For 28 years, Professor Melba Vélez Ortiz has lived with a vision she describes as a “cardboard box with a tiny little hole”, while continuing to travel, work, teach and build a life on her own terms.

And now, at Kellogg Eye Center, Melba found not a cure, but a new sense of possibility to use AI glasses that could help her experience the world around her in new ways. After years of adapting to what she could see, the possibility of seeing things differently is an experience worth pausing for. Read Professor Melba Vélez Ortiz's story.