Edery Never Stopped Climbing

Do you know who holds the world record as the first blind man to climb the Empire State Building’s 1,576 steps in just 26 minutes?

Meet Edery.

An athlete and educator now interning as an adaptive technology trainer at Lighthouse Guild, Edery has swum Alcatraz’s waters and competed internationally in blind baseball. But growing up, even attending school was out of the question.

Growing up with vision loss in the Dominican Republic, Edery couldn’t attend school like his siblings and cousins. His mother taught him reading and basic math at home.

At 13, after moving to Puerto Rico, he entered his first classroom. Starting at third-grade level, he quickly advanced two grades.

A year later, he moved to the Bronx, facing another obstacle: learning English.

In public school, he tackled the language barrier and discovered athletics, winning competitions as a wrestler, swimmer, and runner while pursuing his education.

Flourishing as a low-vision student athlete, he wanted more: freedom and independence to navigate New York City.

Subways, buses, work — Edery wanted everything New York City offered. Others doubted he could navigate it with vision loss. Their doubts became his motivation.

“I never stayed home,” he says. “I always went out and found my opportunity.”

One of those opportunities came through Lighthouse Guild.

In 1995, Lighthouse Guild’s Saturday program for blind and low-vision teens strengthened his English and academics. Its college preparation program later helped him pursue higher education. He also worked part-time, including in sales with the New York Yankees. Still, he wanted more.

Still, doubts followed him. “I remember even my guidance counselor at school didn’t think I was ready for college because of my blindness.”

Nevertheless, Edery enrolled at Bronx Community College. After his first midterm, convinced he’d failed, he wondered whether the counselor was right.

“My sighted test-taking guide kept asking if I wanted to know my score. I really didn’t want to know, because I knew I had failed. But she kept saying ‘are you sure?’ Eventually I said fine just tell me, and I found out I aced it.”

That confidence carried him forward. He earned his class’s only perfect score on an English comprehension exam and became an English as a Second Language tutor, helping students through challenges he knew firsthand.

As his vision declined, tools like JAWS screen-reading software helped him study and work independently. He graduated summa cum laude and pursued graduate studies in social work.

Outside the classroom, he was just getting started.

Connecting with Achilles International in 2015 opened a world of adaptive athletics: half marathons, swimming across the Hudson River, and the Escape from Alcatraz swim — his toughest swimming challenge yet.

On October 8, 2025, he became the fastest blind person to climb the Empire State Building’s 86 stories with his sighted guide: 1,576 steps in under 26 minutes.

He’s also competed internationally in blind baseball and completed the TD Five Boro Bike Tour with Team Lighthouse Guild.

Cheering him on is his wife, Veronica — another connection formed through Lighthouse Guild’s past.

He met her brother through the organization in the 1990s. Reconnecting decades later, her brother suggested an introduction. Edery traveled from the Bronx to East New York to meet Veronica, navigating once-challenging subways and buses. The rest is history.

Today, she travels to his competitions and shares his adventures.

“Sometimes she forgets that I am blind,” Edery laughs. “She loves me for me, my blindness is just a part of me, like my playful humor.”

Now Edery is interning as an adaptive technology trainer at Lighthouse Guild, helping others with vision loss gain tools and skills to pursue their own goals.

It’s a full-circle moment, not a finish line.

“No matter the vision loss, surgeries, challenges, I wanted to continue and do more,” he says. “And it’s not over. There’s still more that I want to do.”

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