(BOY YELPS) - WOMAN: One, two, three, jump! - My name is Renzo. I am blind. I have zero vision. # Twinkle, twinkle... # Leber's congenital amaurosis ` it's... a disability that I have. - I still don't know how Renzo perceives the world without vision yet. I think that's still a bit of a learning curve. - I'm in year four this year, and I'm going to a new school for blind people. It's called BLENNZ. - He is just so happy and so outgoing. He tends to just go with the flow. As he gets older and matures, we will realise how he does perceive the world. But I think at the moment, he's just really happy just to cruise through life. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024 (SOFT GUITAR MUSIC) - I live with my mum. She looks after me. She is... very good to me. - Oh, it's still warm. - Mummy, should I unfold my cane? - Yes, please. - 'My mum is helping me to use my cane.' It's important... because if I don't use my cane, I won't be able to get around. Here we go! - He's just a really, really happy child who's a breath of fresh air. - Oh, (SINGS INDISTINCTLY) - Oh, it's beautiful. - Whoo-hoo! - You go. - Can I jump? Mum, race you! - But you're getting closer to the water. Can you hear it? - Yeah. - OK. Renzo lives with a congenital condition called Leber's congenital amaurosis. He's been blind since birth. It's a condition that involves the retina. - Waves! Oh, I found it! 'I have had zero vision since I was a baby.' - Bring it over to me. - I need to get something. - 'When he was born, I was told that there was no issues with him.' When he was 3 months old, I had coffee with a friend of mine who had a little boy the same age as Renzo. He was looking at me and smiling at me and making little gestures, and I said to my friend, 'Renzo doesn't do that. 'Renzo doesn't look at me and smile.' And she said, 'Oh, well, Nicole, I think you should go and talk to your GP.' I spoke to my GP. The GP did some tests and said, 'Yes, I think we need to get this looked at.' So off to the ophthalmologist we went. At that time, they thought maybe he was long-sighted. I was excited at the idea that Renzo would wear these little glasses, and he'd look at me and goes, 'That's my mummy!' and give me a big smile. But unfortunately, that never happened. We went through a few more tests at Starship, and then we found out that Renzo had this retina condition and he had no sight. - (EXCLAIMS) - Whoo! - That made a big splash! - Did it? So then I had to navigate that news and really look at what kind of journey I wanted for Renzo moving forward. Renzo has absolutely no sight. When he was younger, I thought there might have been a little bit of light perception out of his left eye. But as he's got older, we've decided that there's no light there either. So no, he doesn't see anything. - OK. 'I use my cane to get around, and I love using accessible technology to access everything online and stuff. 'I love to explore technology.' I really want to know how stuff works. I guess I'll go on YouTube Kids. - ROBOTIC VOICE: Landscape. - So, I use a screen reader. People don't understand sometimes. They're like, 'Click here,' and then I'm like, 'Huh? I can't see.' (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) And then they're like, 'Oh... 'I forgot.' - Drawing in hand. Back button. - I don't know a lot about technology, so he's taught himself everything and just loves to learn new things. - So, I'm swiping right. I'm swiping right again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. - Amazon Alexa. - So I just keep swiping right until I reach the browser. - Message, Safari. - Now I double tap. So, it can be very frustrating if something isn't accessible. It's really important. Anyone ` Apple, if you're even watching this, can you` I mean, Samsung, can you please put an update for the tab four to make it a bit more, please? (GRAVEL CRUNCHES) - CARER: Have a lovely day, Renzo. - OK. - Make sure you use your cane. - The school I go to is called Stella Maris Primary. All the kids at my school treat me really nicely. (GIGGLES) Yeah. - Having a mainstream school allows him to just be... a kid. - WOMAN: Cool ` sounds like you had a great day! - At school, I write stuff on my brailler. I write documents and stuff. - So, um, Renzo's doing writing about what he did on the weekend. (CHILDREN CHATTER INDISTINCTLY) Trying to get him to use his own words and explain to me how things felt and maybe sounds he heard around him and, yeah, things like that. But if you put your... At the moment, he's learning, I'd say, like, the basic start of Braille. He knows all, like, his alphabet. (BRAILLER CLACKS) L... O... Now it's just, like, remembering finger placement and spaces between the words and sounding words out. There's also learning basic contractions at the moment. 