With a clear vision for success: Student is learning to see the world through her fingertips

Flathead Valley Community College student Cindy Letcher ends 2005 with her vision nearly gone but with a way of experiencing the world through her fingertips.

Flathead Valley Community College student Cindy Letcher ends 2005 with her vision nearly gone but with a way of experiencing the world through her fingertips.

She has begun a difficult journey to proficiency in Braille, the art of reading with her fingers, with a teacher in Whitefish. Letcher faces an uphill struggle as an adult.

"Transitioning from a person with vision to a blind person is very difficult," she said. "But reading is the key to success."

Now 44, Letcher retains just a tiny slice of sight in the middle of her eyes.

"Everything is very blurred," she said. "Bright lights hurt my eyes. I have no color left - everything is black and white."

Her vision deteriorated during several decades. Letcher said she noticed the first symptoms when she was 13. She went to her doctor in Eureka but didn't learn what was happening to the periphery of her vision.

"I was 19 when I was diagnosed," she said.

She had never heard of the disease destined to destroy her sight. But retinitis pigmentosa, a condition with no cure, was lurking in her genes.

"Both my parents were carriers," Letcher said.

Retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition, causes the degeneration of photoreceptor cells in the retina, which captures and processes light needed for vision.

These photoreceptor cells, comprising rods and cones, convert light into electrical impulses transmitted to the brain, where seeing actually occurs.

Most people with retinitis pigmentosa experience symptoms by the time they are young adults. She recalled night blindness, loss of peripheral vision and sensitivity to bright lights.

"I was legally blind by age 21," she said.

Letcher said she maintained enough vision to do everything but drive. She raised a son and twin boys while working at a variety of jobs in Eureka, including 10 years with Head Start.

Her sons, now young adults, show no signs of developing retinitis pigmentosa.

"Throughout adolescence, they had eye exams for RP every five years," she said.

Although Letcher knew the prognosis, she said she was too busy raising children and working to devote herself to learning Braille.

She admits the slow progress of the disease made it easy to ignore the potential of moving from visually impaired to blind.

"It's always nice to run back into denial," Letcher said.

When she lost the ability to read eight or nine years ago, she was forced out of denial.

"I went through a pretty good depression that time," Letcher said. "But that's normal."

She got through it by talking to friends and family. Her blind mentors helped her move from grieving her loss to planning for her future.

She learned to look at her disability as a series of problems that she could solve.

"I have quality of life," she said with a smile. "I do everything I want to do - I just do it in a different way."

Divorced about 11 years ago, Letcher said one of the things she always wanted to do was go back to school. In 2003, she gave it a try at the University of Montana in Missoula, where one of her mentors works.

A desire for a smaller campus closer to home brought Letcher to Flathead Valley Community College in 2004. It proved to be a much better fit.

"I like the fact that it's more personal," she said. "I enjoy having more nontraditional (older) students to connect with."

Her goal is to earn an associate degree in human services. Eventually, she hopes to earn a bachelor's in psychology for a career counseling people with disabilities.

Letcher said she learned her way around campus, using her white cane to navigate. She finds few inaccessible areas, but wide-open spaces without landmarks pose the biggest challenge.

"If I get misplaced, I stop and ask for directions," she said.

Letcher said she isn't ready for the responsibility of a service dog, though she said she has seen some amazing dogs.

"I've seen cane-users that go all around the world," she said.

Letcher gets all her textbooks on tapes or CDs. She also has a reader, as well as a scribe, to help her write papers.

She said she has had to hone her listening skills after a lifetime of using both vision and hearing to imprint knowledge in her brain.

"Trying to use sight any more just gets me in trouble," she said with a laugh.

Like most students, Letcher finds her computer indispensable. She just uses hers in a different way.

"I use computer software called JAWS [Job Access With Speech]," she said. "It gives the computer the ability to speak."

She has no need for a monitor or mouse. Letcher uses the keyboard to type papers and hot keys to invoke various functions.

Letcher also puts in a lot of time on her six-key Perkins Brailler for her independent study in Braille this semester.

"It's similar to an old-fashioned typewriter," she said. "It even dings when you get to the end."

She rolls in a sheet - about the thickness of cover stock - to write a paper in Braille. Each key embosses one of the dots that makes up a Braille cell.

Letcher also has a slate and stylus that she can use as a more portable method of writing in Braille.

Just as learning visual reading begins with the alphabet, learning Braille begins with learning the dots that form each letter.

Letcher said she has little trouble memorizing the dot patterns.

"It's getting my fingers to recognize the dots that's difficult," she said.

Letcher has learned enough to begin labeling with Braille. She said it was very rewarding to easily recognize her textbooks and papers.

For a woman living alone, she looks forward to having her clothes all color-coded in Braille so that she doesn't have to rely on keeping up an organizational system for her clothing.

"I'm the most disorganized blind person in the world," she said with a laugh.

It may seem odd to people not coping with blindness that Letcher doesn't consider her disability her greatest challenge to earning a college degree.

She views her greatest obstacle as passing math. For that, she plans to employ a tutor next semester.

For blindness issues, Letcher now serves as a tutor in the form of a mentor to others with her disability. She has learned those lessons well.

"I need to communicate my needs and ask for help," she said. "People can't read our minds."

Using this philosophy, Letcher has managed to travel throughout the East Coast by herself. She has a trip planned to Dallas for the Montana Association for the Blind.

She also works with the National Federation of the Blind.

Letcher particularly enjoys mentoring blind children at the federation's Camp Eureka, which operates each summer in the Teller Wildlife Refuge.

"The work I've done with blindness has sparked a passion with me," she said. "It's heartfelt for people with disabilities."

Letcher doesn't limit that interest to the visually impaired. Her faces softens with compassion as she speaks about the difficulties faced by the elderly as they cope with impaired vision, hearing and mobility, and those living with mental illness.

"This (blindness) is a piece of cake compared to that," she said.

Letcher doesn't dream of a particular plum job at the end of her studies. She concentrates on solving problems each day - like finding a part-time job now to ease her financial squeeze.

She admits that she has days of annoyance and frustration like everyone else. But Letcher exudes the confidence and serenity that blesses those who face and triumph over life's adversities.

"I just want to see what the journey brings," she said.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.