Pressing On: Meet Calvin

Twenty-two years ago, Calvin Robertson of Vacaville was diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy at the age of 41. It would take two decades and the loss of two wives and his mother for him to seek out help from Society for the Blind.

Calvin had noticed vision problems his whole life but thought he just needed better glasses. Yet when the self-employed IT consultant started noticing the white mouse icon on his computer screen was turning gray, he knew something was wrong. When he was diagnosed in 2004, Calvin said he was depressed – but only for a day or two.

“Then reality slapped me in the face and said your mom went blind from a stroke when you were 6 and she raised seven kids and did a wonderful job of it,” he said. “I had proof it could be done. If she could do it while raising kids, I could do it with grown children.”

Calvin also credits his first wife with helping him move forward after the diagnosis. They had raised three biological children together, as well as four of her siblings and a niece.

“My first wife was a wonderful lady and the type of person to say keep it moving, we’ll figure it out,” he said. “So, when I was diagnosed, that’s what we did. I kept working but really didn’t accept my blindness.”

Four years later, his wife passed away from kidney failure. As he grieved her passing, Calvin continued to work until 2010, having good friends and colleagues drive him to meetings, even though he felt like he could still drive. One day, his coworker was driving and suddenly stopped in the middle of the street.

“I asked her why she stopped and she said, ‘Can’t you see those kids?’ That was the day I knew my vision really had declined,” he said.

A friend suggested he apply for social security and disability, so he was connected to the Department of Rehabilitation, which put him in touch with Society for the Blind.

“I remember going down to Society for the Blind and being so impressed with what people were able to do there, but I just wasn’t ready to receive help,” he said.

Not long after, he met and married his second wife. In 2019, his life once again turned upside down when he and his wife experienced a head-on car collision. His wife passed away, and he suffered a traumatic brain injury and several broken bones.

While grieving the loss of his second wife, Calvin also was battling a significant decline in vision, which temporarily worsened for a couple years as he recovered.

“After the crash, I noticed that I could no longer see things across the street that I used to be able to see,” he said. “I think my brain was just too busy trying to heal my body. My vision eventually went back to where it was prior to the crash and has been stable for the past four or five years. The way I look at it, I still have peripheral vision, and while some people never had one good wife, I was blessed to have two good ones. So, press on is what I say.”

And press on he did – three years later in 2022, Calvin moved to Vacaville to care for his mom after she had another stroke. When she passed away, he bought her house and was living alone for the first time without a roommate. That’s when he realized he needed to get back in touch with Society for the Blind, and he began taking classes in fall 2025.

“I wish I had taken advantage of what Society had to offer me back in 2013 because my life has changed so much in the past year by being there,” he said. “My first class was tech, and even though I was a darn good IT guy and knew computers up and down, I was amazed at how easy it was to use a computer without vision.”

He also began attending life skills courses, orientation and mobility, and braille. Through the classes, he was in awe of people’s stories and what they were able to do.

“Those stories made me feel like a sighted slug,” Calvin said. “I couldn’t believe the types of things people were accomplishing with no vision, and here I am still with peripheral vision.”

He said using the Victor reader has helped him regain his lifelong love of reading, and taking orientation and mobility classes has helped him not only manage his visual disability but also his arthritis.

“What I really appreciate about Society for the Blind is that they train you and they train you well – and then they hold you accountable for the training you’ve received,” Calvin said. “I used to get really frustrated with my instructor when I would ask him what time it was and he would respond, ‘I don’t know, what time is it?’ even though he was sighted. I didn’t like that at first, but now I see how it helps folks adjust and become independent.”

Calvin also said Society’s LIFE Seminars – an acronym for Living Independent, Free and Empowered – are aptly named.

“Those words mean a lot to me now – independence and being empowered are wonderful,” he said. “I remember telling an instructor at Society that I was afraid to walk down the street with my white cane because I looked like a victim. She responded, ‘Well, I guess you could just stay in the house and do nothing for the rest of your life.’ I liked that. I’m out walking again, even though my body is in bad shape now. I’m motivated to go out and not stay home as much.”

Now Calvin is actively looking to further his career by offering his 30 years of expertise in the IT field along with the competency to do things non-visually.

Calvin Robertson

“At Society we talk about being competent and confident, and that’s how I feel,” Calvin said. “I know I can really bring a lot to whatever environment I’m hired in.”

Calvin said his many children and grandchildren are proud of how much he has accomplished at Society for the Blind.

“My kids are really impressed, and my grandkids are happy that I’m happy,” he said. “I know both my wonderful late wives would be very proud of me for accepting the reality of my vision loss and for learning as much as I’m learning.”

Calvin hopes people with vision loss will actively seek out Society for the Blind.

“I want people to know that no matter what life brings you, there’s ways to press on,” he said. “Your blindness is just one thing, but you have all the other things too. Society has really opened my eyes to that. There are people out there running in the Paralympics and playing blind tennis – things I didn’t even know were possible. People treat us like we’re helpless, but we’re not, especially with everything Society for the Blind teaches us.”