BOY: My name is Sean, and I'm 17. I was a normal baby — healthy — until the age of two. I stopped in front of a wall one day and then just ran into it like it wasn't there. Like, I saw it at first, and then, all of a sudden, I felt like it disappeared. I developed, um, cancer of the retina, also known as retinoblastoma. They gave my mother a choice that, either, um, the cancer would spread and... I would die, or they remove the eyes, and I would be blind for the rest of my life.
WOMAN: We were just amazed that this little baby could, um, bounce back from something like that, you know? He rode the bikes and... jumped on up off of walls, and all the stuff that little boys did, he did, you know? And, at first, I used to, like, be real worried that he might hurt hisself, you know, but he'd jump and land on his feet and keep on going.
SEAN: I was totally blind — no eyes at all. My eyes that I have right now, as we speak, as I'm talking, is — they are artificial. They're called, um, prosthesis.
WOMAN: Now, where do you want me to go?
SEAN: Over there.
WOMAN: All right.
SEAN: I want people to understand that, you know, being blind is not unusual, because, me being blind, I still do the same things that sighted people do, and I talk about that all the time. Actually, Miss "H," what I was waiting for you to say, when I said "Over there" is, "Where's over there?"
MISS "H": Oh.
SEAN: Because that's one thing that a lot of sighted people do with visually impaired or blind students. They say, "You got to go over there. No, not that way. Over there." Oh, and they just be pointing, like you can actually see... [LAUGHTER] what they're talking about. I have to say, as far as, like, me, um, being a part of the curriculum of, um, a regular school, being that I do have a quote unquote disability, um... It makes me feel like, um... like I am a part of this world.
MAN: Technology levels the playing field for Sean and allows him to do the same things that the other kids are doing.
SEAN: My stylus helps me to, um, perform in geometry, helps me to draw shapes and, um, figures that I need to draw for geometry.
MATH TEACHER: And who remembers what complementary means? Sean?
SEAN: They add up to equal 90.
MATH TEACHER: Is he right? They add up to equal 90. At first, I wondered, "Well, how could a student unable to see possibly learn geometry?" And then I was reminded that some of the great mathematicians in the past at different times had lost sight and still done some wondrous things. The technology that I've seen Sean use — uh, the ability to computerize and get Braille copies of everything — I was amazed.
BRAILLE 'N SPEAK: Calculator ready.
SEAN: The Braille 'N Speak is the computerized version of a Brailler. It has a calculator function.
BRAILLE 'N SPEAK: 64.
SEAN: And after I finish typing in my, um, classwork for the day, I will go to the vision office and hook it up to a printer... Print it out for my teacher. That would be my work submitted for that day.
MAN: Sean was the first blind student I'd ever taught, and it was... a challenge... before I met him. It was a big challenge because I was scared to death. I was like, "How am I gonna teach somebody that can't see?" and after I met him, I just realized, it was teaching — just the same as teaching anybody else. It just — I had to be a lot more prepared.
SEAN: This is one of my favorite toys to get through the day — um, is my watch. I, um, press the big button on the face, and it tells me what time it is.
COMPUTER VOICE: It's 9:31 p.m.
SEAN: Me and Mr. Daniels was having a conversation about my future — what I want to do — telling me I need to plan goals.
FORMER TEACHER: He told me when we first met, like, he wanted to go to college, he wanted to be a lawyer.
MAN: Lawlinks pairs young people in high school up with an attorney, perhaps someone at the U.S. Attorney's office.
SEAN: I met Jerome at Legal Aid. He was actually my supervisor, um, looking over me through the whole 8 weeks.
MAN: I expected the same thing from Sean that I would with any sighted intern. We got the Braille 'N Speak. We got the printer, and we got the monitor. The technology played a huge part. I don't think that we could have had as much of a successful summer without it. What did they want?
SEAN: The nucleus of my motivation is my little brother. He's the one that — that — that makes me say, "I got to perform for him. I got to be a role model for him." I don't know if he actually knows that I'm blind, but, um, I kind of got a feeling that the questions will be coming soon. I don't act like I'm blind. People see me walking without my cane, and they say, "Oh, Sean, where's your cane?" And I'll have it hanging off the side of my book bag and just — just be walking down the hall. Um, I always make jokes about, um, you know, about my sight because I don't want people to feel like, "He's blind. We can't say certain things to him." I want — I want them to be open with me, and I want them to be, um — feel comfortable around me. You got problems. Ha!
FORMER ADVISOR: I've learned from Sean that, if you can't go through the door, find a way to go around it, maybe even go over it, but as long as you accomplish the goal of getting from point "A" to point "B," it can be done.
SEAN: Nothing holds me back. You can tell me the sky is falling, and I would still want to fly an airplane.