Full Transcript
Itto:
I think listening to our voices inside of our heads is actually very positive, because that’s how we reflect on ourselves, that’s how we change ourselves, and if we want to change the world, we first have to start changing ourselves.
Jeff:
Please welcome human rights activist and accessibility advocate, Itto Outini.
Itto:
It’s amazing, how if we give a chance to anyone they can do everything. It’s just a matter of chance and opportunities.
Jeff:
From her journey of less desire…
Itto:
So when I was 17, my uncle’s wife threw a sharp object into my face, and blinded me. At the time I didn’t know how to read and write, I didn’t even know how to spell my name, I didn’t even know how to count from one to three, nothing. I was thrown on the streets and I became homeless.
Jeff:
…and a determination like no other.
Itto:
Someone told me about the blind school, and I started school at the age of 17 for the first time.
Jeff:
For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, and subscribe to the Blind Abilities podcast. That’s two words, blind abilities, wherever you listen to podcasts. And now, please welcome Itto Outini. We hope you enjoy.
Itto:
Working with the UN does not mean that I am only going to be helping persons with disabilities, but all the issues that the UN covers are the ones that I’ve faced in my life.
Jeff:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson. Today in the studio, we have Itto Outini. She’s a Fulbright scholarship, she’s from Morocco, and she’s now here with her master’s degree and an internship at the United Nations Development Program. Welcome to Blind Abilities.
Itto:
Hi everyone, this is Itto Outini, I am totally blind, thank you so much, Jeff, it’s nice to digitally connect, and thank you for reaching out. I hope that sharing my story will motivate and inspire a lot of fellow persons with disabilities, and allies, and other fellow human beings as well. Thank you for the opportunity.
Jeff:
Oh, you bet. You know, when I started reading more about your story, I don’t know which layer is more important than the other layer, but you’re a product of all your experience in your lifetime. When you say you’re totally blind, that happened at age 17, and you had never read before, any of that, but now you’ve gone on to university, master’s degree, and you’ve captured a lot of the dreams that you had.
Itto:
Yeah, that is true. I was born and raised in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, that is North Africa. My mom died when I was little, I don’t know when, I can’t remember, and my father abandoned me and I was raised by my father’s family for the first 12 years of my life, in a very rural area of Morocco, no television, no radio, no books. There was just a very ancient, traditional life, there was no electricity, so sleeping early, waking up early, all the food was produced in the farms, there was no grocery shops, it was literally another part of the world. I’ve heard that it’s changed now, because it’s 20 years ago. I was abused by my own family, when I was little, so my dad’s family at first did not take me to school because there was no school. When I went to my mom’s family, I remember the first time I was put on a bus. I was questioning everything, of course, and I thought that the bus ate grass, because that’s what I saw animals doing, so I thought the object was moving, therefore it has to have something to make it move – of course, this is true, but I didn’t know what was it, I saw the cows walking, and the bus, you know, walking, according to my understanding at the time, so I only knew that you have to eat to move, so I thought that the bus had to eat too. But I guess it has to eat in its own way, so, you know, just like charging phones, I guess that’s food for them too.
Jeff:
And then everything changed at age 17.
Itto:
Yes. I stayed with my mom’s family, I thought, you know, when I was coming on a bus for a day or more than a day, I was really excited thinking that things would be different, but unfortunately both of my family’s sides were not loving or caring or nothing, they were abusive and my mom’s family did the same thing. I moved a lot, I didn’t stay in one place even for a month or two, from the day I was born until 17. So when I was 17 my uncle’s wife threw a sharp object into my face and blinded me. At the time I didn’t even know how to read and write, I didn’t even know how to spell my name, I didn’t even know how to count from one to three, nothing. And I was left in a hospital, I was of course thrown on the streets and I became homeless. Someone told me about the blind school, and I went to school and I started school at the age of 17 for the first time, and I started from the 7th grade, so instead of 12 years getting a high school degree, I was able to do it in the span of 6 years.
Jeff:
And you learned other languages as well.
Itto:
Yeah, I mean, I’m sorry if my English is not good, so it’s my 7th, so I’m still learning-
Jeff:
7th? Whoa, whoa, whoa. 7th language? Wow.
Itto:
Yeah, I used to learn as I go, so sometimes I get started on a word or two, or sometimes I’m like what is this? It’s a blessing and a curse to know many languages, when I get tired I mix them all up, and I make my own words.
Jeff:
That’s quite funny.
