Our Stories, Our Lives
Georgia Libraries for Accessible Statewide Services (GLASS) Oral History Project
GLASS-012
Anna Trotman interviewed by Stephanie Irvin
December 14, 2018
IRVIN: Hello, my name is Stephanie Irvin, and I'm going to have a conversation with
Anna Trotman for "Our Stories, Our Lives," an oral history project with the Georgia
Libraries for Accessible Statewide Services, Georgia's talking book and braille library. It
is December 14, 2018, and this is being recorded in the Center for the Visually Impaired
in Atlanta, Georgia.
Thank you, Anna, for being with me today.
TROTMAN: You're welcome.
I was born in 1981 in Montgomery, Alabama. I was born with jaundice and spent the
first three weeks of my life in two different hospitals, mainly because they thought I was
going to be retarded. But it turned out that I had blood clots in both of my kidneys that
that would continue to decline until I was sixteen years old when they finally failed.
When I was learning to walk, my parents noticed that my eyes would go back and forth,
so I had spasmus nutans from chickenpox. They also noticed that I couldn't tell the
difference from where the carpet started and the tile ended. So they knew that I had
some depth perception problems.
We moved to Gwinnett County in 1985. They also knew that I had some problems with
speech, so I started speech therapy when I was four years old.
I went to public school--Centerville Elementary, Shiloh Elementary, Shiloh Middle
School, and Shiloh High School.
At the age of seven, I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, which is an eye
condition where light doesn't come in and you can't see some colors, and you also have
depth perception and no night vision. I continued to live a healthy life in school. I would
sit very close to the board. I'd wear thick glasses and use my listening skills to get
through towards high school.
At age eleven, I had to have surgery for--some surgery. And then at thirteen, I had eye
surgery to strengthen the muscles in my eyes, but it didn't work.
Like I said, when I was sixteen years old, my kidneys failed, and I was on dialysis for six
months, and then my father was tested to be a donor and he gave me his kidney when I
was--on October 22, 1998. And I have been rejection-free for almost twenty years.
In 2000, I got black spots in front on my right optic nerve, and a neuro-ophthalmologist
at Emory diagnosed me with pseudotumor cerebri, which is a false tumor that puts
pressure on your right optic nerve. So I've had four spinal taps to relieve the fluid.
When I graduated from high school, I went on to attend the University of Alabama at
Birmingham and earned a bachelor of arts degree in communication studies with a
concentration in communication management and a minor in health education.
In 2003, my eyesight got worse. From the second spinal tap, I lost my hearing. So I use
digital Bluetooth hearing aids.
I graduated from college. In 2007, I went to the E.H. Gentry Technical Facility. It's a
residential adult training center for people who are blind, deaf, and who have general
disabilities. So I got to be around other blind people, other deaf people, other people
who had general disabilities, and I learned a lot from there. That is where I learned
braille in about four months and use it every day since.
In 2008, I decided to go back to school. And in 2009, enrolled in the University of
Alabama for my master's degree in rehabilitation counseling and earned my master's
degree in 2011.
From there, I didn't really know what to do. My parents had always taught me that, even
if you have obstacles in your life, you don't give up. So after my master's degree, I did
some paid work experiences and found the love of braille again and teaching it to adults
who are blind at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind.
But there was no jobs in teaching braille, so I decided that I needed some more training,
especially in cane travel and home management skills. So I attended the Louisiana
Center for the Blind in 2013. Under sleep shades for eight hours a day, learning
alternative techniques and everything.
Then in 2015, I got a job as a vocational rehabilitation counselor at the Iowa Department
of Blind. But that didn't really work out, because it was isolation and it was with people
that were not very friendly or nice. It was just very
isolated, so after that, came home, started looking for braille instructor jobs and found
this incredible, amazing opportunity at the Center for the Visually Impaired teaching
adults in braille. And one thing that it allows me to do is to, once a student learns braille
and sees what it can do for their lives, I also help them apply for GLASS, Georgia
Libraries for Accessible Statewide Services, so they can get talking books, braille
books, BARD. One thing that I love about the State of Georgia: You get a free
Bookshare membership, which is not very known in other states. You usually pay for the
membership.
My message to other people is, there may be obstacles and other things in your lives,
but don't ever give up. And always find mentors and people that can help you and show
you the way.
IRVIN: Thank you so much, Anna, for taking time to talk with me today.
TROTMAN: You're welcome.