Legally Blind Social Work Major Seeks to Serve

Social work majors seek to bear others' emotional burdens, but for sophomore Hannah Abel, she has an added difficulty to navigate: her sight. Diagnosed with Stargardt's at the age of 9 and pronounced legally blind, Abel refused to let it stop her from pursuing her dreams.

Stargardt's is a juvenile form of macular degeneration that causes the retina to deteriorate. "I can see better out of my peripheral vision, but it is still difficult to do all the normal things a person could," said Abel. "People think glasses fix it, but they just make things slightly less blurry."

Growing up, Abel, from Cedarville, Ohio, pushed herself to excel along with her classmates. Her sweet disposition and can-do attitude propelled her to graduate from high school and pursue her bachelor's degree in social work at Cedarville University.

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