We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam Seavey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Having a positive attitude. I could probably also say determination, but without the positive attitude to roll with the punches and keep moving forward, determination alone would it be enough. Creating and building anything can be difficult, then try adding vision loss on top of it! Without a positive attitude, it would be impossible.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The Blind Life, my YouTube channel started as a result of my love of mobile technology. By chance, I started making videos for another YouTube channel that taught people about mobile technology. I made a couple of videos reviewing apps for the visually impaired and noticed that they were quite well received. That prompted me to search YouTube for channels geared toward the visually impaired and blind community. At that time, there was very little available. I tried to search for my vision impairment, Stargardt’s Disease, and found almost nothing. This inspired me to create my own YouTube channel.

Creating videos with a vision impairment is not easy. It definitely takes me longer to set up my shots and edit my videos that it does for a fully sighted person. It took about 3 years of regularly posting content to sharpen the focus of the channel and get my first 1000 subscribers. Now, 7.5 years after starting my channel I have almost 650 videos and over 35,000 subscribers. I take pride in knowing that my viewers trust me to create not only in-depth and knowledgeable content, but also to give impartial and honest feedback.

Over the last several years I’ve become recognized by vendors, professionals in the field, and people with vision loss as a trustworthy resource for information about all types of assistive technology for the visually impaired.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate this to my family. Without their love and support, none of this would be possible

Website: TheBlindLife.net

Instagram: @TheBlindLifeSam

Twitter: @TheBlindLifeSam

Facebook: Facebook.com/TheBlindLifeSam

Youtube: YouTube.com/TheBlindLife

Image Credits
Photos by Skylar Seavey

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutArizona is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.