Living with a purpose with Leighann Fuller

Leighann Fuller is the inaugural Visually Impaired Services Coordinator at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), beginning her time in the ACCESS Office in November 2025. Prior to this role, she worked in the Student Persistence and Success department at SIUE as a Success coach. After experiencing a vision loss in 2023, blind and visually impaired students began to gravitate to Leighann for academic and personal support. Even before beginning this official role, Leighann had numerous opportunities to advocate for accessibility with campus housing as well as internship accessibility. Now officially in this role as the Visually Impaired Services Coordinator, Leighann regularly meets with blind and visually impaired students, works with faculty to create accessible classroom experiences, meets with campus partners to educate on and troubleshoot accessibility of forms and websites, communicates with Illinois Department of Rehabilitation Services to refer students to services to support their educational journey, and provides a space for students to be understood and supported through their college experience. Leighann is a two-time alum of SIUE, graduating with her MS in Kinesiology (exercise and sport psychology specialization) in December 2024, which was one year post her vision loss. In May 2026 she passed the Illinois Braille Proficiency Test after a year-long study of Unified English Braille, making her the only proficient braille reader in the ACCESS office. Additionally, Leighann is proficient in VoiceOver for MacOS and iOS as well as Jaws for Windows. Leighann has the privilege of leading ally trainings to educate staff, faculty, and students on how to be allies to blind and visually impaired individuals. At a recent training she urged participants, “Instead of asking ‘This student is blind, so what can they do?’ we need to ask ‘What does the student want to do and what accommodations and support do they need to get there?’”.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/aaron-s-opinion--5920599/support.