Blindness doesnt stop this CU student

November 26, 2016

A plane sits on the tarmac at Albany International Airport, preparing for a trip to Atlanta.
A 7-year-old Chad Erickson is led down the aisle of the plane by flight attendant before his first
trip into the sky. The trip that would spark a passion for aviation.
He carefully counts the seats in each row.
Two on the left, two on the right. Two on the left, two on the right.
Then at the fifth row, the pattern changes three on the left, three on the right.
As the plane takes off, Erickson shouts Were going to the moon! while many around
him chuckle at the analogy.
Most people would not pay so much attention to these details, but for Erickson, who has
been blind since close to birth, this information helps him understand the world.
The now 19-year-old was born after just 23 weeks gestation, with retinopathy of
prematurity stage 5; a condition that develops when abnormal blood vessels grow and spread
throughout the retina, according to the National Eye Institute. The condition affects 400-600
prematurely born infants every year.
After his birth in June of 1997, he remained at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital until
November.
It was really hard, especially after I was discharged from the hospital and went back to
Vermont and hes in New Hampshire, his mother, Connie Erickson said, getting choked up
talking about those emotional months, even years later. I got several pages from the hospital
telling me that they didnt think he would make it through the day, did I want to come and say
good bye? I wouldnt, I couldnt do it. I fought for him and to me it was like going over there and
telling him it was okay to die on me, and it wasnt.
Although an adult now, his mother still fights for him.
We were originally from Vermont and we moved to Florida 11 years ago so that he
could get what we thought was a better education from the Florida School for the Deaf and
Blind, but that didnt work out. He was bullied there, she said.
She then enrolled him in mainstream schooling for 9th and 10th grade, but there he
found more challenges, specifically when it came to marching band.
That marching band teacher was going to put Chad in a chair and stick him in front of
the audience, she said. That marching band teacher, at the end of Chads 10th grade year,
said he was all done with music and done with the band.
This was shocking and disappointing to her since ever since he was a baby, music has
been his passion.

After enrolling at Fletcher High School in Neptune Beach, Florida, things finally turned
around.
That marching band teacher was excited, the kids were excited. They put him on the
field and it was amazing, she said.
Stephen Klepner, the graduate assistant in the music program, and one of Ericksons
instructors in the marching band where Erickson played timpani in the pit orchestra this year,
cant believe anyone would discourage a student from being more involved in music.
Thats the stupidest thing Ive ever heard, and if its true, its a crime, he said. Its an
issue that most music teachers have. They dismiss things that they arent able to handle. Its
easier as an educator to say hes too much work to retrofit my lesson plan to him so Ill just say
music isnt for him.
Klepner himself has learned so much from Erickson about teaching students who are
blind or have differing abilities. For instance, when writing on the board, professors need to say
out loud everything they write when there is a student who is blind in the class. In conducting
class, someone needs to move Ericksons hand in the proper directions and give him feedback
on his performance.
He is a very auditory learner, but uses a device called a Braillenote a kind of braille
keyboard, to take notes.
A musical life
Never short on words, he is often found in the Fine Arts Center talking to professors and
students, all while tapping his leg and uhhuh-ing along as they talk.
He asks a lot of questions. Anytime he meets a new person the first question hell ask
them is if they play an instrument, and then hell ask them everything that has to do with the
instrument that they play, said junior Jasmine Keefer.
Keefer was Ericksons group leader, affectionately called mom, for the summer
transition program and has gotten to know him during marching band.
Klepner agrees.
He wants to know if youre a musician. He wants to know what your connection to music
is, and he relates to you through music, he said.
Unsurprisingly, the sophomore is a music education major, who plans on staying to get
his masters degree in music education from the university. He learns most music by listening,
but has recently learned how to read braille music.
When near any new instrument, he feels it to get a sense of what it is and how it looks.
Approaching a new piano for the first time, he not only feels the keys, but feels the strings inside
and the sides of the instrument to get a better sense of its size, shape and style.
Erickson has a very impressive instrument collection of his own including a piccolo, two
flutes, three clarinets, four saxophones, three trumpets, a trombone, a baritone horn, a violin, a

guitar, a dulcimer, several harmonicas, two melodicas, three accordions, a couple recorders, a
piano, an organ and a snare drum, along with some minor instruments.
His memory is impressive too, if you cant tell.
Although the accordion was his first instrument, taught by his grandmother, and
saxophone is his main instrument, there are many instruments he hasnt played including
double-reeded instruments like a bassoon or oboe.
Just by being himself, Erickson has been an asset to the music department, classmates
and professors said.
Hes very much a person who is in the present, he is wholeheartedly living in the
moment, Klepner said. Hes very talented. Hes very passionate about music and its
something a lot of his peers don't have to the same level.
Up, up and away
His other passion, aviation, is surprising to some people.
A few years after that first plane ride at 7, Erickson was able to sit in the cockpit of a
plane and even use some of the controls.
Hes always loved flying and so he got a chance to go up in a helicopter in St.
Augustine, Florida, and then got the chance to go up in an airplane. While he was in the
airplane he was in the front seat in the cockpit and I was in the back, his mother explained.
Once in the sky and above the ocean, the pilot relinquished control of the plane to him
and he grabbed the controls and excitedly jammed it forward, causing the plane to nose dive.
He then pulled it back, imitating the movement by leaning back as he explains, and the plane
shot up into the sky. All the while his nervous mother, afraid of both heights and water, sat in the
back seat hoping they wouldnt crash.
Spend a few hours with Erickson, and it becomes clear he is determined to do daily
tasks with as little help as possible.
Just another student
Walking across campus in his grey sweatshirt, he moves his cane across the pathway to
feel the direction, using the map in his mind, knowing that at a certain point the path with split
into two and he needs to take the one on the right in order to get back to his room in Babcock
Hall.
He decided to attend Castleton to continue a family tradition, following his mother and
grandmother who have also attended. Choosing to live on campus to get the full college
experience, while his mother lives just 20 minutes away in Rutland, is another way Erickson
proves his determination.

Chad is incredible, said Bre Morse, his community advisor in Babcock Hall. He doesn't
need as much help as everyone thinks. He does his own laundry, takes the stairs, he can tell
whose laptop is whose just by feeling it. Hes opened my eyes to a lot of things.
His single room is set up with the normal furniture of a dorm room: a bed, desks, a
bureau. But something not found in the average room is an embosser, like a printer for braille,
which prints pages Erickson is able to understand. His computer is also equipped with JAWS, a
screen reading program that can read aloud his email or any other web pages he visits. He has
encountered a few problems when it comes to Moodle though, making it an area his mother
assists him with.
One of the few other places he needs assistance is in the dining hall, where he explains
tables are often moved around and it is unclear what is for dinner.
Seeing him in Huden Dining Hall daily, fellow classmates will notice one of the
employees scan his ID hanging by lanyard around his neck, seat him at a reserved table either
to the left or right of the entrance, and then tell him what is for dinner. A few minutes later they
return with a plate of food, utensils and two glasses of white milk.
During the summer transition program before his freshman year, Erickson was having
dinner with Keefer and others. Keefer got him a glass of milk and he chugged it within five
seconds of sitting down, she laughed. She continued to laugh as she admitted she had to get
him at least four glasses of milk that day.
From that point on his nickname in the group became The Milkman.
Erickson is able to live on campus, eat in the dining hall and play in marching band, but
is there anything he feels he is missing out on?
Not at all, not really, no, he said proudly. Sometimes other people who may be blind or
deaf or have other disabilities, they may feel they are missing out on something, but no, not with
me.