Itto:
I think for me, it was the circumstances that forced me to learn, you know, I had no family, I had no one to support me, I had no shelter, I was homeless, and a blind female in a very- I was a foreigner in my own country. My brain just forced itself to learn things as fast as it could.
Jeff:
Because that was your ticket out.
Itto:
Exactly. It’s like a survival mode, it was literally turned on, like I went for days without food, and I was super skinny, and I sometimes got sick, but I literally, my mind neglected my body, and it just was, my brain was pushing harder and harder to make things possible. I’ve accomplished all my dreams, now it’s time to, like, help others and be there for them, and help them realize that they are capable of realizing their dreams too, because again, it’s a lie if I tell someone that I will help you do, like, realize your dream, but I will help you find out how to help yourself, and I think we all are capable no matter what our color, disability, gender, sexuality or race, nationality, every human being is capable of doing something. Like, I’m not able to drive because I’m blind, but I am capable of going somewhere using other means. If we see everything as limitation, then we can believe in what we can do, and just start doing it.
Jeff:
So, that devastation, that I would say as being tragic, how did you climb out of that, and how did you start to see the light, if I may say, at the end of the tunnel? What kept your focus on your dreams?
Itto:
Most of the things were like, I was reading and I remember one time I was reading a book by David Pelzer, his biography, three books in one, like the whole thing, and I literally saw his journey as like, not like me, he grew up in America, but still his mother threw him on the streets when he was four, and how she abused him, and all of that, and at the end he became a lawyer, and that gave me motivation I would say, or like it was an example of someone like myself who actually became what they wanted to be. Then I was reading about the UN and how it has made a huge positive change in the world, and what they do, and I started basically dreaming about working with the UN and also contributing to make the world a better place for a person like myself, and I used to see myself as a victim, I refuse to bow down and believe what society was telling me, like you know, you’re a woman, you’re a person with a disability, I refused all of that, and I took my own fate in my hands, and I started reading and learning, and I was able to survive being six years on the street.
Jeff:
What was it like when you met the American family in Morocco that helped you to the university?
Itto:
Well, it was funny, because I, as I said, I didn’t know much English, so I thought hmm, now I speak English I can communicate with Americans because I knew “what’s your name” and “how do you spell it” so I was so happy, but after a few days I was like huh, no, I don’t actually know English, there is more to it than that! They took me to the American Language Center to learn English, and after six months they came to visit me and I was able to have tea and conversation with them and they were so proud. I am still in touch with them, they’re more than family to me. If I were to choose to go through what I had to go through to meet such people and be the person I am today I would. I’m not saying that what I went through is easy, it was not, as a matter of fact, thankfully I don’t have severe health issues, but for example, my eyes, they were damaged for 14 years. I finally had a surgery last year, and I fixed them, I had benign tumors that are the result of the physical trauma that I had to go through, and I had to go under a big surgery, so I am hoping that by sharing my story, not only to inspire people to overcome what they are facing, but also those who are not facing anything to go and support those who are going through hardships that I had to go through, because those scars, even if they’re not emotional or psychological, physical scars are also really difficult to deal with.
Jeff:
Oh, I bet. Dropping into America, Arkansas I believe it was?
Itto:
Yes.
Jeff:
You land in another world, basically. What was that experience like?
