http://www.facebook.com/people/Jessica-Trask/1606959011
Dear Parents,
My name is Jessica Trask. I was asked by Carrie Gilmer the President of The National Organization of Parents of Blind Children to write this letter about my experience of being an Adult with Albinism.
First I’ll start explaining a little bit about the genetics of Albinism. It’s recessive which means both parents have to carry the gene for the condition. If you would like to learn more in depth about Albinism. go www.albinism.org this is the website for the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation they also have an online community that you can join to get support from others with Albinism and other parents of Children with Albinism. as well. There are three main types of Albinism they are Ocular Albinism, Oculocutaneous Albinism. Ocular Albinism as it sounds just affects the eyes. Oculocutaneous affects the eyes hair and skin to varying degrees. Ocular Albinism is generally X-linked with means the mom or other females in the family carry the gene for it. The can be determined by seeing an Ophthalmologist who can do an examination of the eyes.
I was born at Hartford Hospital in Hartford Connecticut on December 18, 1980 to Richard and Joan Trask of East Hartford Connecticut. I have three other siblings I have an older sister an older brother and a younger sister. I grew up in Connecticut from birth to the age of eleven. I was diagnosed with Ocular Albinism or Autosomal Recessive Ocular Albinism when I was three or four years old. Which I believe through some research that I did earlier in 2008 that I either have Oculocutaneous Albinism type 1B or type 2. I haven’t had my feelings confirmed about it.
I started receiving services from a vision specialist from birth. They would come into the environment where I was at and do what needed to be done to help my parents and older siblings deal with having a child or sibling with a visual impairment. At the age of three I transitioned into the public school system in East Hartford and services continued through a Teacher of the Visually Impaired. I went to four or five different elementary schools from Kindergarten through fifth grade which was when my parents got divorced. Mainstreaming was not really a big thing yet when I was in elementary school. I never attended my neighborhood elementary school which was the one the my two older siblings and younger sister attended note my younger sister only attended the neighborhood elementary school from Kindergarten through third grade. more details to come on that in a little while. I was placed in special education at the time which mostly consisted of students who had behavioral problems. The whole time I was in elementary school I was only mainstreamed into Art and Music.
My parents divorce was finalized in early July of 1992 then a week or two after it was My mom younger sister and me moved out to Park City Utah with my mom’s boyfriend at the time. This was the best thing my mom could have done because at the time I would have been either transitioning to a middle school the year after that anyways. We lived in Utah for a total of ten years five of which was spent in Park City. I attended middle school and my first two years of high school in Park City My younger sister was only in the fourth grade when we moved out to Utah. I was fully mainstreamed when I attended the middle school in Park City from sixth through eighth grade. Which was a positive experience. I worked with five different Teachers of the Visually Impaired while I was attending school in Park City because of the nature of the position which at the time was only a part time one I believe it still is. My first two years of high school weren’t a totally positive experience because their idea of a good placement for me was to put me in a self-contained classroom with the most severely disabled students they had in the school. That pretty much went against what I was doing at the middle school. The basic thing was they didn’t think I would ever go to college so they had me working toward getting employment after I graduated. Between my seventh and eighth grade year at the middle school the outreach director of the School for the Blind had started a summer camp at the school for the blind so the students could receive instruction in the expanded core curriculum for the blind and visually impaired which wouldn’t happen very much during the normal school year because of course the time restrictions that the Teachers of the Visually Impaired have with the students. The Expanded Core curriculum includes Braille, Adapted Daily Living Skills, Orientation and Mobility, Assistive Technology and Adaptive Physical Education. I attended the camp the whole time I was attending school in Park City. We moved down to West Valley City just right before I started my Junior year of high school and moved in with my mom’s then fiancée at the time. I attended Hunter Senior High School for my Junior and Senior years of high school where once again I was fully mainstreamed into general education classes.
Then, after I graduated from high school I transitioned once again into the Rehab system. I’ve dealt with Vocational Rehabilitation Services in three different states. I started receiving Vocational Rehabilitation Services in Utah through the Division of Services of the Blind and Visually impaired. Then, in 2002 with my mom I relocated to Vermont where for six months we were living in Warren Vermont above a garage in an apartment above my grandfather and step-grandmother’s property. I was receiving services from the Vermont Division for The Blind and Visually Impaired. Then here in New York State I’m dealing with The New York State Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped . I started receiving services Utah in 1999 that went until August 2002. Then I received services in Vermont from September of 2002 to July of 2004. Then from August of 2004 to currently I’m receiving services from the Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. In both Vermont and New York I lived in two different cities when receiving services from their respective Rehab agencies for the blind and visually impaired.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me at the following email address jess28@samobile.net
Sincerely,
Jessica Trask
Nice job! Known you on facebook for like ever, and I find you here. What a small world us links live in. lol
very nice letter.
I’ve seen you on Facebook before, you seem like a very nice person and I would like to get to know you. I have had problems with public school systems myself, read my blog for more detail. I’m under Morgan Pimentel.
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