Welcome to Veroniiiica®— Veronica With Four Eyes! If you would like to use my content for your blog, website, or newsletter, please give credit to Veronica Lewis at Veronica With Four Eyes and link back to the original URL (starting with veroniiiica.com). Do not reprint or copy/paste the entire post without prior written permission. Social media and email/listserv shares are always welcome. Thank you!
About Veronica Lewis
I’m Veronica Lewis, also known as @Veron4ica. I’m a PhD student studying Education, with a specific interest in assistive technology for college students with visual impairments. I started Veroniiiica (Veronica With Four Eyes) from my dorm room at George Mason University as an undergraduate student in 2016 to share how I live with low vision and learn with assistive technology, creating free resources filled with tips and strategies that can be used in the classroom and beyond. I frequently update my posts to share new things I’ve learned or add additional information, and strive to share content that is both positive and practical.
To learn more about how I started writing, read this August 2025 interview with the Paths to Technology microsite from Perkins School for the Blind— My Paths to Technology: An interview with Veronica Lewis
Some of my most popular post topics and post categories include:
- Accessibility settings for low vision
- Assistive technology for visual impairment
- Built-in accessibility features for low vision
- Chiari malformation and neurological visual impairment/assistive technology for Chiari malformation
- Classroom accommodations and disability accommodations for visual impairment, including visual impairment IEP and college accommodations for low vision
- College transition and college preparation for visually impaired students
- Expanded Core Curriculum for visual impairment (ECC)
- How I use assistive technology with low vision in my daily life
- Going to college with low vision/attending university with visual impairment
- Large print, accessible text, screen magnification
- Low-cost and free assistive technology for low vision access
- Low vision accessibility
Whether you’re new to the world of low vision and assistive technology or just wondering what’s new, Veronica With Four Eyes has something for everyone!
Academic background
My academic background is in data science and assistive technology, and attending George Mason University made it possible to pursue both of these interests simultaneously during undergrad. I hold a B.S. in Computational and Data Sciences with a minor in assistive technology and a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction: Concentration in Assistive Technology, both from GMU. I also took additional coursework in Cerebral/Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI), also known as neurological visual impairment. As of 2025, I am studying for a PhD in Education at George Mason University, with specializations in Special Education and Learning Technologies Design Research.
My research focuses on assistive technology, accessibility strategies, and compensatory skills that help college/university students with low vision and neurological visual impairments access physical and digital environments. One of my favorite quotes comes from a training manual from IBM that states “For people without disabilities, technology makes things easier. For people with disabilities, technology makes things possible,” and my goal is to identify skills that make accessing technology and educational materials in higher education settings both easier and possible. For me, life is research and research is life, and I use the lens of my own lived experiences to inform my research interests and practices.
Prior to George Mason, I attended local (mainstream) public schools in Virginia. Starting in high school, I took a mix of in-person and virtual/online classes offered through the local school district, and had an IEP for visual impairment for most of my time in school— I briefly had a 504 Plan and Student Assistance Plan for low vision in middle school. I was the only student in my school identified as having a visual impairment, and didn’t meet another student with low vision until I was in college! I now receive accommodations through Disability Services at GMU.
More about my eyes and low vision diagnosis
I was diagnosed with low vision and accommodative esotropia at age 3, a common childhood eye condition and type of strabismus that can cause double vision, blurry vision, a lack of depth perception, and decreased peripheral vision; I received the low vision diagnosis since my vision loss can’t be corrected by glasses, surgery, or contacts, though I do wear prescription glasses. Accommodative esotropia causes my eyes to turn inward towards my nose, which is reflected in my logo— the “eyes” inside the pair of glasses are not perfectly straight.
I was told my vision would improve as I got older (a common characteristic of accommodative esotropia), but a secondary medical condition led to sharp vision declines about every five years, affecting my distance vision, light sensitivity, and ability to read small print due to increased double vision/blurry vision. I started using a blindness cane (white cane) at age 18 at the beginning of college, and it has been instrumental in helping me to navigate and travel independently, as well as reducing the risk of injuries. I wear prescription non-polarized tinted glasses with a lined bifocal and a level 3 brown tint.