Itto:
As I said, it was my dream to come to America when I was homeless, so even when I got an email saying congratulations that you were awarded the Fulbright scholarship to go and study at the University of Arkansas, I didn’t have a computer, so I found in a cyber coffee that I did, and I told my friend and I said, is Arkansas in America or somewhere else? Because I never, like, I never heard of Arkansas, most things that we were studying about American culture was Florida, California, New York, and even Oklahoma, but not Arkansas for some reason, even though they’re neighbor states. But I went to the airport, I still remember that day, with just my cane and penniless, I didn’t have, of course, family, all my cohorts, they were talking about how much money they wanted to bring, is that fine, is the US gonna be not happy with them bringing too much? And for me, even when we went to have a drink outside, I pretended to not want it because I couldn’t pay for it when I was preparing to come here, like I think five days or three days before my departure. When I flew I flew from Casablanca, Morocco to New York, and I had to stay there, I think from one or 12 a.m. until like 7 or 8 a.m. I was so hungry and I was so tired, and I just wanted to stay, I didn’t know people, now I have connections all over the country, but I didn’t know, and at the time I didn’t know how to use technology either, you know, like look up something? Like I didn’t even know what look up something did, because I didn’t use technology in Morocco. I was educated but I didn’t know, like, how to use JAWS or voiceover or nothing, as I do now, I can go anywhere with my technology skills and use them and explore the whole world, but at the time, four years and half ago, in July of 2017, I didn’t have those skills. When I landed in Arkansas, it was my friend using my Facebook, communicating with the group, and I found someone waiting for me at the airport, and he just asked if it was my name, and I said yeah, and I just hopped up in a stranger’s car and here we go, off from XNA airport to Fayetteville, and we were driving and they’re actually like my family now, they visited me just a week ago, they came to visit me here in Missouri. He took me and he was explaining to me, you know, like, on the south there’s this, whatever [unintelligible] this, and I was like everything was foreign to me, including the person himself, you know, a new person. I was not afraid, he told me we are not gonna let you live alone, you should go and stay with me and my wife, and I said no, I made this choice and I am ready to live on my own, in my own apartment and you guys are welcome to visit me anytime, that’s what happened, they dropped me in my apartment, and when sometimes I would go and visit them, they’ve become like family to me now, but I remember the first day, I went out, and I was exploring my area, so being totally blind I didn’t know anything, and the only thing I’d met was my landlord, and his name is Peter, and I went out and I got lost, and I was like okay, now I guess I’ll stay here all night, it was late afternoon, and some people found me and they said, are you okay, and I said no, I’m lost, and they said, where do you live, and I said, in Peter’s apartment. That was all that I knew. Like you know, now like I am really good at knowing like how to navigate America, but before, it was like, okay. In Morocco you just say, and even in Morocco I don’t know anything in Morocco, I can’t speak much for Morocco, because before 17 I was all abused and neglected, and what my family was doing to me, and when I was six years on the street, just homeless, blind, I didn’t know what things are, and when I was at the university with my American family who rented to me an apartment, so I didn’t know, like, the concept of like, apartment 3, 58, this and that, so I just knew Peter, and I told them I lived in Peter’s apartment and it took them a few hours to find where I lived, and someone showed them the apartment and they brought me back, so-
Jeff:
Wow.
Itto:
Yeah, I mean, going to a country as a blind person, like as I said before, it’s fine if you don’t get angry or irritated or overwhelmed easily, but if someone is you know, really like afraid or they’re not used to exploring things on their own, it’s a little bit scary, but I have never been scared.
Jeff:
For the first time being on your own, and wanting to claim your independence, how was it to accommodate to go to classes, and for food and sustenance, how was all that?
Itto:
I was- if independent is like living alone and doing everything on my own, I did the same thing in Morocco, so I have never had a roommate, I’ve always lived on my own. So even in Morocco, when I was in the university, my American family rented an apartment for me, and I lived on my own, and I went to the university on my own, and I walked- actually it was harder in Morocco because the buses are not free and I couldn’t afford, so I had to walk for one hour, one hour and a half to go to the university. At the university in Fayetteville, in America, it was really easy. I was a Fulbright community, which is amazing all over the world. They connected me with paratransit, for persons with disabilities, and I had them on my phone, my host father got me a smartphone and showed me how to save contacts and how to call, if I needed something or also how to call the school, the paratransit, and I scheduled the time, I memorized my way around, like how to go to my classes, and I became friends with my classmates, actually I still have some of my classmates as best friends, and my best friend, she is like a sister to me, she’s my former classmate.
Jeff:
So that was your first piece of technology, the phone.
Itto:
Exactly, yeah.
Jeff:
What happened when you got a computer?
Itto:
Well, they told me, I didn’t know that actually, the word that they should have used is you’ve got to learn how to type, and they put my hands on the keyboard, and I thought I would find some braille or something, but when I didn’t I was like, my computer doesn’t have numbers and it doesn’t have letters as well, and they said no, it does, and I’m like no, it’s just a bunch of buttons. So I can’t believe that, you know, now I use my computer, I am a public speaker, I do everything independently, I type, I send my emails, I write my articles on my own, and it’s amazing how if we give a chance to anyone they can do everything, it’s just a matter of chance and opportunities.
Jeff:
Yeah. And now you got your master’s degree.
Itto:
Yeah. And hoping to pursue my PhD, I don’t know when, but it’s a plan for the near future.
Jeff:
Well, let’s get on it then, I mean, you’ve been here four and a half years, come on. I’m kidding, I’m kidding.
Itto:
[laughs] Yeah.
Jeff:
It’s amazing what you can do, once you start using technology as a blind person. You didn’t even know it existed.
Itto:
Exactly. Yeah.
Jeff:
Wow.
