BLIND MAN SEES WITH HIS HEART 
Thursday, May 03, 2001 
By Karen Kurdziel, The Sun 

James Smith has a talking watch, a talking clock - even a talking calculator. 
Since Smith, 59, lost his vision five years ago due to glaucoma, he's discovered 
a gaggle of gadgets that help him navigate his suddenly darkened world. 
But he's most grateful for the people he has encountered since that morning in 
1996 when he woke up nearly blind. They are responsible for the rich life he 
lives today, Smith insists. 

"Now I walk by faith, not by sight," said Smith, a former real estate appraiser 
who believes there is a reason this happened to him at an early age. God has a 
way of getting one's attention. 

His blindness afflicted him suddenly, even though he had been tested for 
glaucoma four months earlier. Damage to the optic nerve which carries images to 
the brain causes loss of vision. 

Since he lost his sight, Smith, a tall, stately man with a voice like James Earl 
Jones, has become more active than ever at Liberty Baptist Church in Cleveland. 
There he serves on the ushers board, attends meetings and services, and visits 
the sick. He lives alone on the bright and tidy second floor of a Shaker Heights 
double house, where he manages most of his daily activities with a little help 
from a home health aide.

Smith, who calls his fellow-parishioners at Liberty Baptist his family, credits 
the staff at Hines V. A. Hospital west of Chicago, for his ability to live a 
nearly normal life on his own. He's also grateful to the folks at The Hadley 
School for the Blind in nearby Winnetka, Ill., for stimulating his intellectual 
bent via correspondence courses. 

Because Smith spent two years in the Army - one of them in Korea - he qualified 
for a special program for the blind at Hines. There he learned to get around 
Chicago using a cane, including traveling on the El, the elevated transit line 
there. 

Now he is able to traverse his Shaker Heights neighborhood himself, and goes 
with a friend to Heinen's for groceries. He also walks Shaker's high school 
track with a buddy, and gets to church via a van operated by four Heights area 
communities. A Shaker Heights van takes him to the doctor, compliments of the 
Community Life Department. 

Although Smith is legally blind, he does have a little pinpoint of vision. He 
has learned to read with the use of magnifying aids. He has also mastered a 
myriad of devices that help him balance his checkbook, cook his meals, get up on 
time and use his specially outfitted computer to surf the Internet and get his 
e-mail.

Although he hadn't worked with computers previously, he soon learned to type and 
has conquered computer basics. He especially enjoys using his velcro-marked 
keyboard to have his hometown paper, The St. Petersburg Times, read to him every 
day. 

Smith, a graduate of what is now the David N. Myers College in Cleveland, has 
also become a student again, this time by taking correspondence courses from 
Chicago's Hadley School, the largest worldwide educator of blind and visually 
impaired people. Hadley is run entirely with private funding and all its courses 
are tuition-free, according to spokesperson Holly Goldin. 

"The people at Hines asked me if I was interested in taking courses at Hadley," 
Smith said. He was. He started by acing the computer course via correspondence. 
Now he's taking Old Testament Law and History. 

He uses a small device that resembles a telephone beeper to listen to lectures 
on scripture. It's called the roadrunner Bible, said Smith, who was an engineer 
with The Illuminating Company for 15 years before switching to real estate 
appraising. He said he must be completely blind before he will learn braille. 
For now he uses a closed circuit television, which enlarges whatever he wants to 
read. 

Because Smith has diabetes and is African-American, and because his father also 
had glaucoma, he was at very high risk to get the disease. In fact, it is the 
leading cause of blindness in African-Americans, according to the Glaucoma 
Research Foundation. The causes of glaucoma are not yet well understood, and 
there is no cure, although there are a variety of treatments. The foundation 
recommends regular eye exams as the best way to detect the disease. 

Smith's hope, since he can no longer work, is to serve humanity and bring 
brotherhood to all. Smith said he is filled with joy, and sees God's hand in 
everything that's happened to him. He can't say enough good things about the 
people at Hines and Hadley, and about the staff at the Cleveland Sight Center 
who told him about Hines. Now he wants to give as well as receive, and he would 
be happy to hear from anyone who wants more information about all the resources 
available for the blind. 

Smith can be reached at (216) 283-8640; e-mail - www.visionseven@juno.com.