Luka Santin
For former Council Scholarship recipient Luka Santin, music has always been at the forefront. Diagnosed with glaucoma from birth, Luka has been interested in music since they were just 3 years old. Playing and writing music was a way to express themselves and their feelings about their vision. It’s no wonder, then, that Luka went on to study music as a career.
Luka graduated from Lawrence University in 2023 with a degree in Musical Arts, which was a new offering at the school. There, they primarily played piano and grew their music writing skills. To do that, Luka used the composing program Logic, which was highly compatible with the accessibility programs already available on their Mac computer. “My Mac can enlarge the screen, which helps a lot,” says Luka. “Logic’s interface can get crowded, so screen magnification with keyboard shortcuts are super helpful. It can be a little like juggling when you’re trying to record music, but it isn’t too bad.”
Luka uses a few different adaptations to play music. When they get a new piece, they will enlarge the music with a scanner or file editing program to make it more readable. Once they’ve played the piece a few times, Luka says they can usually memorize the music to eliminate the need to look at the pages. “Having to look at the music would give me visual fatigue pretty quickly, so memorizing it just felt like a very natural thing for me,” Luka says.
With one college degree in hand, Luka moved to Madison and, after a short break, enrolled at Carroll College in Waukesha to get a second degree in Music Therapy. Transitioning to music therapy was always the goal, Luka says, ever since they learned about the field shortly after high school. Luka says the commute from Madison to Waukesha is worth it to study what they love.
“Being someone with a disability myself, I understand how music can be a great outlet for expressing feelings,” Luka says. “I want to be able to facilitate that emotional release for other people because it’s been so helpful for me.” Luka says they are on track to graduate this spring and will start an internship in the fall. In the meantime, Luka has continued to write music and hopes to record an album in the near future.
Now that they are finishing their second college degree, Luka knows a few things about being a student with vision loss. Their biggest advice to new students is to get to know the school’s disabilities office. “They might have a different name, but getting to know whoever is in charge of accommodations is really important,” Luka says. “Get your accommodations in place right away and talk to your professors about them. Maybe they’ve had blind or low vision students in the past and maybe they haven’t. But building a relationship with your professors and advocating for yourself can go a long way.”
Since our founding, the Council has been awarding scholarships to postsecondary students who are blind or low vision. Information about 2026 Council Scholarships is coming soon, so watch for it in upcoming issues of On Sight, in our social media, and on our website at WCBlind.org/Events/Scholarships.