About Veronica Lewis and Veroniiiica (Veronica With Four Eyes)
Welcome to Veroniiiica®, a trusted resource for low vision assistive technology and practical tips for visually impaired students, their families, and educators that align with the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC). I’m Veronica Lewis, and I’ve been sharing how I live with low vision and learn with assistive technology since 2016, offering free, up-to-date resources to help students with low vision thrive in the classroom and beyond.
The name Veroniiiica is a playful twist on the phrase “four eyes” that refers to people who wear glasses, usually in a teasing way. I added three additional I’s to my name to create Veronica With Four Eyes and @veron4ica. To learn more about how I started writing, read My Paths to Technology: An interview with Veronica Lewis from Perkins School for the Blind.
Third-person short bio
Veronica Lewis is a PhD student at George Mason University studying Education. She has written hundreds of free resources about she lives with low vision and learns with assistive technology on her website Veroniiiica® (Veronica With Four Eyes), using both her lived experiences and professional experiences as an assistive technology specialist to share tips and strategies for the classroom and beyond.
Academic background
When I first created Veroniiiica, I had recently graduated with an advanced diploma from Virginia Public Schools. I attended local mainstream schools with an IEP for visual impairment, though briefly had a 504 plan for low vision/Student Assistance Plan for low vision in middle school. I was the only (diagnosed) visually impaired student at my school, and didn’t meet another student with low vision until college!
Currently, I am a second-year PhD student studying Education at George Mason University, with specializations in Special Education and Learning Technologies Design Research; I am advised by Dr. Anya Evmenova. I also hold a B.S. in Computational and Data Sciences (assistive technology minor) and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction: Assistive Technology from GMU.
My research focuses on assistive technology for low vision access, accessibility strategies, and compensatory skills used by visually impaired college students as they navigate physical and digital campus environments, including how students with low vision and/or CVI access academic materials like textbooks or accessible equations. I also work as a graduate research assistant on a project related to assistive technology for writing, and as a co-instructor for an undergraduate special education technology course.
My personal journey with low vision
I was diagnosed with low vision and accommodative esotropia at age three, which is a type of strabismus that contributes to double vision, blurry vision, a lack of depth perception, and decreased peripheral vision; my vision loss cannot be fully corrected by glasses, contacts, or surgery. My eyes naturally turn inward, just like the Veroniiiica logo.
We later learned I have both an ocular visual impairment and neurological visual impairment, along with Chiari 1 malformation and decompensated strabismus. My usable vision meets the criteria for Category 2 Low Vision in both eyes, or legal blindness. I am followed by a low vision specialist and wear prescription glasses with bifocals and non-polarized tinted lenses to manage light sensitivity/photophobia. While I have a progressive visual impairment, it is unlikely I will lose my vision completely or go blind from this condition.
My vision fluctuates frequently due to factors like light, temperature, and fatigue. I rely on a variety of assistive technologies and primarily access information visually with large print, with audio as a secondary medium. I also use a blindness cane (white cane) for independent mobility and navigating different environments. Because I have reduced sensitivity in my hands from Chiari malformation, I do not use braille regularly, but consider learning braille just as important as learning to read print.
Popular topics on Veroniiiica
Explore my post categories to learn about:
- Accessibility settings for low vision
- Assistive technology for visual impairment
- Classroom accommodations for visually impaired students, including my experiences with a visual impairment IEP
- College disability accommodations for visual impairment and college transition resources for visually impaired students
- Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) resources for visually impaired students and teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs/TSVIs)
- Going to college with low vision
- Assistive technology for reading, including large print and screen magnification
- Low vision accessibility and low-cost/free assistive technology for vision impairment
- Chiari malformation vision loss and assistive technology for Chiari malformation
- Writing alt text for blind/low vision audiences
- And more!
When I use the term visual impairment in my posts, I typically use it broadly to include blind, low vision, and CVI (neurological visual impairment). I try to include a mix of options for nonvisual accessibility, low vision accessibility, and display customizations.
Disability 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.”
Additionally, 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 use the words low vision and visual impairment/visually impaired to describe my own vision, and sometimes use legally blind or vision impairment. I do not refer to myself as blind because I primarily access information visually (e.g., with large print), but there are many people who self-identify as blind regardless of their residual vision.
A few of my favorite things
Besides writing about low vision and assistive technology, here are a few of my favorite things:
- Favorite color: Purple! It’s the color of my glasses and coincidentally the color for Chiari Malformation awareness. I even have a white and purple Ambutech cane.
- Favorite thing on the internet: Animal pictures with alt text or image descriptions, especially if they include funny or creative descriptions. I have been interviewed by numerous outlets as a subject matter expert on alt text and image descriptions, including The Wall Street Journal, Mashable, The BBC, and more.
- Favorite instrument: Clarinet! My bass clarinet and accessible sheet music made a cameo during Inclusion in Action: My Microsoft Feature
- Favorite hobby: I love cooking and baking, and maintain an impressive spice rack with large print labels at home. When I’m not reading about low vision accessibility/assistive technology, I am often reading cookbooks in large print, checking out new recipes, or learning about different dishes and cuisines.
- Favorite quote: “For people without disabilities, technology makes things easier. For people with disabilities, technology makes things possible.” – IBM Training Manual, 1991