Itto:
I didn’t, and when I heard about it, it was just a concept, it was just a fairy tale. I never could afford it. As we all know, technology for the blind is very expensive.
Jeff:
I’m thinking about when you said you used to carry your braille books around in a plastic bag, just so they wouldn’t get wet, and now you can have thousands of books in your iPhone or your computer.
Itto:
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, the people who make that happen, you know, like Bookshare and Bard, and Delivery Box and other online platforms that don’t only make books available but also accessible.
Jeff:
So what’s your favorite piece of technology today?
Itto:
All of them. I love my robot, my Amazon Echo, and Google Home. I also like my computer and my iPad. I am not too much into audiovisual, I don’t do any like videogames, but I like all the technology that helps me, my Victor Reader, and yeah.
Jeff:
Wow. I can imagine you’ve asked your Google and Amazon devices here and there.
Itto:
Yeah.
Jeff:
Isn’t that something, just to be able to ask a question, I mean yeah, you can do research to see how much of that is true, but I mean, it’s just so handy, just turn to it, ask a question, like I asked what’s the capitol of Morocco just before I came on here.
Itto:
Well, I mean, not only that, but a lot of people see technology as a negative thing, but I really hope that we can see the positive aspects that technology can have on us, like for me personally, I am really busy, I work a lot, so I’m really grateful to my technology, even like turning my coffee maker on and off, it’s my Amazon Echo could do that, like I can just put everything on and go to do something else while asking it to turn it on, or my thermostat, I could do the same thing, and on and on, there is still a lot of things that we need to have accessible and available, but it’s so amazing what it can do, not only answer questions but also help make life easier and make persons with disabilities be as independent as possible. This didn’t exist before, I always wonder how blind people live or sometimes I would even just think about my ex-life or previous life or whatever, when I didn’t have this. Yeah.
Jeff:
You said you first read about the United Nations and now you went through the process for the internship and you got it, you know – what was that like, to realize that dream?
Itto:
I don’t know how to define that feeling, because after I graduated, I was sick after my surgery, when they removed the tumors from my hips. I took a few months, like three or four months to recover from that. Then I was training on assistive technology, when I finished I want to be certified, or wanted, as an interpreter, even though it was never my dream, but while I was doing that, one day I received an email from someone saying hey, from the UN actually, saying hey, if you are interested here is this position, go ahead and apply for it. I kind of was looking at the link and it looked real and all of that, but I decided to copy and send it to my friend and ask and say hey, this is weird but is this real? And he’s like yeah, that’s real. I was having a lot of personal project in those three days, I just didn’t really ask and filled out the application and submitted it, and then got another email saying we want to interview you, are you available on this day and this day, and they gave me some dates, and if you need any accessible format or support please let us know, and I did, and when I got started doing the documents and all of that, it took me like, it was a very positive shock, but it took me like a few days or a few weeks to finally like enjoy the dream that is being realized, but in the beginning it was just like oh, this is interesting, like how much I’d dreamt about this and how much I’d talked about it and like as I said, the fact that the director of the blind school told me that you will never go to America, and also when I got the Fulbright, my best friend, I went to her and knocked on her door and she kind of didn’t believe me and she told me to go away, that made me kind of scared of voicing my dreams, and I never like, was very public about oh, I wanted to work with the UN, so it was my dream, and like, I would write it, what I want to do, how I want to help persons with disabilities, and how I want to help, like as you said before, I am a product of all the things I’ve had to experience, so working with the UN does not mean that I am only going to be helping persons with disabilities, but all the issues that the UN covers are the ones that I’ve faced in my life.
Jeff:
Wow.
Itto:
Yeah.
Jeff:
I read that you also got some training, what was it, in Alphapointe?
Itto:
Yeah.
Jeff:
Can you tell the listeners what Alphapointe is?
Itto:
Yeah, so Alphapointe is based in Kansas City, Missouri, and this is the training, that’s where I learned assistive technology, so for any blind person around the country or visually impaired person, they can go there and they basically teach blind or visually impaired persons how to use assistive technology, from you know, braille displays and screen readers and magnifications and all of the technology that blind or visually impaired persons will need to be able to do the work they want to do, and they have also a foundation where blind people can work, so they hire blind people.
Jeff:
Ah. Do they also teach life skills and soft skills?
Itto:
Yes. I didn’t do that, I mean, I did like for two or three weeks, but I have, as I said before, I’ve been independent, I’ve lived on my own for 16 years now, like as I said, even when I was a child, I had to take care of myself, so life has taught me life skills I guess.
