Blind teacher in Canada opens her own school to help young disabled adults

From The Toronto Sun:

Melanie Cooper couldn’t get a teaching job because of her disability so now she is opening her own school to help young disabled adults.

“I am so excited because my dream is becoming a reality. I love to see people succeed and be proud of their accomplishments,” said Cooper, 36, who will open the Connect Learning Centre at Dixie Rd. and Britannia Rd. E. next Friday.

In 1995, a 21-year-old Cooper was an art student at York University. She also coached her younger sister’s soccer team and worked part time.

Suddenly she lost her vision in her left eye. She was diagnosed as having a sedotumour — a buildup of pressure that the brain thinks is a tumour — so a doctor put a hole in the optic nerve to release the pressure.

Three days later, Cooper had a stroke, was in a coma for two weeks, then woke up blind and paralyzed.

She attended the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to learn to live as a blind person.

“She was at the point where she was ready to move on and stop feeling sorry for herself,” said Janice Bell, who was a rehabilitation teacher at the CNIB and will be working at Cooper’s new school.

“She went through the training that she will be giving now ... learning to use a computer, braille and just daily living skills. She would speak to other clients about how much she had accomplished and she would say ‘someday I’m going to own my own centre.’

“That was 14 years ago. Every obstacle that life could throw she conquered.”

After rehab, Cooper went back to York to study education.

“She was the first blind student in Ontario to graduate as a teacher, but no one would hire her because they said it would be a danger. The CNIB taught her how to live as a blind person so she volunteered there and they later hired her as the co-ordinator of volunteer services,” Cooper’s mother, Lorraine Taddeo, said.

I’m so proud. When she sets out to do something she is so stubborn and the strongest person in the world and never says ‘woe is me.’

“She got married six years ago and does have children yet, but at the moment this (school) is her baby.”

Cooper says there aren’t enough programs in Peel for blind and disabled people.

“I’ll be able to connect people with existing services like transportation needs, if you need a disability pension and how to find suitable housing,” she said. “There will also be independent living programs, such as how to cook, do the laundry, shop and bank,” Cooper said.

“I’m going to help them feel better about themselves and accomplish their goals.”