'Into' ` it's a word we join together. - This year is a bit of a transition year for us ` Renzo is going to change schools. We decided that Renzo would go to BLENNZ this year for a year, which is a school for blind and visually impaired children. - And you know what's gonna be super cool? I'm probably gonna see you more next year than I've seen you this year. Um, I've worked with Renzo since he started school at 5. He's been in a mainstream classroom. He's been supported with a teacher aide. And as we went on, we realised that there were some areas of his learning that may need some more intensive input that we were unable to support within a mainstream classroom. - So the great thing about going to a specialised school is he has all those specialists around him to help him a little bit more frequently than what he has at the moment, as they can only visit Stella Maris so many times within that year. - I'm gonna leave you so you can get on with your work, and I will see you next year, OK? - Yes. - All right. (CHUCKLES) - Renzo's transition from Stella Maris, where he has a huge friendship group to a smaller school like BLENNZ will look quite different for Renzo. - Wow! Saint Anthony, this is what Renzo and his mum have brought in for us. Renzo, do you want to tell the class what it is? - Uh, it's a big platter for my leaving day. - ...get to enjoy before he leaves. (KIDS EXCLAIM EXCITEDLY) - CHILD: Hold up, hold up! - We've got a card from Renzo. It says, 'To my friends of Saint Anthony, I will miss you all. 'Stay in touch on Messenger. See you in 2025.' - The great thing is he has a lot of his friends already on Kids Messenger, he's got Alexa, so at least we can stay connected. - I am going to miss my old school and my friends. - Because he will be returning back to Stella Maris the year after, we'll try and keep those really close bonds. So it will be quite a change for him. But the one thing about Renzo is he's very resilient. He fits in anywhere, and I think he'll make the most of the year. (UPBEAT COUNTRY MUSIC) - MAN: We got to go down here. - NICOLE: Renzo has a very special bond with his uncle, Greg. - Now, you wait there. I'll catch him, and you can bring him round, and then we'll get him ready. - Come here, buddy. - Are you gonna lead him for me? Gonna go over here. - Good boy! 'My uncle is very nice. He rides horses. - Stand here for me. - Breeze, if you want treats, you better work hard. - 'He's a cheeky little fella. Like, he's very confident, up for anything.' Ready? One, two, three, go. Up! For me, obviously, he's been blind his whole life, but I hang out with him a lot. We do a lot together. And half the time, I forget that he's even blind. That wasn't very graceful, was it? - I suck. - (CHUCKLES) - I'm trying to learn how to keep my feet in the stirrups and keep my bottom on the seat. - You keep shortening those reins. That's it. We'll just do a bit of walking. Nice and tall, right? - Mm-hm. Who's the worst person you ever taught? - Oh, I don't know. I don't know if I should tell you that. - Tell me. - Nah. Just take a tiny bit of left rein to say, 'I want to make him bend to the left.' Yeah? - Horses are very, very, very big. And they can be a bit... (GROWLS) - I've always had him around the horses, so I thought, you know, I didn't want him to be afraid of horses. - No, I'm never scared. Because I'm blind and I can't see anything, so I don't know if I'm up high. - OK, right. You bring` - He stinks. - (CHUCKLES) Yeah, you pull the left rein. Even as a, like, 2-year-old, I would just put a helmet on, put him on the back, tell him to hang on to the cover, and then I'd just lead him up. But, yeah, he certainly doesn't seem to worry that he's up high. I suppose it's when I ride, and I'm like, 'Well, if I fall off, it's quite a long way down.' I suppose he can't see that, so maybe that's better. Yeah. Hold the left rein for me a little bit. Then we'll trot, yeah? Nicole had this passion that he could ride because there's a couple of blind riders that do dressage and go to the Olympics and do it. It's quite amazing to watch. Lift the leg over. Ready to get it over. Good. Then you're gonna hang, and you're gonna lower down, right? Lower down, lower down, lower down, lower down and let go. There you go. Touch. Good man. I'd like to think he'd do it, but he's into lots of sports, 'so it'll be interesting to see what sport he takes up along the way.' We'll just take him to the door, and he'll go in by himself, yeah? - Today, Renzo is taking part in the Blind Low Vision summer swim camp at the AUT Millennium, with about eight to 10 children from around the North Island. - Renzo, it's Jemma. What I want us to do first is we're gonna do that stuff out of the water like we did yesterday, so we're gonna get used to our arms doing this... 