“I can see, but I can’t see.”
That is how Joseph Johnson, also known as Joey, explains living with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare inherited eye disease that damages the retina and gradually reduces vision, often starting with night blindness and peripheral vision loss.
For Johnson, a Martinez resident and Harlem High graduate, the condition first showed up in his late 20s as trouble seeing at night and bumping into things he did not realize were in his path. Over time, it became harder to ignore and harder to work around…