[Nyagdu] Sharing some exciting news with you all

Thu Feb 16 20:49:31 UTC 2012

very nice article Cheryl.

Julie Phillipson
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "cheryl echevarria" <cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com>
To: "nyagdu" <nyagdu at nfbnet.org>; "Writer's Division Mailing List" 
<stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 6:14 AM
Subject: [Nyagdu] Sharing some exciting news with you all

I had mentioned that I was going to be interviewed for this organization.
February 16, 2012  This is from www.fortune52.com, I am also going to be 
honored with 52 other women from Across Long Island on March 12, 2012
Cheryl Echevarria is blind and might not be able to sightsee like everyone 
else, yet this intrepid Brentwood woman loves to travel. She relies on her 
service dog, Maxx, her heightened sense of smell, touch and sound and the 
confidence that comes from traveling often.
Born with Type 1 diabetes, Cheryl was 22 years old when she was diagnosed 
with diabetic retinopothy, a common diabetic eye disease that is the leading 
cause of blindness in American adults.Cheryl’s life changed forever one 
night in 2001 when she was driving home from her job as an administrative 
assistant when suddenly, she recalls, her vision became completely blurry. 
“I had to pull over. I couldn’t see.”Cheryl’s doctor told her that if her 
diabetes was affecting her eyes, it would also affect other organs in her 
body. Subsequently her kidneys began to fail as well. In 2002 she began 
kidney dialysis treatments three times a week for four hours a day. Her 
treatments continued for three years until she went through another 
life-altering experience when her friend Steve Carroll donated his kidney to 
her.
Once Cheryl recuperated from the organ transplant, she was determined to go 
back to work. During her dialysis treatments, she lost her sight completely 
in one eye. She says her remaining sight is “like looking through a 
telescope hole covered in thick plastic.”
Cheryl enrolled in a training program provided by the New York State 
Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped (CBVH), where she learned 
new job skills, including how to use computer software for the blind.After 
completing the program, Cheryl was ready for the next step in her recovery 
which was to go back to school. She began taking classes at Branford Hall 
Career Institute in Bohemia, and became the school’s first blind student to 
graduate. She found an administrative job in the healthcare field where she 
worked for two years.Cheryl felt she missed 10 years of her life being sick 
and was ready to transition into a new career. She began scouring the 
internet for new connections.
“I found the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) online and joined the 
greater Long Island chapter,” she says.The NFB is the largest non-profit 
organization in the world for the blind that is operated by the blind. 
Cheryl now serves as the treasurer of the Long Island chapter, adding that 
all members and officers must be blind to serve in a board position. “We are 
advocates for education, employment and accessibility,” Cheryl says proudly. 
“We lobby ourselves, we don’t hire anyone.”After searching through the 
federation’s resources, she decided that becoming a travel agent would be a 
good career choice. She loved to travel and she could work from home. “I 
have a background in customer service and sales, and this was a good fit,” 
she says. After completing her job training online, Cheryl started working 
through a host travel agency, confident that becoming a travel agent was the 
right career move.
In 2009 Cheryl and her husband, Nelson, founded Echevarria Travel. Cheryl 
says Nelson is an integral part of the agency, and is the photographer and 
videographer for the travel images used on their website. “I’m the only 
blind travel agent in the tri-state area that I know of,” she says and was 
recently named president of the NFB’s national travel and tourism division.
Cheryl’s blindness has given her a very clear insight into the planning 
required to ensure a pleasurable trip for her clients.Her agency offers 
services to everyone, but Cheryl’s specialty is the traveler who is blind, 
on dialysis, in a wheelchair, or has had an organ transplant. As a survivor 
of all of these illnesses, Cheryl is uniquely qualified to help them plan 
their trip.
“I know what a person would need and the questions to ask,” she says. “What’s 
your degree of blindness?  Do you use a cane?”If travel plans include a 
cruise, she will want to know if the client can read Braille. “I ask because 
not everyone does,” she explains. “If they don’t [read Braille], I contact 
the cruise line and make sure they get a meet-and-greet and tour of the ship 
so they can familiarize themselves with their surroundings,” she says.
If they plan on traveling with their service animal, Cheryl explains that 
they will need to go to their vet to get a health certificate and they need 
to secure a permit to bring the animal into another country.
The cruise industry has taken notice of this newly mobile customer base and 
are making their vessels more accessible so sight-impaired travelers can 
acclimate themselves quickly.
Cheryl has been working closely with Norwegian Cruise Lines, and says she 
helped them implement Braille menus on their ships.No two visually impaired 
people have the same level of functional vision so Cheryl helps her clients 
overcome some of the red tape they might encounter to ensure that they have 
a good experience. All of this pre-travel preparation includes additional 
paperwork that Cheryl helps her clients complete as part of her services.
Understanding the requirements and information needed for traveling today is 
invaluable. As a travel advocate and advisor for the blind, Cheryl has 
opened up a world of new experiences for these sensory travelers that might 
have been out of reach before.For more information, email: 
reservations at echevarriatravel.com, call Cheryl at  631-456-5394 , or toll 
free at  866-580-5574  ; or go to:www.echevarriatravel.com. For daily 
updates read Cheryl’s blog atwww.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com
Leading the Way in Independent Travel!

Cheryl Echevarria
http://www.echevarriatravel.com
631-456-5394
reservations at echevarriatravel.com

For daily updates read our blog at
http://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com
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