'So to coordinate yourself to swim, 'you're concentrating on a lot of things at the same time.' To get that coordinated, especially if you don't have an example of somebody else doing it, it's really difficult, and it's all about movement and what feels right. Down, up. Down, up. Perfect! So Renzo's just trying to get that movement of reaching back to the pockets, because he's used to that really short stroke of doggy paddle. But whilst he's concentrating on his arms, his legs fall off cos he's concentrating so hard on trying to get his arms right. - Really? - You're doing really well. - I enjoy swimming. My swimming skills are very good. - Legs over the side. You're sitting on your bum. We're gonna do this dive first. So are we gonna squeeze our arms to our ears? Where are our strong hands? And we're tipping forwards. Tipping, tipping, tipping, tipping, tipping. (LAUGHS) 'Nice.' - When you have sight, you can see other children and you can see those movements. For him, it's gonna take a little bit longer and a lot more practice to just get that movement. But also, we've got to build on the strength of that movement, I think. He loves the water and likes to have fun in the water. Renzo loves technology, so I think he'll be quite excited today to use the headpiece. He used it a little bit yesterday. So the instructor can be in the water, or can be outside of the pool. Renzo can have his little headphones, and they can just instruct him as he goes along. - OK, so this is my coach's voice headset. It is a bone conduction. So bone conduction ` it's like a vibration that sits on your cheek bone, and that changes the noise, the vibration to the sound of my voice. So I speak to them through the microphone. What happens is we get real-time change. MUFFLED: Straighten those arms, Renzo. Beautiful! So as soon as they do something wrong, I'm on to them, asking them to change what they're doing. Really, it's great technology. - I learnt swimming skills because... I can swim in the Paralympics, and then maybe I'll beat someone and get the world record. - Blow your bubbles. Good boy ` look at that. Awesome, Renzo. Keep kicking, sweetheart. - I always dream of Renzo being a Paralympian. Paralympians worked really hard, having a disability, to get to the level they are. And, you know, I just want Renzo to know that if he works hard, he can accomplish whatever he wants. Yeah, if you just... sprinkle it like that. Um, today we thought, as a family, we'd all get together. It's a beautiful day. The sun is out. We thought we'd have a barbecue and a swim and just all get together before Renzo starts school next week. - Hang on. I need to go to the shallow end. - I think Renzo's really looking forward to starting his new school next week. - Whoo! (EXHALES) The water's so refreshing! - He's already met some of the teachers and some of the kids that go to the school, so I think he's just really excited about getting in there. (SILVERWARE CLATTERS) I've got some sausages... We've got some potato salad that you like. You want some corn ` corn on the cob? - Mm. - Mmm, yum. He loves to meet people, loves to introduce himself. He likes to let everybody know that he is in the room. Renzo, tell Uncle Brennan and Auntie Tash about going to BLENNZ for the first time. What are you looking forward to? - Getting a laptop! Another laptop. - And I just think` I don't know, I just think coming from such a loud, outgoing family, that's how` where his path is going. How's that Renzo? - It's good! (SOFT, BRIGHT MUSIC) - Renzo. Morning! - (GRUMBLES) - Morning. - STRAINED: Do I have to? - Yes, you have to. (SMOOCHES) Let's go. We got to have breakfast. - (GROANS) - Get dressed ` school. 'The morning is a bit of a mixed bag.' It's a quick turnover in the morning once Renzo gets up. 'I do some of the morning routine.' Right, some cereal. Weet-Bix? - Mm-hm. - I work about an hour away from where I live, so I do leave the house at about 6.30 in the mornings. All right, here's your banana. Can you open`? I'll start it, and if you do the rest of it. I do make his breakfast because it all comes down to time in the morning. Sorry, Renzo, can you please hold that spoon? It's taken Renzo quite a long time to use utensils. He really struggles with using a knife and a fork, so we use a lot of spoons when we eat. It's finding the right spoon for Renzo when he's eating his breakfast ` something that's got quite a solid handle that he can grip. 