JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – This month’s Positively JAX winner is inspiring people to ask questions, specifically about people who are hearing and visually impaired.
Dr. Jasmine Simmons is a local audiologist at the nonprofit Jacksonville Hearing and Speech Center. She diagnoses and treats hearing, balance and ear problems, and she gets it better than most people.
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“I was born profoundly deaf and at the age of 2, I received my cochlear implant, which helps me hear. At the age of 7, I was diagnosed with a condition called retinitis pigmentosa,” Simmons said.
It’s also called Usher Syndrome. It’s a rare genetic disease that affects both hearing and vision, but it’s never been an excuse -- her parents made sure of that.
“They’re like, listen, you’re a child, you’re going to do whatever any other kids are doing. Because of my parents, I am who I am today -- because they just didn’t treat us any different. They had high expectations for us,” Simmons said.
She could have stopped at doctor but now she added author to her title.
“Extraordinary Jordyn and Her Bionic Ears” is the title of Simmons’ first book. It was inspired by a little girl who also had Usher Syndrome.
“Her name was Jordyn, and she was being bullied at school for her hearing loss. And she was having a difficult time,” Simmons said.
At that time so was Simmons, last year she was diagnosed as legally blind.
“I went through a tough, you know, a moment of sadness. And I had to figure out like, what is next for me,” Simmons said.
So Simmons put Jordyn on paper, in a book, to teach people what she also had to learn.
“I’m like, but I can see. And even other people are like, you can see and so was I. No, but when the doctor put it into perspective, oh, you need 130 degrees to drive. And you only have 20. Oh, OK. I understand now,” Simmons said.
Simmons is all about educating. She does some of that on social media and now through her children’s book. She’s teaching others what her parents taught her at a young age and clearly a lot more.
She said the best way other people can support people with disabilities is to ask what they need.
“The main thing is ask. Ask people with disabilities if they need help, or, ‘What do you need from me so that way I can help you?’” Simmons said.
That type of empathic understanding is Positively JAX for us all.