This is a transcript of a video called “Knowbility on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2000” published on Knowbility’s YouTube channel on February 27, 2018.
[music that ends before Oprah Winfrey begins speaking]
Oprah Winfrey: Jon Carmain had it all, a successful business, a healthy family, And an active life filled with horseback riding and fly fishing. And one day, five years ago, Jon woke up and could not see. At 53 years old, he was legally blind and suddenly unable to do all the things that had made him feel whole. Take a look at how technology then helped Jon find his way out of the deep darkness and helped him to free his spirit. Look.
Jon Carmain: [piano music throughout Jon’s monologue] My life was really quite active. My wife and I had successfully gotten four children through college. We did a lot of fly fishing, skiing, and horseback riding. So, we had a very full life. In January of '96, I noticed a smudge on my glasses, and I would wipe my glasses clean and put them back on and the smudge didn't go away.
Four months later, I had gotten up in the middle of the night, turned on the light switch It was like a lightbulb burned out, a flash, then it was black. I do have a fair amount of peripheral vision. I have no central vision, which means nothing is in clear focus. The most devastating thing is you lose your independence. I was very depressed about not being able to see my grandchildren grow up.
I think I received my first glimpse that I might be able to come out of this dark period when I came to the conclusion that I wasn't getting it done myself. I decided to take the next step to determine if technology could help me out a little bit and there happened to be a store that catered to people with visual impairments. They showed me a device that would magnify anything. They said, why don't you just take it home, money - back guarantee.
We unpacked it and plugged it in And I was able to read two letters. That moment, something happened. The tears just flowed. I realized there was hope, there was light at the end of the tunnel and I could climb out of this thing. Prior to that moment, my spirit was very low. After that moment, my spirit became free
So I started looking into other technology And found some screen readers which read a computer screen to a viewer.
Screen reader: Center. Rules.
Jon Carmain: That technology opened up another tremendous avenue for me because now I can get on the internet and that gave me a lot of confidence. So I decided to try fishing and I caught a fish! The fishing experience led to horse back riding. When I'm riding, it feels like I can see again and I've got my independence back. I wanted to take my success and share that with as many people as I could ‘cause I knew they necessarily didn't have the same access to technology that I had.
I joined forces with a national nonprofit called Knowbility who's dedicated to promoting barrier-free access to the internet for people with disabilities. If somebody came to me and offered to roll back the clock and give me back my sight, I would not take them up on that. I would not have the same enriched spirit that I have today. I'm a different person that I was and I like the person that I am today. Yahooooo!
[piano music ends before Oprah Winfrey begins speaking]
Oprah Winfrey: Thank you, Jon If you want more information about Jon's nonprofit organization, Knowbility, contact our website at Oprah.com. And for all of the items that you saw on the show today I know y'all want one of those [inaudible] yourself. If you want to know how to get them, go to Oprah.com. We will be right back!