Blind Beginnings’ founder, Shawn Marsolais, was diagnosed at age 5, with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition that caused her vision to deteriorate throughout her childhood. By age 18 she was no longer able to read print or recognize faces, and since then her vision has diminished to light perception with some shadows. Shawn has not let her blindness hold her back.
In 2000, shortly after completing her Bachelor’s degree, she worked as a Learning Support Assistant at a school for the blind in England. Shawn began to see a pattern of unrealized potential in the blind children she was working with. She remembered feeling little was expected of her during adolescence, and became determined to convince parents and professionals that expectations of blind and sighted children should be the same.
After returning to Canada, Shawn worked at CNIB as the Coordinator of Children’s Services where she saw a need for more support for BC’s children and youth and their families. At that time Shawn met Daniel Kish, a totally blind Orientation & Mobility Specialist with expertise in echolocation and self-directed discovery. Daniel had founded a California based agency and was travelling the world teaching these skills to blind children and adults. The most impactful thing he taught Shawn was his “No Limits” philosophy. Everyone has limits, but when you are blind, people often assume your limits, and often they are wrong.
Inspired by Daniel and his No Limits philosophy, and recognizing the gap in services for children/youth who are blind/partially sighted and their families in BC, Shawn adopted Daniel’s No Limits philosophy and decided to start a non-profit in BC.
In 2008, Shawn founded Blind Beginnings, a non-profit organization that supports BC children and youth who are blind or partially sighted and their families. Shawn is also a registered clinical counsellor with a Masters in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling, and provides individual counseling and support groups to youth and their parents. Shawn is a role model to the families she works with; in addition to being a non-profit leader and counselor, she is also a retired Paralympic athlete, a podcaster, presenter, disability educator, and a mother.
Through My Eyes
In 2021, filmmakers Candice Macalino and Jaeger Mah produced this short documentary film about Shawn as part of Telus’s StoryHive initiative. In it, she describes life growing up with vision loss, the reason for founding Blind Beginnings, and some of the challenges she had to overcome to build it into the organization it is today.