Claudia Nigrelli: Accessibility consultant, guest speaker and artist
Claudia Nigrelli has an impactful story of navigating vision loss in her life, career, and creativity. Her many successes come with adapting to new circumstances, continually innovating, and believing in herself. Claudia shared her story in a video presentation to the community of assistive technology users who conduct testing for Fable.
This article recaps her journey and some of her powerful insights on career development for people with disabilities. To access the full recording and grow in your career as a person with a disability with Fable, join the Fable community.
Claudia’s story
Claudia is an accessibility consultant, public speaker, entrepreneur, professional artist, and more, but it was a journey to get here. She has spent a decade growing as an entrepreneur while navigating changing levels of vision due to a condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa, which slowly causes peripheral vision loss and can cause total blindness. Her vision loss started at the age of seven, and now she just has light perception, the ability to see light or dark, some movement, and no detailed visual acuity. She uses a guide dog named Irwin.
Born and raised in Montreal, Claudia began her career working in massage therapy. Working at a massage therapy business motivated Claudia to become an entrepreneur, and she began thinking of how to make lasting connections that could help her in the future. In 2015, Claudia got a knee injury that required her to step back from massage therapy, but she didn’t have a degree or other work experience.
While also dealing with increasing vision loss, Claudia started exploring accessibility rules, regulations, and policies. She started sharing her story on social media and soon, wanted to share it more broadly. She reached out to a local elementary school and spoke to 12 classes. Around this time, she also got a job at Apple. She went from “hating” technology to learning more as her vision worsened. During her four years at Apple, she taught people who didn’t use assistive technology how to use Apple products, all while using assistive technology herself.
With career and life experience providing consultation on physical and digital accessibility and technology, she has become an accessibility consultant, advocate, and international speaker. Claudia can present in English, French, Spanish and Italian. She has spoken at CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Foundation Fighting Blindness, large businesses, and has even shared the stage with a personal development icon she looked up to. She secured job contracts by using her network and the relationships she had built. Despite facing many of no’s and working through many challenges, Claudia has consulted on accessibility efforts at large organizations in Canada.
“It happened with a lot of patience, a lot of crying, laughing, excitement, and a lot, a lot of work. Being an entrepreneur…is not easy, but it is fulfilling.” says Claudia.
Bored during the COVID-19 pandemic, Claudia bought painting supplies. Ten years prior, she had gotten rid of all her art supplies, thinking that someone who was blind couldn’t paint. With her new supplies, she made a small painting and shared it on social media, then sold it to a friend. This set Claudia on her path to revisiting a past passion and becoming an artist. Now, she is a commissioned artist and has her own art exhibition.
When reflecting on her journey as an entrepreneur, Claudia says she “just threw herself into it,” and things snowballed. She encourages people to get out of their comfort zone, which has been a huge factor in her success.
Claudia’s story
Claudia is an accessibility consultant, public speaker, entrepreneur, professional artist, and more, but it was a journey to get here. She has spent a decade growing as an entrepreneur while navigating changing levels of vision due to a condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa, which slowly causes peripheral vision loss and can cause total blindness. Her vision loss started at the age of seven, and now she just has light perception, the ability to see light or dark, some movement, and no detailed visual acuity. She uses a guide dog named Irwin.
Born and raised in Montreal, Claudia began her career working in massage therapy. Working at a massage therapy business motivated Claudia to become an entrepreneur, and she began thinking of how to make lasting connections that could help her in the future. In 2015, Claudia got a knee injury that required her to step back from massage therapy, but she didn’t have a degree or other work experience.
While also dealing with increasing vision loss, Claudia started exploring accessibility rules, regulations, and policies. She started sharing her story on social media and soon, wanted to share it more broadly. She reached out to a local elementary school and spoke to 12 classes. Around this time, she also got a job at Apple. She went from “hating” technology to learning more as her vision worsened. During her four years at Apple, she taught people who didn’t use assistive technology how to use Apple products, all while using assistive technology herself.
With career and life experience providing consultation on physical and digital accessibility and technology, she has become an accessibility consultant, advocate, and international speaker. Claudia can present in English, French, Spanish and Italian. She has spoken at CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Foundation Fighting Blindness, large businesses, and has even shared the stage with a personal development icon she looked up to. She secured job contracts by using her network and the relationships she had built. Despite facing many of no’s and working through many challenges, Claudia has consulted on accessibility efforts at large organizations in Canada.
“It happened with a lot of patience, a lot of crying, laughing, excitement, and a lot, a lot of work. Being an entrepreneur…is not easy, but it is fulfilling.” says Claudia.
Bored during the COVID-19 pandemic, Claudia bought painting supplies. Ten years prior, she had gotten rid of all her art supplies, thinking that someone who was blind couldn’t paint. With her new supplies, she made a small painting and shared it on social media, then sold it to a friend. This set Claudia on her path to revisiting a past passion and becoming an artist. Now, she is a commissioned artist and has her own art exhibition.
When reflecting on her journey as an entrepreneur, Claudia says she “just threw herself into it,” and things snowballed. She encourages people to get out of their comfort zone, which has been a huge factor in her success.
Claudia’s insights on career success
Fable community members were able to ask questions to get first-hand insights into the entrepreneurial journey of a fellow person with a disability. You can join the Fable community to get expert advice to support your career growth as a person with a disability.
