With each set, DJ Gian Pedulla mixes, he says he has a certain feeling come over him.

“I realized DJing was one of the situations where my blindness really did not come into play,” Pedulla said.

Pedulla grew up in Brooklyn with limited vision, a condition in his retina caused him to lose his vision completely by his mid-30s. He recalls the way some made him feel at that time.

What You Need To Know

  • Gian Pedulla says being a DJ is “freeing” for him because his blindness does not come into play

  • Pedulla had a condition with his retina that caused him to lose his vision completely in his mid-30s

  • He is the educational vision services supervisor at the New York City Department of Education

“There is a lot of misunderstanding and low expectations superimposed on us as blind people,” Pedulla said.

He shared what it was like learning Braille, and the lack of emphasis placed on it, he says.

“Just like you would not forgo print with a sighted child, Braille should never be forgotten or pushed to the side or viewed as negative,” he said.

Though Braille is all over his home, now it is on this computer. Even on his ties, he says it did come harder to him in the beginning.

“It would have been so much easier if I got used to the non-visual tools methods and techniques early on,” he said.

That didn’t deter him — it just made him focus on math instead.

“Math was just something I could do in my head and I could hold the numbers in my head,” he said.

He ended up dedicating his career to education for people with impaired vision teaching math for a decade at the New York Institute of Special Education in the Bronx.

He taught high school math to blind students for five years and landed his current day job as the educational vision services supervisor at the New York City Department of Education.

In his current role, he gives this advice to students with impaired vision or blindness based on his life experience. 

“This isn’t hopeless and where there is a will, there’s a way,” he said.

He lives by that mentality when he is not working for the Department of Education. He serves on the MTA Advisory Committee for Transit Accessibility and helps organize events like the NYC Braille Challenge.

His multifaceted approach to achieve his dreams and inspire others is the foundation he says he lives by.

“If you can stay rational and be a creative thinker, you can problem solve,” he said.