Jeff:
You’ve made a statement that you thanked the blindness a little bit, because it would seem like you were robbed of a life that you were living in a sense, but it seems like things were being taken away from you, from your parents to your family to your eyesight, a home, and yet you’ve persevered, you know? I mean, I think that’s how I opened up the conversation, but it’s still astonishing that you still are achieving your dreams, and you talked about being alone. A lot of people can’t handle listening to their voice inside their head too long, but you’ve done it.
Itto:
Again, like, the culture, ideologies have taught us a lot of things, in very wrong ways, because there is a difference, because there is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Like honestly, I loved being alone, but I am not lonely. I have friends all over the world, my friends, I love them and we support each other, then my family, my American family, they’re like my biological family, I mean, it’s just like ideologies that we have, a lot of people would think, you know, a blind person living alone, well yeah, they’re alone but they’re not lonely, and I think listening to our voices inside of our heads is actually very positive, because that’s how we reflect on ourselves, that’s how we change ourselves, and if we want to change the world, we first have to start changing ourselves, because we can’t just say, you know, point our fingers on what’s wrong and not sit down and try to see how we can change ourselves, how we can make ourselves better citizens of the world.
Jeff:
Mm-hm. It just seems like so many people want to be on social media, be on this that and the other thing, so they don’t have to hear that voice inside their head as much.
Itto:
Yeah.
Jeff:
I’m glad you have that attitude and you’re sharing it.
Itto:
When I say I am a voice for the voiceless, I really hope I can find a term that better describes what I do, and what I want to do. I want to actually help people realize that we humans all have something in common. It’s not that someone is only blind or someone is only from that country or this country, but we all have a lot in common.
Jeff:
Itto, you’ve achieved a lot, and you told me you’re in the process of writing a biography.
Itto:
Yes. Actually, I am just now in the process of editing and then I will look for agents and publishers and you know, all of that publishing world, it’s now, because like as I said, my first two years I was working on my master’s degree, my third year I was mostly in the hospitals, because of the benign tumors that I had, and my fourth year was my eye surgeries, I had to also have multiple eye surgeries to fix my eyes and remove the remaining and put a graft, so that they can- I have a prosthetic eyes, so that took a while. Then I did assistive technology, and now I am doing my internship with the United Nations Development program, and looking for whether a PhD or just a job for a while before going for a PhD, so I have accomplished a lot, and I’m still going, like as I said before, it’s impossible to learn everything, so there is a lot to learn, no matter how I learn there is still a lot.
Jeff:
Tell me about the refugee congress.
Itto:
So the refugee congress is a non-partisan organization, and it’s led by refugees and immigrants and asylees, or asylum seekers, and I was a delegate representing Arkansas, but right now I am in Missouri so I am an honorary delegate, and basically it’s an organization that advocates for refugees and asylum and their rights in the United States, yeah.
Jeff:
You also founded and you’re the president of the Fulbrighters With Disabilities.
Itto:
Yeah, that’s also one of the things that are very dear to my heart, because when I was applying to the Fulbright scholarship, I didn’t have anyone to tell me what piece of technology I needed to not struggle during grad school, what are the resources that are available in America and how to access them, and all of that experiences, that’s how I decided to found the chapter of the Fulbright With Disabilities. It’s a virtual and international chapter that advocates for scholars with disabilities, Fulbrighters or non-Fulbrighters, because there is a need. It’s the first of its kind, and there is a higher need on that, just, you know, someone proof-reading someone’s research paper, or someone’s college application, and helping someone with their scholarship essay, and all of that, that’s what Fulbrighters With Disabilities chapter is doing for persons with disabilities around the globe.
Jeff:
Was it easy to sit down and think about your life, your journey, to start your biography?
Itto:
It is, because like as I said, the fact that I have been able to accomplish a lot of my dreams, if not all of them, and the fact that I survived it gives me a lot of strength and hope that by sharing it, by making it available out there to the whole world, that’s how I will change the world. So yes, it is fine for me to- I speak all over the world, and I share, and I love when people ask me whatever questions they have, I’m never offended or disappointed or say like, I wouldn’t want to be asked on this or that. If my story’s going to help someone else, I am happy to share it, and personally it does not affect me to think about my past at all, it’s just part of me.
Jeff:
I can only imagine the first time that you felt the braille and realized those are letters and words coming at you, and it was giving you access, I mean, you talked about how you didn’t really have a lot of electricity, and technology at all, but those braille words jumped out at you, and actually that was your window into the world out there.
