English
Introduction
My name is Morgan and I’m currently a senior in high school. I began taking piano lessons at age six. When I was nine, I was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease, a form of juvenile macular degeneration that causes progressive vision loss. While the condition progresses slowly, the initial loss of sight is significant. Piano was my constant during my transition from having 20/20 vision to not even being able to read the whiteboard at school anymore. When I started piano I learned the traditional way by reading sheet music, but once my vision deteriorated, I began to learn songs by working with my teacher as she gave me small segments of each song until I memorized the entire song. When I was 12, I quit playing because I was unable to accept the state of my eyesight and began to resent the piano because at one point I could see the music and piano was the thing I was doing when I lost my vision. 5 years later, during the quarantine of the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to pick up piano again. With no teacher and unable to read sheet music, I invented my own method for learning songs.
On this website you’ll find three sections: a section where I explain my method for learning music, including clips and images, a section of my repertoire with images of transcribed music and a short clip of its final product, and a section dedicated to famous musicians who had a variety of disabilities but didn't let their challenge hold them back from accomplishing great things. I wanted to make this website to tell my story and to show other people with visual impairments (or any challenge that is considered a disability) that you can think outside the box to come up with adaptations that work. I spent a long time feeling distanced from classmates in school because with my accommodations I didn’t match the other students. But as I've been dealing with my visual impairment for almost a decade now and have matured, I’ve embraced my differences and utilized my resources to find alternative ways to do something I love. My hobby is piano and my area of expertise is vision loss, but the idea that you can modify a way of doing something to suit your specific needs is applicable across many disciplines under many different circumstances.
My goal is not only to be a role model for young people struggling, but also, in addition to offering my website as a resource, to talk to others who share this part of my identity. I myself understand first hand what it’s like to not be able to see, and from my own experience I feel qualified to help people move to overcome their battle. I’d love to talk to anyone who is interested in trying something new but maybe has been told it’s impossible.
Please feel free to email me: lizzmcs@icloud.com