Our Story

“Empowerment to Independence.”

Vision Without Barriers was founded by a family that lived through raising a son with severe visual impairment despite not having the resources in their home country to give the full support he deserved. Moaz Khan was born in 1981 to a Lieutenant Colonel and his wife in Pakistan, where his parents quickly began to observe he was having issues interacting with his environment. As a child, he would fall more than they had experienced with their first two children, and he was unable to focus on things at a distance such as the television. At this time, resources for families and children with disabilities were very limited in Pakistan and his parents were forced to travel to many different cities and visit several doctors, homeopathists, nutritionists, and even religious leaders in order to better understand what Moaz was going through. It wasn’t until Moaz’s family traveled the United States in 1987 and took him to an ophthalmologist that he was able to get a diagnosis of Congenital Nystagmus, which turned out to be a misdiagnosis and was later changed to (RP) Retinitis Pigmentosa. Unfortunately, Moaz’s family had to return to Pakistan due to military obligation, but with a better understanding of exactly what was happening with their son, they were able to raise him to be a strong and capable leader in his own right. After moving to the United States, Moaz faced similar disadvantages within his education that he faced in Pakistan due to the disenfranchisement and discrimination of the time, but his parents and himself continued to dream of a time and organization that would help people like him across the world to better understand their unique visual impairments and could help them to learn to live independently as Moaz’s parents taught him. Moaz continued in his education and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BS in Applied Learning & Development Youth & Community Studies and later returned to school to graduate with an MPA from Texas State University in Public Administration, where he distinguished himself by graduating with honors. Recently, he received his Executive Certificate in Non-Profit and Leadership from John F. Kennedy School of government at Harvard.

In 2019, Vision Without Barriers created a mission statement to express their full deserves: Our mission is to provide, facilitate, and empower those who are disadvantaged and/or have substantial impairments which limit them from maintaining an independent living arrangement and getting equal opportunity in society. At this time the organization is comprised of the President (Moaz Khan) who is a trained professional to lead this prestigious organization. Team Vision Without Barriers include: our Vice President (Hamed Khan) who is a retired army lieutenant colonel, our board of advisors who are all from a diverse background. Our board is comprised of an engineer, an HR professional , a consultant and an executive of an oil and gas company. The organization has successfully completed 23 projects per year in order to positively affect our targeted mission group, including sending free white canes and state-of-the-art technology to help blind individuals throughout the world. WE strive to form a positive impact where it is needed the most.