Fatimah Musa, who will receive a bachelor’s degree in mechatronics during University of Tennessee at Chattanooga undergraduate commencement ceremonies on Saturday, Dec. 16, was born with cone-rod dystrophy—a type of inherited retinal degeneration affecting the retina’s photoreceptor cells. The condition is characterized by progressive loss of function and death of the eyes’ cone and rod photoreceptor cells, leading to vision loss.
Overcoming adversity: Mechatronics student Fatimah Musa won’t let visual impairment hold her back
UTC mechatronics student Fatimah Musa was born with cone-rod dystrophy—a type of inherited retinal degeneration affecting the retina’s photoreceptor cells. Musa said “visually impaired” is usually the correct term for her case, “but I generalize myself as blind because blind does include the visually impaired.”