John practicing Sin Moo Hapkido.
By Kristen Mulvihill
Scheie Vision Annual Report 2021
The Penn Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation’s Vision Loss Support Group has been serving members of the Philadelphia community since 2017, offering support to individuals with visual impairments that can no longer be improved through medical or surgical means. The group provides an opportunity for members to share their experiences and learn about available resources.
One of these members, John Skokowski, Jr., is a Penn Medicine employee. John serves as the Senior Patient Care Manager at the Penn Medicine Autism Clinic. He was diagnosed with a genetic retinal degenerative disease called myopic degeneration and has been legally blind and color blind for the past 20 years. A leading cause of legal blindness, myopic degeneration is a severe form of nearsightedness that damages the retina.
John began to lose his vision during adolescence and was forced to stop driving around the age of 21. Despite this debilitating disease, John persevered. He received his graduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in psychological services, and went on to obtain his school counseling certificate. Before joining Penn Medicine in 2019, John worked for a non-profit agency that provided school-based behavioral support programs for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
On the last Tuesday of each month, John attends the Vision Loss Support Group, led by Ranjoo Prasad, OD, Director of the Penn Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation, and Sheri Grand Drossner, a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Scheie Eye Institute. “It’s always helpful to hear different people’s perspectives in the group,” he said. “Even though we’re all kind of dealing with the same thing, everyone has a different background and a different way of handling things.”
The support group has connected John to various resources that have helped him to navigate his daily life, including a range of visual assistive devices. John uses software such as ZoomText, which magnifies the text on his phone and reads messages aloud. He also uses a handheld digital, electronic magnifier to help locate numbers on documents such as his state identification card and his Penn Medicine identification card. Though he has been managing his vision loss for more than 20 years, John always learns something new from the support group.
“One of the group members helps a lot with distributing and disseminating some of the information and resources that are out there that other members might not know about, like participation groups, survey groups, and other ways to get involved,” he explained.
John maintains a positive mindset and stays focused on what he can accomplish rather than his limitations. Despite being legally blind, John continues to lead a healthy lifestyle and exercises regularly. He holds a fifth degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a sixth degree black belt in Sin Moo Hapkido, a type of Korean martial arts. He has been training and teaching these disciplines since 1993.
“It’s always easier to rationalize excuses for what you can’t do, but when you find solutions for problems that allow you to do what you can and want to do, life becomes much more rewarding and satisfying,” said John. “While yes, I do have limitations related to legal blindness, I am also strong, capable, intelligent, and competent. Having a visual impairment is only one aspect of who I am and not the only defining characteristic of John Skokowski, Jr.!”