We are forever and deeply indebted to Dr. Christine Roman and the work of the Pediatric VIEW. There is an absolute line of demarcation in our lives – a before and after – in meeting, learning of and applying Dr. Roman’s work. Our daughter, Emma, who has Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI), a brain-based visual processing disorder and the number one pediatric visual impairment in developed countries, struggled her entire life to learn, to communicate, to walk, to gain independence. Not for lack of trying, as Emma is a determined young lady, but for lack of access, visual 
access because of CVI. Looking at Emma you might not suspect that she is legally blind. But her CVI prevented her from understanding the world around her and engaging in it (vision precedes action). We knew she was smart, but we could not figure out how to unlock her abilities. Until we met Dr. Roman and she taught us. And that changed everything.
After conducting a CVI Range Assessment, Dr. Roman shared how Emma was using her vision and the CVI Range Assessment tool, developed by Dr. Roman, gave us tremendous guidance on how to support Emma in using and increasing her functional vision. In doing so, Emma can now express her thoughts, wants and needs with a custom-designed
visually accessible augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device. Her AAC gives her voice to hundreds and hundreds of words. This, of a young lady who at 15 was said she could not learn to read her own name, can now read. She can navigate her world independently with a power wheelchair, traveling along different routes, scanning environments for landmarks like curb cuts, electric door buttons, entrances and exits. Her independence in self-care has exploded and her fear of so many previously unknown, unpredictable things in this world has decreased with her awe-inspiring improvements in functional vision. Emma’s life moved from passive to active, from solitude to spending Tuesdays on lunch dates with her friends, from being pushed around in a wheelchair to driving herself around museums and parks, from waiting for someone to put on a movie to telling Alexa what she 
wants to watch, from sitting in her bedroom alone to bi-skiing in the winter and golf cart and boat riding in the summer. Emma’s life no longer consists of the small, safe room she didn’t want to leave. She now experiences this world as a big, wonderous place of adventure. Such an incredible gift of our daughter and our family. For all Emma has and has yet to become, we are forever grateful to Dr. Christine Roman, the Pediatric VIEW and The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh for their continued work to improve the lives of children like Emma and families like ours. Thank you for believing in our children and giving us not only hope, but a path forward. We are forever grateful. Truly.
Written by: Lynn Elko, mother of Emma