Reflections Magazine Issue #60 - Fall 2003 | Page 5

Blindness No
Obstacle To Active Siena
Heights Graduate

From the
Heights

3
Jo Ann Sheehan of Lansing is one of Siena’s
newest alumni, having completed her bachelor’s
degree in community service this summer with
SHU at Lansing Community College. She participated in Commencement on the main campus
in May, walking with her leader dog, Misty.
Jo, as she is known to her friends, has been
legally blind for 17 years, but this has not kept
her from pursuing her goal of helping others
with disabilities.
She first enrolled at Siena Heights three years
ago after earning her associate’s degree at LCC.
Her Siena instructors were very helpful, she
said, allowing her to tape record class lectures
and discussions. Professors often sent exams
by e-mail (she uses special voice recognition
software to translate messages) or read test
questions aloud to her.
Jo Ann began losing her vision in the 1970s and
was declared legally blind in 1986. “Through my
faith, the Lord gave me the strength and courage
to go on with life, even though I couldn’t see,”
she says. “I learned Braille and used a white
cane for five years.”
In 1991, she got her first leader dog, a golden
Labrador named Sadie. When Sadie “retired”
because of arthritis in 2001, Jo Ann returned
to Leader Dogs for the Blind and received her
curre