Itto:
Yeah, actually, that was on a Wednesday, so on Thursday I had other classes- well, I didn’t have braille classes, it was my classmate who taught me, because I was in the 7th grade, and braille is being taught from the 1st to the 4th grade. It was not the school’s responsibility to teach me braille, and I remember I learned the alphabet and everything on the first day, then over the weekend I learned how to read, and I remember I went to my Arabic teacher and I said, I know how to read, and he said, no, that’s impossible, and I said well, yeah, I think I do, and that was actually one of the reasons I decided to not believe what other people tell me, whether I could do things or not, so he asked me to grab my classmate’s notebook, and I grabbed it and I read it, and what I read didn’t make sense, and he was really mad and he said, you’re making up that, and I said no I am not, and he said bring it here, and if that didn’t make sense, if what you said is true, then that’s fine, but if it didn’t make sense, I will kick you out of this school, and I was so scared because it was an opportunity for me to go to school, and I was like I think I’m screwed here, and he asked me to bring it and stand next to him, and I brought it and he read it, and then he was angry at my classmate because he wrote something that grammatically and syntactically and semantically, it made no sense. So in the beginning, the teacher thought it was my fault, but at the end it’s actually my classmate who didn’t know how to write complete sentences, and that teacher, he still is my friend now, I mean I had to go through a lot and face in Morocco, like face a lot of things like that where someone would say no, you can’t do it, or you don’t know how to do it, and I had to prove them wrong.
Jeff:
People putting limited expectations upon you.
Itto:
Mm-hm. And I think upon everybody who is different, like from a certain country or a person with a certain disability, like when someone sees a person with a disability they think they can’t do things, and that just has to change, because that’s not true. Maybe they can’t do things if they’ve never been taught how to do them, and that applies to everyone, whether you’re disabled or not.
Jeff:
Goes back to what you said about giving chance and opportunity.
Itto:
Exactly.
Jeff:
Yeah, like in that one interview you said it’s not because someone is a certain race or a certain color, or that they have certain beliefs, that everyone anywhere can be the same or different than anybody else.
Itto:
Exactly, yeah, those ideologies that are being taught over and over through different mediums like, whether parents, institutions or sometimes media, they do a lot of psychological change, they are really good at manipulating people’s way of thinking, what people believe, how people treat each other, and I think we have to go beyond what we can see or hear or think of, because if we think about disabilities, like a person with disabilities like myself who is totally blind, of course I was able to see before 17, so I know things, but even someone who is born blind, they still are being taught those concepts, and I think it’s time to overcome that and just think about humanity, and just focus more on togetherness and what makes us unique and we have to embrace differences and not think about that as something bad, but actually it’s something good, because that’s how we learn from each other. If we are all the same, then there’s nothing to learn.
Jeff:
I don’t even think I have to ask the question because everything you’ve said is advice for someone who wants to chase down and achieve their dreams.
Itto:
I think my advice is just believe in themselves, and it’s fine to struggle, because- it’s not good, it’s not great, like I’m not saying that someone going through a lot is a good thing, but it’s a part of life, if it happens to someone it’s not fun at the time, like you know, experiencing emotional or physical pain, but if they just allow emotion to be, you know, the emotions are like weather. If they allow them to just be what they are in the moment, they would be able to overcome that just by accepting life and reality as it is, because if we try to avoid pain, that’s how we make actually our lives more painful or worse.
Jeff:
What’s the name of your autobiography?
Itto:
Blindness is the Light of my Life.
Jeff:
I’m looking forward to that.
Itto:
Thank you.
Jeff:
Itto, I just want to thank you so much for sharing and being so upfront with everything, it’s quite a journey, it’s your journey, and I’m looking forward to your book coming out, it’d be great to read it, it’s on my list.
Itto:
Thank you, appreciate it, and thank you for the opportunity and thank you for hosting me on this show.
Jeff:
What a journey, a journey like no other. Be sure to check out her website, Itto Outini, that’s i-t-t-o-o-u-t-i-n-i, dot com. A big shout-out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music, you can follow Chee Chau on Twitter @lcheechau. And for more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the app store and Google Play store, that’s two words, Blind Abilities. And if you want to leave some feedback, give us some suggestions, give us a call at 612-367-6093. We’d love to hear from you. And from all of us here at Blind Abilities, through these challenging times, stay well, stay informed, and stay strong. I want to thank you for listening, and until next time, bye-bye.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
Contact:
You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities
On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com
Send us an email
Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store.
Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093 we would love to hear from you!
Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group