Cameron Cassidy is a 2020 graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in Computer Science and is currently pursuing his PHD at the University of Irvine in California.Since birth Cameron has been legally blind, with partial sight in his left eye.
In this episode, Cameron talks about the beurocracy of being disabled and barriers he encounters with a visual disability.
Transcript
Tanner Parker: What do you think and feel when you hear the word disability? For thousands of students at Texas A&M University, disability is a part of how they explore and engage with the Aggie experience. This is Agcess, a collection of first person stories on what disability means to Aggies just like you. We hope these conversations open your eyes and offer new perspective toward your understanding of disability.
Tanner Parker: Howdy. My name is Tanner Parker. I am a senior communications student here at Texas A&M. I’m joined by my co-host Justin Romack.
Justin Romack: Howdy!
Tanner Parker: And you are listening to Agcess, stories about disability and access from the Texas A&M University community. We are joined today by our guest, Cameron Cassidy.
Cameron Cassidy: Hi, or howdy.
Tanner Parker: Cameron, do you mind introducing yourself a little bit? Telling us how you got to Texas A&M.
Cameron Cassidy: Yeah. So like I said my name’s Cameron Cassidy. I am a former student. I graduated with a CS degree in 2020. I picked A&M because it’s a great school for that degree. And people are real friendly, so that’s why I came here and now I’m starting my PhD at the University of California, Irvine, this fall.
Justin Romack: Congratulations, man. That’s quite an accomplishment and I know that you have had quite the journey, so it’s really cool to be able to talk with you and share some time with you and just kind of affirm and cheer you on because you’ve done a lot. You’ve done a lot to earn that.
Cameron Cassidy: I appreciate that.
Justin Romack: Cameron, could you tell us a little bit about your disability?
Cameron Cassidy: Yeah. So I’m legally blind. I’m totally blind in my right eye. And I have somewhere between 22/100, 23/100 somewhere in that area in my left eye. So that’s really the main, I guess problem. I also have nystagmus, but that’s kind of secondary.
Tanner Parker: So you were born with this disability?
Cameron Cassidy: Yeah. So I was actually born totally blind. I don’t remember when I got the sight back. That would’ve been really, maybe an interesting thing to see or experience, but unfortunately, no, I don’t remember that transition.
Tanner Parker: Coming into college what do you feel are some barriers that you have encounter and do encounter with your disability?
Cameron Cassidy: So coming in, I think one big barrier is maybe the bureaucracy. That’s kind of a part of being a college student with a disability, right? It’s not that people don’t believe you, but there’s a very proper way of doing things and a very formalized pattern of stuff you have to do. And I think that can make it difficult and challenging. And so I think that would be the biggest barrier.
Justin Romack: Do you feel like accessing your course materials or the applications that you’re working with or even just the experience, just the non-academic experiences. Do you feel like you had hurdles that you had to navigate with your visual disability in mind?
Cameron Cassidy: Certainly. So I can think of a few. I mean obviously having PDFs of textbooks is awesome, right? That’s a great help, but because I’m a CS major, a big part of it is working with different IDEs, integrated development environments and tools and things. And sadly, a lot of those aren’t accessible, right? One of them that we use putty, which isn’t really an IDE, but you can’t read it with a screen reader. Right? So there’s a lot of complications of being a student, especially a CS student when it comes to accessibility and digital tools.
Justin Romack: I’m kind of curious, Cameron. We hear this word disability and I know that means something to you. Describe what the idea of disability means to you. What does that word mean and how does that fit into who you are?
Cameron Cassidy: I’m only speaking for me here with this. That’s all I can do. But for me a disability means that there is some inherent problem. There’s some inherent malfunction, right? And so for me, that would be having a birth defect in my eyes. Right? And so for me, I don’t have any discomfort or problem saying that, but I think that is a large part of disability. Identity to me is that there is a physical problem that regardless of what other people do will be a hindrance or a challenge compared to what someone who didn’t have that disability would be doing. So I would say that’s my idea of disability and how it relates to me.
Tanner Parker: Do you think that it’s currently still shaping your identity or do you think that it’s already a part of it and it’s kind of done?
Cameron Cassidy: Hmm. I think it’s definitely still shaping it. I can never say for certain that it would ever be done shaping my identity, but even things like my future career goals, which is working in accessibility and assistive technology has been shaped by having a disability. Right?
Justin Romack: Talk to me a little bit about that work and that future prospect of doing work in accessibility. What are you planning on doing? What does that entail and how did you arrive at wanting to do something like that?
Cameron Cassidy: I went to a conference in Seattle where I met some professors there who were doing research in assistive technologies. And I thought that was really cool because I use assistive technologies. And from there, I was able to do some internships with Jeff Bigham and Patrick Carrington at CMU. And we worked on projects related to indoor navigation and then the accessibility of the Twitter platform and social media. So that’s kind of where I’m coming from with my research. Future work, I think is going to be still in the space of navigation systems for people with visual impairments. Although I think our goal is that they will be universally usable. Right?
Justin Romack: You have in other conversations talked about this idea of universal design and it sounds like that’s kind of what you’re tapping into here. I think universal design is an idea that maybe people have heard about at a very, very, very surface level. But how do you describe universal design and how does that inform the work that you’re doing?
Cameron Cassidy: Yeah. So I think there’s a lot of technologies that we use that have actually came out because of assistive technology or work to adapting things to people with disabilities. And I think that there is more likelihood of that happening if we design things such that they’re usable for everyone. And that’s really the core concept of universal design is designing something that’s helpful for me as someone with a visual impairment, but maybe also useful for someone just navigating a building on campus. Right. Or somebody who’s in a wheelchair. That’s kind of the idea behind it.
