In The Eye Of The Beholder

Jackson Colburn is 15, and will be 16 in a few days. He goes to Frenship High School and will be a junior in the fall. He recently passed his driving test and will get his license like many do at his age, but he is not the average high school student.

Jackson was born with cataracts.

“It’s basically like having a piece of wax paper over your eye,” Jackson said. “That is what I would compare it to.”

When he was 9 months old, his baby sitter noticed that he was not moving around and it prompted his parents to take him to get things checked out, Jackson said.

“I think right after they found out, I had to have surgery to get the cataracts out,” Jackson said.

From when he was 9 months old until around the age of 7, Jackson said, he had to wear glasses that magnified his vision.

Jackson’s glasses until age 7, photo courtesy of Facebook

“Doctors told me that I would wear those glasses until I was 21,” Jackson said.

When he was 7 years old, he began wearing glasses that were not as strong, paired with contacts, Jackson said, and they made his vision about 20/200.

Originally, doctors told him that he would not have lens implant surgery until he turned 21, Jackson said, but when he was 13 years old, he did.

Today, Jackson said, his vision is at 20/50 and he can see things he has never seen before.

“I saw steam for the first time after my first lens implant surgery,” Jackson said with a smile on is face. “I had never seen that before and I probably played with it for at least an hour.”

Jackson is currently participating in SWEEP, or the Summer Work Experience and Empowerment Program. It is run through the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitation Services and Texas Tech, Jackson said.

SWEEP is a five-week program that allows young, visually disabled people from the area to get a job, and learn to live an independent life, Jackson said.

Jackson said participants live on campus in Gates Hall and go home on the weekends. He said they get jobs and go to them everyday from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon.

Tanya Washington, a vocational rehabilitation counselor for DARS who worked for SWEEP a few years ago, said SWEEP has one goal: to help the people participating in the program live, and live independently.

“It’s a big eye opener to parents,” Washington said, “to see that confidence in their kids and to see them dream that dream.”

Washington said the young adults in SWEEP learn how to navigate in their community. In Lubbock, many have to rely on Citibus.

SWEEP also allows participants to get a job and be fully functional adults, Washington said.

Jackson got his job with the advertising department of Citibus, and he said he helps with the wraps that are on buses and the fliers inside.

“For some people it is mechanics, for others it is office work, and for me it is advertising, because that is what I want to go into later,” Jackson said.

After their job each day, Jackson said, they do activities around town. He said they have been to Main Event, Joyland, and the South Plains Mall, to learn how to be able to live their lives independently.

Jackson said SWEEPS has helped him realize how much he depends on his sight. He said the program makes them wear blindfolds to learn how life is for someone who is completely blind.

“We go and cook, and when we do we have to wear blindfolds,” Jackson said. “We do cane training. They’ll blindfold us and we have to walk around campus and get a first hand experience on what total blindness is like. When your eyes are covered up, the rest of your senses kick in and take the place of where your eyes were.”

Washington said SWEEPS makes the participants want to have more freedom.

“It’s like they think, ‘I can do this,'” Washington said. “They get that glimpse of what it will be like for their future.”

Washington said she was 28 when she lost her vision, and to her, SWEEP helps these youths know they are not alone.

“I was isolated. It put that isolation in me,” Washington said. “With SWEEP, that confidence these kids get and that socialization and realizing, ‘I’m not alone,” is key.”

Jackson said Citibus has offered him a job when school starts. He will be working with advertising, getting to design and place fliers inside of the buses.

“Really,” Jackson said, “nobody gets it, until you ‘see it’ from someone else’s eyes.”

After six corrective eye surgeries, Jackson said, he tries every day not to take things for granted.

“Honestly, people take being able to see their family for granted,” Jackson said. “Seeing my family is probably the most important thing because they have been with me since day one, and I am thankful to be able to take the blindfold off and see them.”

Jackson, age 15, photo courtesy of Facebook