Darcy McLean is a professional working in the field of Disability, focused on low vision, blindness, and deaf-blindness. She is also adventitiously blind, which occurs when a sighted person loses their sight after the age of five, and she also happens to have a hearing impairment that occurred later in life. Darcy is a Low Vision Skills Trainer and Peer Support Group Facilitator in the Beyond Vision Program at the Center for People With Disabilities (www.cped.org).

Darcy lost her eyesight in her early 20s due to proliferative diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of preventable blindness in the United States. Upon losing her eyesight in a manner of a year, Darcy opted to go to the Division of Vocation Rehabilitation’s Blind Services Personal Adjustment Training. There, she learned how to access the sighted world, without sight, by undergoing assistive technology, communications, daily living skills, orientation, and mobility trainings in addition to Braille 1. She chose to do this all under a blindfold or sleep shade in the event she lost all eyesight.

Once Darcy graduated from the Personal Adjustment Training, a 9-month-long program, she then aimed to get her Bachelor of Science in Human Services with a minor in Health Psychology. She graduated magna cum laude about a year after the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. As such, her experience in learning about accessibility and advocating for it became her life’s work without her knowing it at the time.

Darcy quickly became a case manger at the Colorado AIDS Project, working with dozens of people in her caseload over the next two years. She then moved on to working with a company, Hire Potential, which worked towards employing untapped or underemployed populations. She worked mainly with older adults who were “re-careering” or those who had disabilities.

After Hire Potential, she worked as training assistant for Blue Fire Group, in the real estate industry, providing marketing support and lead incubation.

Darcy left Blue Fire after 8 years, to go back into the field where her passion lives: working with those with disabilities. She has continued her education over the last 9 years with CPWD, becoming a Low Vision Rehab Therapist (LVRT), working to help those with vision and hearing loss combined to live independently and with confidence and support.

She is an avid kayaker, hiker, and gardener. She currently resides in Colorado with her partner Sam and their six dogs.