What are the positives and negatives of working for yourself?
She first noted that as an entrepreneur, you are your own boss. You choose your schedule, and you have to hold yourself accountable. It’s easy to lose track of time and have things pile up when procrastinating. To avoid having weekends filled with work, Claudia encourages time management skills, and writing everything down in an agenda.
She also enjoys deciding where she works, whether to stay home in the winter to avoid the challenges of outdoor navigation or going to a coffee shop to be around other people. Some of her contracts for accessibility consulting require her to work in-person, which is a nice change too.
What education goes into being an accessibility consultant?
Claudia emphasized the value of lived experience. She realized that she could rely on experience in past jobs where she was giving advice on improving accessibility, and from her own experience navigating vision loss. She recommends sharing your perspective to advocate for change, while being mindful of sharing from your own experience and the group you’re speaking for. For example, she makes sure to speak mostly for people who are blind or have low vision since that relates to her disability.
To gain education, she recommends looking into policies, regulations, laws and certifications related to disability and accessibility, as they can vary based on location. Claudia’s continues to learn through research and staying current with physical and digital accessibility trends.
What have been the biggest challenges for you to break through?
Claudia acknowledged that every day is a challenge. She recognizes that her days are full of things that are not designed for people who are blind.
When transitioning into accessibility consulting, she worried people would not take her seriously as a consultant if she could not see. And she continued to navigate the challenges of knowing when to disclose her disability. Now she knows that her blindness is an enormous strength.
She still has days where she thinks, “Why me?”. On those days she turns on loud music, dances, and decides to “get over herself.” She faces no’s from potential clients and speaking opportunities but realizes that “no” is just “not right now” and may be a “yes” later. Persistence and resilience are key for entrepreneurship.
Even when painting, Claudia will get “white canvas syndrome”, when she doesn’t know what to paint. The best fix is to throw a color on the canvas and go from there.
Claudia still experiences imposter syndrome but reminds herself that there is someone out there waiting to hear what she has to say and be impacted by her work. When facing resistance, she encourages others to keep going and know that it is a long-term game.
What have been the biggest challenges for you to break through?
Claudia acknowledged that every day is a challenge. She recognizes that her days are full of things that are not designed for people who are blind.
When transitioning into accessibility consulting, she worried people would not take her seriously as a consultant if she could not see. And she continued to navigate the challenges of knowing when to disclose her disability. Now she knows that her blindness is an enormous strength.
She still has days where she thinks, “Why me?”. On those days she turns on loud music, dances, and decides to “get over herself.” She faces no’s from potential clients and speaking opportunities but realizes that “no” is just “not right now” and may be a “yes” later. Persistence and resilience are key for entrepreneurship.
Even when painting, Claudia will get “white canvas syndrome”, when she doesn’t know what to paint. The best fix is to throw a color on the canvas and go from there.
Claudia still experiences imposter syndrome but reminds herself that there is someone out there waiting to hear what she has to say and be impacted by her work. When facing resistance, she encourages others to keep going and know that it is a long-term game.
“Do what you love, because, like I said, someone out there is waiting for you to put yourself out there. […] Imposter syndrome exists. But if you get over it, you never know what other door will open for you.”
How do you get clients and promote yourself?
Claudia encourages people with disabilities to be confident, comfortable with no’s, and keep knocking on doors. These can be challenging things to implement, but it is how Claudia has found success.
Consider how you want to be known. Claudia shares content on social media and wants to portray her authentic self; however silly, it is who she is. One of her clients said they had been watching her content for two years and then decided to reach out. Although Claudia thinks it can be easy to compare on social media, being yourself is critical.
Initially, when finding clients, Claudia would do speaking engagements with anyone who would listen. This built up her skills and now she works with large organizations and has companies reaching out to her, in addition to her continuing to do cold reach-outs and applying to speaking opportunities.
When going to a speaking event, Claudia will ensure she takes photos or videos before she speaks and shares them on social media to build her brand and show her work. To get better as a speaker, Claudia will practice her speech with friends.
How do you make your art and creative work accessible?
Claudia has found many ways to make painting accessible. The key is to make things as tactile as possible. She works with her fingers, shells, rice, sponges, string, and more as tactile painting tools. All her paint colours have braille labels. By using blobs or thicker layers of paint, Claudia can enhance the feel of her painting.
For other people with disabilities who want to figure out how to make painting accessible, Claudia urges people to go out, buy some cheap supplies, and figure out how to make it work along the way. Claudia has dealt with the grieving process of being unable to paint portraits or trace and paint like she used to, but she has adjusted her style to do more abstract art.
It’s hard to not be able to see the final piece with perfect vision, but she finds fulfillment in sharing her work with others. There’s a new kind of enjoyment in exploring her paintings by touch and hearing the diverse perspectives of her abstract art from others.
When it comes to video content on social media, Claudia will use VoiceOver to help frame herself in the video, then turn off VoiceOver once she starts the recording. She recommends getting someone to double-check the footage to ensure things are framed well before posting.
When exploring creativity as a person with a disability, remember that people are interested in what you have to share, so have fun with it and explore what works with you. As Claudia often says, “sight is finite, vision is infinite.”
“Do what you love, because, like I said, someone out there is waiting for you to put yourself out there. […] Imposter syndrome exists. But if you get over it, you never know what other door will open for you.”
Claudia Nigrelli
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