 1:17
  of On My Own for February 2026.
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  You know, I never really gave much credence or much thought to this topic that I'm about
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  to discuss with you, and I only did so after my podcast with the great Ian White of
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  Toronto, terrific advocate who has worked tirelessly to ensure that persons stay
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  connected. He was the CEO of visionaries chapter for the CCP for quite some time,
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  and he retired or stepped back quite probably a few months ago.
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  And he is now in moving in a different direction,
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  but I wanted to talk about this topic for today.
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  Based on the podcast interview that I had with Ian,
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  and I'd like to thank him for raising my awareness,
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  and I apologize to myself that I never really thought about this topic before.
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  Okay, it's all about the cost of vision loss for the child who loses their vision.
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  It means that their future has been changed dramatically and drastically,
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  and now them and their parents will have to find workarounds,
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  as I call it, to deal with vision loss for the parent.
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  It's also dramatic and drastic because they now have to find ways to help their child to
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  grow up in a world that is so fast moving, to help them navigate the landscape and to
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  help them deal with both social and artificial attitudes as well as real life
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  attitudes. That's what vision loss does for a parent.
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  And in the workplace, it means that if someone has lost their
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  vision while working, they too have to find ways to deal with their
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  vision loss. Things will never be the same.
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  The employer looks at the one losing their vision differently now,
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  for better or for worse, and their co-workers do the same.
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  The person losing their vision in the workplace now has to find ways to cope,
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  find ways to keep up. And they run the risk of being,
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  you know, either downsized or being stymied at their job or being told that they can't go
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  any further because of their loss of vision.
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  That is the cost of vision loss.
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  The medical community as well suffers a lot from,
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  you know, the cost of vision loss because now and this may not be a good way of putting it,
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  but a good way of looking at it, they too, have to work harder to ensure that
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  their patients can deal most effectively with vision loss.
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  This is what vision loss brings.
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  This is what the cost of vision loss is all about.
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  And then when we think of education, both in the classroom,
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  virtually in the classroom, face to face, virtually and online,
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  everything changes with vision loss, health wise,
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  education wise, socially, everything changes with the cost of vision
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  loss. But we don't realize it until it happens to us.
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  And maybe there is some little thing that I, Donna,
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  can do to start raising more awareness to the meaning of the term,
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  the cost of vision loss.
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  And I am hoping to have Ian White back on my podcast,
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  Remarkable World Commentary, sometime early in the new year to continue
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  his discussion. A very, very interesting and insightful discussion
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  all about the cost of vision loss.
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  I'm Donna, thanking you for coming in and listening to me.
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  Have a great day.
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  Podcast Commentator: Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at DonnaJodhan@Gmail.com.
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  Until next time.