Larry Carlson, 62, is a former Las Vegas City traffic signal technician for nearly 30 years. Larry has experienced significant vision loss recently due to a progressive genetic eye disorder. The irony isn't lost on Carlson, whose job with the City of Las Vegas would often involve installing talking traffic signals for the visually impaired.
"After months of struggling to do the work I dedicated my entire career to - keeping pedestrians and drivers safe - there came a moment when I realized I could no longer do what I did best," said Carlson. "I didn't want to sink into despair like so many others diagnosed with rapid vision loss. I knew there was something different I could do to continue helping others."
Larry has taken numerous workshops from Hadley, from our Adjusting to Vision Loss series to Braille and even home repair.
"There's a lot of things you don't think about," Larry remarked, "I'm the one doing laundry in my household. But the controls are so far in the back of the machine I can't see them. So I learned through Hadley to label them with bump dots I can feel. These small things make all the difference."
"Fortunately, the new online learning platform contains thousands of things that if you didn't have low vision you would never think about," said Carlson.
“What's key for me is that there's hope there. You have to have hope that you can still do what you want in life."