I was admitted to Boksburg Hospital with TB Meningitis when I was seven years old. I received experimental medical treatment for 10 months. This was almost fatal and I became completely DeafBlind as a result.
DeafBlindness did not prevent me from being an active citizen and activist for the DeafBlind community. I was the first South African DeafBlind person to attend the Helen Keller Centennial World Conference for the DeafBlind in Hanover in the then-West Germany. I also was one of the founder members of DeafBlind South Africa on 26 July 1996.
At age 14 I started school, and I am most thankful for the education I received. My parents took me to Trans-oranje School for the Deaf in Pretoria, but at the time the school could not accommodate me.
Dr Vaughan wrote to the government asking for a special education department for the DeafBlind at the School for the Blind in Worcester – later renamed the Pioneer School – and I was its first DeafBlind pupil. Miss Katie van Rensburg was one of my teachers. She went for training at the Perkins Institute for the Blind in America to learn methods on teaching DeafBlind learners.
The most important communication method I had to learn was the Tadoma technique of lip reading. There were then very few people who could manage tactile Sign Language. There are now around only 50 DeafBlind people in the world that still use the Tadoma technique. I also can communicate with tactile finger spelling in my hands. I also learnt Braille at school.
In 1966 I started working on a press in my family’s firm in Primrose, and was there until 1974 when the business closed. The following year I started working at the Institute for the Blind in Worcester, in the Metalwork department and later in the Cane Weaving department. I worked at Innovation for the Blind for 43 years until my retirement in 2018.
I also learnt to use a computer with the aid of a Braille-display device, which opened a new world for me through the internet and email, Google and e-books. In 2018 I started with cellphone training, with the aid of a portable Braille-display device that broadened my scope of communication even further via WhatsApp and Facebook.
I can now even watch rugby on my cellphone! I can read about rugby, watch the news and weather myself. I have many e-books on my laptop that I can take with me anywhere (Braille books are too large to carry around).
In 1989 I met Marina Nolte and we were married in Robertson on 17 January 1990. I have no children of my own. Marina and I stay at Brevis Home in Worcester and we receive exceptional care.
My dream is to find someone who can assist me to write and publish my life’s story!