The aforementioned secondary medical condition went undetected until a vision decline at age 14 also involved the onset of various neurological symptoms, which four years later were confirmed to be from Chiari Malformation (pronounced key-ah-ree). Also known as Chiari 1 Malformation, it is a structural neurological condition that can also contribute to low vision and double vision, with symptoms often appearing during teenage years.
With the combined diagnosis of accommodative esotropia and Chiari Malformation, a third diagnosis was made for decompensated strabismus. My usable vision is influenced by a mix of ocular visual impairment (eye-based) and neurological visual impairment (brain-based). My vision loss has continued to progress/change over time, and I have been certified as legally blind and meeting the criteria for Category 2 low vision in both eyes by a low vision specialist. It is highly unlikely that my condition will progress to the point I would rely exclusively on nonvisual strategies or lose all of my usable vision (also known as “going blind”).
My vision often fluctuates throughout the day due to different environmental factors that can make it more challenging for me to focus my eyes or process visual information, so I have a “toolbox” of different assistive technologies I use for different tasks depending on my level of usable vision. In terms of learning media and information access, I primarily use large print and access information visually, with audio/auditory learning as a secondary medium. I have reduced sensitivity in my hands from neuropathy related to Chiari Malformation, and I do not read braille in my day-to-day life.
Even though I do not use braille myself, I recognize it as a crucial literacy tool for people who access information nonvisually, and hold the personal and professional belief that print literacy (whether in the form of visual or tactile print) is a critical skill for students with visual impairments to possess in order to be successful across their lifespan.
A note on language
I use a mix of person-first and identity-first disability language and have no preference for what language people use around me or when writing about me. However, I ask that people refrain from using terms that make disability sound miserable or awful, such as “suffering from low vision”, “tragically unable to read small print”, or “plagued by Chiari Malformation.”
I do not do things “in spite of” or “despite” low vision, nor do I “overcome” my low vision through the use of assistive technology or other accessibility strategies— in many cases, I do things because of low vision.
I personally use the words low vision or visually impaired/visual impairment to describe my own vision, and occasionally the phrases legally blind or vision impaired/vision impairment. I do not generally refer to myself as blind/Blind because I primarily access information visually (e.g. in large print), but I acknowledge that many people use the term to describe their own visual impairment experiences.
When I use the term visual impairment in a post, it is typically an umbrella term that is inclusive of Blind, low vision, and CVI (neurological visual impairment), unless otherwise noted. I try to include a mix of options for low-visual, nonvisual, and customizations for visual access when documenting tips and strategies in each of my posts.
Third-person short bio
Veronica Lewis started writing about how she lives with low vision and learns with assistive technology on her website Veroniiiica® (Veronica With Four Eyes) from her dorm room in 2016. Now a PhD student studying Education, Veroniiiica is filled with hundreds of free resources filled with tips and strategies that can be used in the classroom and beyond that combine her “lived” experiences with visual impairment and her “learned” experiences as an assistive technology professional. Explore Veronica’s work at www.veroniiiica.com.
Other fun facts about me
- I’ve been featured by numerous news outlets, nonprofits, and tech companies as a subject matter expert on low vision assistive technology and alt text/image descriptions, including Microsoft, Perkins School for the Blind, The Wall Street Journal, The BBC, Mashable, and several others.
- My website name is inspired by having “four eyes”, which is a slang term for someone that wears glasses and is often used in a teasing way. I decided to reclaim the term by adding three additional I’s to my name, making me Veronica with four i’s (eyes).
- My favorite thing on the internet is pictures of animals with alt text/image descriptions added. I love seeing pet owners write creative alt text or reading image descriptions for silly poses/expressions. A close second is pictures of food— it’s fun to recreate recipes and try different flavors/ingredient combinations.
- My favorite color is purple! Purple is also the color of my glasses and coincidentally the color for Chiari malformation awareness, so the color is incorporated throughout my website. I even have a white and purple cane.