\u201cIt\u2019s hard living in a foreign country,\u201d says Audi. \u201cYou feel like an outcast especially due to the language barrier. However, studying with Berklee Online gave me something to be a part of. I was able to connect to other musicians as well as learn a bunch . . . finding my people through Berklee made a massive impact on my life.\u201d
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Audi approaches her passion for the arts as fearlessly as moving 6,000 miles across the world. As a visually impaired creative, Audi is accustomed to navigating new environments and not compromising on her art, even though it hasn\u2019t been easy. \u201cWhether it\u2019s with music or anything, I\u2019ve been through some hard parts with it, but I\u2019ve grown,\u201d says Audi. \u201cI think it\u2019s something that\u2019s defined who I am. And I use it as a way to empower myself and empower other people.\u201d Audi has Nystagmus, which causes her eyes to move rapidly, and Cone Rod Dystrophy, which causes vision loss over time. \u201cThey basically affect my vision in multiple different ways with clarity,\u201d Audi says. \u201cI lack depth perception, which means that grasping distance is really hard. So something may look closer to me than it does to somebody with regular vision.\u201d This is something that concerned Audi\u2019s mom when she first expressed interest in figure skating. However, through trial and error, and some bruises along the way, Audi learned how to calibrate in a way that allowed her to thrive in the sport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt took a lot of jumping at the walls to figure everything out,\u201d says Audi. \u201cA lot of practice and figuring out the rink and figuring out the dimensions of the rink so that I would know when to jump, whether I was jumping later or earlier, depending on where the wall was.\u201d Even though Audi can make light of her persistence in the sport, it was difficult to advocate for her needs and to convince her coaches to let her compete. Audi had to hit more metaphoric walls playing cello in her school orchestra. Audi\u2019s mom would enlarge and print out all of her sheet music, and her middle school peers were not kind about it. \u201cI remember I always got teased for it, growing up,\u201d says Audi. \u201cAt one point, I said I wasn\u2019t going to use enlarged music and I just suffered through with tiny music that I could not see at all. It was terrible, but I suffered because I didn\u2019t want to be the kid that was different.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately Audi and her family connected with a violinist from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Alison Dalton<\/a>, who also happens to be visually impaired. She recommended a device to Audi that displays digitally enlarged sheet music that can flip to the next staff with a pedal. Audi describes the device as a lightweight tablet that is about the size of a Macbook desktop computer and can rest on a music stand. \u201cI remember when I got it for the first time I could see staccato markings and things I\u2019ve always been told about,\u201d says Audi. \u201cI was like, oh my gosh, they actually exist! I can see them. Wow! I\u2019ve gone through a lot of hard times when I was like, \u2018this isn\u2019t worth it.\u2019 But I kept pushing through because I had my family and people who were supporting me.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Audi](\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Screen-Shot-2021-11-01-at-9.53.31-AM-1.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Audi](\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Screen-Shot-2021-11-02-at-2.19.15-PM.png\")
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