Kaili Boyd

10 years ago, Jessica Jones was teaching art for the New York City Public School system.  She settled in the West Village after receiving her Master’s degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design.  She was happily living her life and practicing her passion for photography when tragedy struck. 

Jones, who was diagnosed with Type I diabetes at the age of 7, was suddenly going blind from a condition called diabetic retinopathy at the age of 32. Diabetic retinopathy is the most common diabetic eye disease and a leading cause of blindness in American adults.  It is usually treatable and in most cases progresses slowly.  Jessica was not so lucky.  Despite treatment and surgery, she lost her sight in a matter of eight months.

Upon realizing that her sight loss was permanent, her first concern was not how she would survive, but how would she continue to teach art. She left her job and began the extensive rehabilitation that would eventually include her obtaining a guide dog named Chef- a black Labrador retriever that is the mainstay of her support system.  In the meantime, she began observing art classes being taught to blind and multiply handicapped students.

While struggling to find work as a teacher with no experience teaching special education Ms. Jones began working with a job counselor from the Jewish Guild for the Blind.  It was suggested that she obtain the necessary experience through an internship with one of the schools she had previously contacted to observe classes.  She obtained that experience with the New York Institute for Special Education, who gave her a reference to teach at a school for the Blind in the Bronx.  Her temporary summer employment at the school became permanent in the fall.  She then began to develop a curriculum for a facility catering to the needs of a multiply handicapped population that hadn’t had an art program in almost a decade.

It should be no surprise, even to Jessica that she found her way to teaching art to the blind and multiply handicapped.  While completing her student teaching, Jessica had the opportunity to head her own classes within a population of special education students.  It was from this experience that she developed her thesis around the idea that the production of art can only improve cognitive development in all children.

When most people would have given up hope of ever being able to pursue their dreams, Jones persevered.  In addition to finding her way back to teaching art she also found a way to continue pursuing her love of photography.  She became involved with a project called The Seeing With Photography Collective, a group of blind and sighted photographers that work together to make images.  Before she found a permanent teaching position she also taught a sculpture class to children and worked as a model.  Jessica Jones is living proof that despite adversity, one can still find the path to pursuing one’s dreams.