ZoomText Goes to Grad School

January 24, 2008

Studying molecular and cell biology.  Investigating the enzyme telomerase and its implications in cancer and aging.  Pipetting radioactive materials.  Running an undergraduate biochemistry lab.  Impressed?  It’s all in a day’s work for Tracy Niday, and she says none of it would be possible without the help of ZoomText.

Tracy is currently enrolled in the Biochemistry PhD program at Arizona State University (ASU), but it’s been a long road to get there.  Although she was born with the rare disease plars planitis, Tracy’s vision didn’t really began to deteriorate until junior high school.  Plars planitis is an inflammation of the middle layer of the eye which causes floaters.  By itself it doesn’t cause tremendous vision loss, but after multiple surgeries and medication attempting to correct it, Tracy developed glaucoma.  This led to a sizable decrease in her vision – she lost all her peripheral vision and now can only see out of a small part of her eyes.

Growing up and going to school in a small town in Nebraska led to challenges with finding and using transportation and completing her school work.  Always interested in the sciences, Tracy signed up for chemistry as a junior in high school.  She was told to just find herself a lab partner who could help her complete the lab work.  But when she went to college and majored in chemistry, the labs became much more intensive than they were in high school.  She knew that she couldn’t rely on the other students to do the lab work for her anymore – nor did she want them to.

“In my freshman year, I had a professor who told me I had to find a way to do everything myself,” says Tracy.  “I pushed myself to measure all the chemicals, and if I couldn’t see things properly, I came up with techniques that worked for me and thus became more independent.”

At first it was very hard for her to measure chemicals accurately with the glassware because the measurement marks on the glass blended in with the glass itself – there was just no contrast.  However, she soon came across a company that made glassware with special markings that made things easier to see.  Tracy also decided to switch her major to biochemistry.  It turned out this improved her measurement skills; you tend to use much smaller quantities of the chemicals and there are automatic pipettes which fill with liquid for you at the turn of a dial!  She also found different tips for the pipettes that allowed her to see the liquid rising much more clearly.

For her coursework, Tracy used a large CCTV that came with detachable glasses.  They helped in certain arenas, but they were too bulky to use in the lab.  Not long after, the Commission of the Blind in Nebraska introduced her to ZoomText, and she has been a user now for over five years.

“Before I got ZoomText, I would get extremely tired after only an hour of looking at the computer screen,” says Tracy.  “Using a computer is critical for me – I have to read journals, develop laboratory protocols, and analyze data on a daily basis, and ZoomText makes everything large enough so that I can be effective in my research.”

Tracy then moved on to graduate school at ASU, where she is currently in her third year of a five year PhD program.  She has essentially completed all her required coursework so she mainly focuses on her lab research and teaching classes.  She runs the undergraduate biochemistry lab at the university, where she spends the first part of the class giving a lecture about the technique that the students will be performing in the second half of the class.  After receiving her doctorate, Tracy hopes to go into the biotechnology industry, perhaps focusing on the biomedical applications in research.

“I don’t look at my eyesight as a downfall, I just don’t think of it in those terms,” says Tracy.  “I try not to limit myself – if you want something enough in life you can find a way to do it.  There might be some obstacles in the way, but there’s always a solution out there.  It’s just a matter of finding it.”

As you might imagine, Tracy is quite busy!  When she’s not in the lab analyzing data or keeping track of all her undergraduate students’ work, you might find her enjoying her love of the outdoors by running or hiking.  All of us at Ai Squared would like to wish Tracy luck as she completes her PhD and are proud that ZoomText has played a part in furthering her scientific career!