One morning, Lorenzo Paz woke up with a pain in his forehead. He thought maybe he had had too much to drink the night before. By the afternoon, the pain was worse. “I went into the hospital walking and came out blind,” Lorenzo remembers. “I got blind in one day.” A freak infection took Lorenzo’s…
Congratulations to Jon, a recent graduate of Wayfinder’s Hatlen Center in San Pablo, Calif. The Hatlen Center is an immersive residential program for adults with vision loss, who gain skills to live independently. After seven months in the program, Jon was ready to take his final exam. He chose to travel by himself to meet…
Wayfinder partners with Cal State Los Angeles to train the next generation of teachers of the visually impaired in the ExCel Academy. Student teachers gain valuable, hands-on experience with a broad array of children who have varying levels of sight and additional disabilities. In fall semester 2018, Cal State L.A. faculty and Wayfinder staff supervised…
Today Wayfinder staff and students celebrated National White Cane Safety Day. The day celebrates the achievements of people who are blind or visually impaired and the white cane, a symbol of independence. The residents and students in Wayfinder’s programs for the visually impaired are learning how to navigate public spaces and transportation, use assistive technology and…
Meet Director of Transition Services Rob Schulenburg When Rob Schulenburg was born in the early 1970s, doctors quickly noticed his erratic eye movements. They assumed that this was a sign of multiple disabilities: total blindness, hearing loss and intellectual disability. The doctors suggested Rob’s parents give him up to the state; a woman was in…
Children with multiple disabilities get to a chance to thrive in a traditional summer camp setting Malibu, CA (July 1, 2018) Wayfinder Family Services Camp Bloomfield is celebrating its 60th year of giving children with disabilities the chance to experience summer camp just like their peers. The 40-acre campground was donated to the organization by…
“We’ll travel along, singing a song, side by side…” Two 8-year-olds, Katrina and Mason, sang this lyric on their first day at a music program for the blind, nine years ago. Katrina remembers, “I felt like the song was a message to him. I felt like it would be a good idea to be his…
Javi has always had a positive spirit, but even he had doubts about what his future would hold. Visually impaired since birth due to optic nerve hypoplasia (underdeveloped optic nerves), he wondered if he would be able to succeed in college, get a job and live on his own. Everything changed when he attended a…
Ryan isn’t your average athlete. He is totally blind and has autism, so finding sports that meet his unique needs is difficult, to say the least. Playgrounds, community sports teams and schools often lack the resources and equipment to engage athletes with disabilities. So, for years, Ryan did not have the opportunities his sighted peers…
Over seven years, Ronnie became completely blind. When he lost his sight, he also lost his livelihood and independence. “I’ve always taken pride in my ability to do things on my own, so when I lost my sight, I thought I would need to depend on other people for everything,” says Ronnie. “It was the…
