At the age of 17, Domenico had to say goodbye to an aspiring US college basketball career and reassess his job options.
Within eight weeks he was legally blind.
“It was a big shift because it wasn’t on the cards,” he said.
“I had plans to move to America to play college basketball. I lost my vision within eight weeks and I had to reassess where I wanted to go.
Diagnosed with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, Domenico had to quickly turn his life around without much time to grieve.
Picture: Domenico on one of his international trips.
That resilience and perseverance is why he has taken out Vision Australia’s Youth Award for 2021.
“It was a nice surprise,” he said, receiving the award on Wednesday 27 October.
His nomination highlighted him for “remaining positive” being “a go-getter who strives to achieve his goals and never complains about the daily challenges he faces”.
At 26, after choosing to study one of the hardest and most demanding degrees in Australia, Domenico is now a practising corporate lawyer for Corrs Chambers Westgarth in Perth.
He says he can manage going through huge stacks of mergers and paperwork just fine with his screen reader JAWS.
“There’s no reason why you can’t do anything, with technology these days anything’s really possible.”
For him, going down his career path is a chance to continue to explore international opportunities.
“One of my goals is to practise overseas, ideally in the UK or America, and network with other people from different parts of the world.”
The Vision Australia awards were first handed out in 2006 to recognise and celebrate individuals and organisations who contribute their time and resources to support the work of Vision Australia and the wider blind and low vision community.