What happens when you combine 17 years of leadership skills, perseverance, and dedication to fine-tuning nonvisual skills? You get Danielle Earl. As the manager of senior programs at our Salisbury location, Danielle manages a full week of preparing for senior support group meetings, teaching students, and managing her team of independence training and rehabilitation (ITR) instructors.
Originally from Levittown, PA Pennsylvania, Danielle with Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS) as a child—a rare genetic disorder that affects several organ systems in the body. For Danielle, BBS caused deterioration in her retinas, leading to gradual vision loss. To prepare her for a world without sight, her mother taught her basic nonvisual skills. However, Danielle grew up reading print until she was in ninth grade, eventually learning to read braille in college.
While in school, Danielle pursued a degree in special education for the blind and has been sharpening her nonvisualskills ever since. Her roles have included working with youth, adults, and seniors, teaching them how to use assistive technology. In 2007, a friend told her about a rehabilitation specialist position open at BISM, which included teaching cane travel, independent living skills, braille and technology—skills Danielle has specialized in teaching and learning throughout her life.
Danielle’s journey from rehabilitation specialist to management included numerous professional and personal goals along the way, including owning her own home. Today, she can be found teaching students to lean into self-sufficiency. Whether it was an 85-year-old woman who wanted to learn how to use Microsoft Excel or the 90-year-old woman who continued learning braille, despite multiple strokes. At her core, Danielle truly enjoys helping people become and remain independent.
“I hope that we’re here for a long, long time, and that we can continue to help our associates—now and in the future—to grow their own confidence and become as independent as they want and be as successful as they want,” shares Danielle. As the largest employer of blind and visually impaired individuals in the state of Maryland, we are well on our way.
