Overcoming Disability with Creative Abilities

Zuby Onwuta
2 min readMar 5, 2018

I immigrated to the US with $200 and the dream of becoming a medical doctor. Shortly after starting pre-med, I joined the US Army for financial support. Sadly, barely two years into both careers, I suffered a huge decline in eyesight (20/40 to 20/200) and was diagnosed with a rare eye disease of the retina — Stargardt’s. This ended both careers.

After months of depression, I began a new career as an engineer, but I faced a lot of difficulty. After 15 years of software engineering work with Fortune 500 companies like Nokia, Goldman Sachs, and IBM, serving billion dollar mission-critical clients like NASA, the White House, and Boeing, my engineering career also ended with the diagnosis of two additional rare eye diseases.

The hardships of losing three careers to visual impairment inspired me to invent Think and Zoom, which offers me a way to see better, simply by thinking.

You may also watch a demo video for Think and Zoom at here and on thinkandzoom.com.

Think and Zoom is a patented technology and has grown into an ecosystem of visual impairment solutions to make life better for 20 million Americans facing a 70% unemployment rate and 300 million people worldwide facing a 90% illiteracy rate. Think and Zoom offers solutions ranging from early detection with innovative games, such as Kenti, to streamline diagnosis, experiential education, and immersive mentoring. The Kenti iOS brain-powered game is a winner of 2015 Apple Developer Conference Award.

“Look, think and zoom into a bigger, brighter future!”

Connect via web: www.zubyonwuta.com or thinkandzoom.com or on so cial media @zubyonwuta and @thinkandzoom.

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Zuby Onwuta

Legally blind ex US Army & IBM, Founder @ Think and Zoom, Inventor of “Brain-control for blind Assistive Tech”, TED Speaker, Disability Advocate @ US Congress