'Hold the bowl, please.' And then we've taught him how to put the base of the spoon at the front of the bowl and scoop forward. We're getting there. We're improving, aren't we, Renzo? - Yeah. - Good. - A fork is easier than a spoon. - It is. But unfortunately, you can't eat Weet-Bix with a fork, can you? - (LAUGHS) - That would be a bit messy, wouldn't it? He mostly gets dressed himself and does his teeth himself. I'm just always there to kind of guide him. OK, so Renzo's going to be commuting to BLENNZ. So from leaving the house, it's gonna look a lot different because that is out in Scott's Point. So the travelling time itself is gonna be a lot longer. It will be worth it for the fact that when he's there, he'll be able to concentrate on his Braille. He'll have more one-on-one tuition with his Braille. He will have more access to all the specialists that are based at the BLENNZ school, so he'll be able to see them a lot more. But also the beauty of being at BLENNZ is he's gonna be part of Scott Point Primary School. So when it comes playtime and lunchtime, he will be out on the playgrounds, playing with all the mainstream children. I think he is quite excited about it. He was told there's gonna be a lot more technology this year, and so straightaway he was like, 'Yes, please. I'm quite happy to go there.' (KIDS CHATTER INDISTINCTLY) - My new school ` it's special. Like, there's a lot of kids like me there, and I'm getting a laptop with some special software thingy called GuideConnect. - TEACHERS: # Hello, greetings, kia ora, nga mihi. # Hello, greetings, po marie. # - We are focusing on his literacy, numeracy. Inanahi was... Wednesday. And on top of that, we have orientation and mobility. - There's the gap in the doorway. - Use the nearest fire exit. - What have we got here on the ground? Sweep the cane. What are those? - Bumps. - Yeah, they're called directional tiles, aren't they? Which tells you where the door is. - Ernie helps me with O&M. O&M ` it's how I navigate. - Orientation and mobility ` so basically, it's about... Renzo navigating his way round the school safely and efficiently so he knows where to go. So, what happens when you find those stop dots? You know that there's some piece of danger, don't you? And in this case, it's a large... (METAL RESONATES) - Pole. - Yep, absolutely. If you come across hazard tiles, like if you go to a train station, they're all round by the drop-off where the train tracks are, so that's what they're predominantly for. Eh, good man. Can you remember how to swing? - Yeah. - Using your momentum? - (GRUNTS) I just need to use my feet to get started. - Renzo ` he's fun. Yeah, fun, and then he's also inquisitive as well. - Noah is my friend. We like playing on the piano and making music. We also like to do a lot of stuff on the laptop. (ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS WITH BIRD CALLS) - Renzo is really enjoying his time at BLENNZ. He's met some new friends that he has bonded with. He's learning a lot more about technology, which makes him very happy. He's learning a few more Braille skills. - What about 'I can do it'? With Renzo's Braille learning, he's currently learning finger placement on the keys, he's learning his name, writing simple sentences. Good boy. Excellent! This time, I want these fingers to stay on the keys, OK? I think the future looks very bright for him, and I think` Just harking back to the fact that he's here for, you know, for intensive learning... (STAMMERS) The possibilities are endless for him. - I get asked the question a lot, you know, 'Would you want Renzo to see?' And if there was something available in the future to give Renzo his sight back, would I be interested in that? I-I love the way Renzo is. I think if he... gained his sight, he would be a different child in some way. So no, I'm` As long as he's happy ` I'm his mother ` there to support him. No. - I think my mum is proud of me. I want my future to look like me as a Paralympian. As a technology person ` I'm gonna help people. - I think every parent is proud of their children, but I am constantly blown away at how amazing Renzo is and what he has achieved in his eight years of being around. He gives everything a go to his` to 110% ` he'll give everything a go ` and he's just happy with everything he does.