Tanner Parker: I’m curious to know how the Office of Disability Resources was a resource to you here during your time at Texas A&M.
Cameron Cassidy: So I would say a big part of it is learning some of the differences between… One big way they’ve been a resource is kind of figuring out the differences between how high school is navigated and how college is navigated. And that’s true in lots of different areas, but especially when it comes to accommodations. Right? What’s reasonable right? What’s an accommodation versus a modification, right? Those sorts of things are all really important. And I think Disability Services did a great job of kind of helping me work through that and figure out what would be helpful and what’s reasonable to ask of my professors.
Justin Romack: One thing that I think ties into to that, and I want you to kind of give me your take on this. You talked about your perspective on disability and it’s you talk about it from a biological standpoint. There’s a part of you that is different, and it requires you to interact with the world in a different way. How do you navigate challenges as they pop up? Something new, something unexpected, maybe a collaboration with a colleague. How have you refined your skills in being able to advocate for yourself when things don’t go as planned?
Cameron Cassidy: So I don’t know about when things don’t go as planned. But there was a paper I read and in the title, it said something like disabled people or power users of technology. And I kind of agree with that. Right? So one thing I do a lot that helps me with navigating with a disability is I use my phone camera as a magnifier. Right. It’s like a magnifier I always have. Right. Whether that’s reading menus or looking at a snake, it there’s. I did that the other day. It’s vibrating [crosstalk].
Tanner Parker: I was about to say, where did that come from? [crosstalk]. That was so funny.
Justin Romack: No, that’s great.
Tanner Parker: Looking at menus or even a snake.
Cameron Cassidy: I mean that’s… Okay. Yeah.
Justin Romack: Hey, that’s critical. No, here’s the deal. That’s critical information. I was telling a friend the other day, the reason I can’t live out in the country is because I’m terrified of snakes. Right. [crosstalk].
Justin Romack: Yeah. That’s information you need to know.
Cameron Cassidy: Yeah. So, I mean, I think that’s one way that I navigate the world with a disability and handle it, right? Is finding unique uses for technology and applying that.
Justin Romack: So it’s really an awareness of the tools on your part and a resourcefulness to use those tools effectively when required, right?
Cameron Cassidy: Yeah. I mean, another example would be screen sharing technology during the pandemic. Right. It’s been very difficult for me to collaborate with people and read code on other people’s screens, which is a big part of programming in a group. Right. Where now with this screen sharing technology that everyone has through Zoom, it’s really easy for me to collaborate and work with others. Right. And that’s a use case that people wouldn’t normally consider, but does make it an assistive technology.
Justin Romack: That’s such a good point. That’s absolutely a great point. You have an audience listening. Disability is often uncomfortable. It’s unfamiliar. It’s something that people have difficulty talking about. But they’re listening to you right now. And I’d be curious to know what is something that you feel like the campus community needs to understand about disability?
Cameron Cassidy: I would say, I guess it would be that disability exists on a spectrum, right? Actually, I was talking about this not too long ago. I think when people imagine someone with a disability, they tend to imagine someone who’s totally blind or totally deaf or whatever it may be. And I think that leads to a lot of misunderstandings and how people with disabilities interact with those who don’t. And I think that’s something that would be important for people to know, and for our campus to be aware of.
Justin Romack: For all intents and purposes, your disability is not apparent. Unless somebody saw you magnify your computer screen or you disclosed to them, they wouldn’t otherwise know that you have a disability. And so I’m kind of curious, from your perspective, how does that shape how you interact with your disability and how do you think that impacts the way people engage with you, especially when you disclose that you do have a disability?
Cameron Cassidy: Yeah. So I think it certainly changes how I interact with my disability. So when you have a visual impairment, but you’re not carrying a cane, you can act in ways that people would consider to be strange. Right. So for example, I’ll go up to where I know restrooms are, right. There’s a men’s restroom and a women’s restroom. Well, I’m either going to have to stand there until someone comes out who I can easily identify as one gender or the other, or I’m going to have to get uncomfortably close to the women’s restroom sign, right. To figure out that’s what it is. And so it puts you in a situation where you can seem to act quite oddly, right. Because people don’t know that you have a visual disability, right.
Cameron Cassidy: Or when you’re getting really close to products in a store, right. Someone might think you’re shoplifting when really you’ve just got to read the price on the wall. Right?
Justin Romack: Yep.
Cameron Cassidy: So it can certainly impact how I would interact with my disability in the world. I think when it comes to disclosing my disability to others, maybe doesn’t have that much of an impact. I’ve had people tell me that they wouldn’t have known that I was legally blind had I not said something, which I suppose is why I’m disclosing. But yeah, I don’t think there’s really a big difference with that piece of it.
Justin Romack: You have a remarkable story. You have persevered through a lot of circumstances and you’ve accomplished and earned everything that you have. And I’m proud of you. I’m proud to know you. I’m proud to work alongside you. I’m excited for what’s headed your way. And I thank you so much for being a guest on this show.
Cameron Cassidy: Well, thanks for having me. It’s always enjoyable to talk with you, Justin. And it was nice meeting you Tanner through this process.
Tanner Parker: Thank you so much. Good luck in California. I’m jealous.
Cameron Cassidy: Thanks. Thanks.
Justin Romack: We’re both very jealous. If it’s not obvious, we’re extremely jealous. Do well, man. You’re going to do some awesome things and I’m excited to hear what comes next for you.
Cameron Cassidy: Thanks, man.