Matthew C. Parson ~ The Early Years

Once upon a time, a looong, looooooooong time ago (okay, in 1997), the local newspaper carried a story on Matthew C. Parson.

Here’s his story.

If you’ve been following us for a while, you know that

Matt recently opened up a little bit about his experiences growing up with a severe visual impairment.

It was the advocacy by his parents through a lawyer that inspired Matt to become an attorney.

Matthew is legally blind,

so the newspaper reporters were interested in how he was able to be successful in school; they also highlighted his use of an adaptive device to read.

Caption reads: Matt Parson, who has been legally blind since birth, uses a hi-tech helmet called L-VES (pronounced “Elvis), which stands for Low Vision Enhancing System, L-VES improves his vision from 20 over 400 to 20 over 50. It enables Parson to read the chalk board and his textbooks with relative ease.

Caption reads: When Matt is not wearing his L-VES he must get within inches of the text to read. Here, Matt looks at his physics grade as his teacher, Matt Jones, walks through the class with the grade book.

Because his parents advocated on his behalf, Matthew was eventually allowed to complete a public school education with necessary accommodations provided by the district…

but it took some lawyers to remind the school administration that under IDEA, a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment was their responsibility to provide to EVERY student, including any accommodations for students with disabilities.

Caption reads: Without the use of his special equipment, Matt must get within inches of books to read the print.

Luckily for us, this is when Matt decided to become a lawyer and fight for the rights of others.

Thanks for being you, Matthew!!

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