I’m Nikki Claudio, a teacher, writer, and gamer from Massachusetts, and the creator of everything in Nikki’s Nook.
South Coast Beginnings
I grew up on the South Coast of Massachusetts. I started out in Fairhaven, moved to Mattapoisett shortly after I turned 7, and then to Marion a few months before I turned 13. Marion is where I stayed through high school, before moving to Boston. Music and theater started early: I began singing and acting at age 8, at the YMCA Summer drama camp, and my first performance in front of a large audience was at my elementary school talent show in fifth grade.
The Years That Changed Everything
Shortly before I turned 10, doctors found a brain tumor. The tumor was removed surgically, but it had crushed my optic nerves, and I became fully blind. That same year, I began training with a TVI and an orientation and mobility specialist in my school district, learning to do everything in a new way. A few years later, shortly before I turned 12, more tumors were found. This time, I went through chemotherapy and radiation. I am a two-time brain cancer survivor, which, as I like to say, makes me kind of a superhero. My passion for social justice took root after that second round of cancer. Surviving it made me think hard about fairness, access, and the kind of people who tend to get left out. While I was an inpatient for chemotherapy, I met the founder of Endure to Cure, an organization that raises money for cancer research through exercise-themed events and projects. Years later, in January 2019, I hiked Mount Kilimanjaro with him. It was a pivotal moment in my life, because it showed me that I can accomplish anything I set a goal for and work toward.
High School: Doing Everything
I was very involved in high school. I sang in chorus and a cappella, and I was part of the drama club. In student government, I served as class president my freshman year, and class senator for the rest. During my senior year, I served as the student representative to the School Committee. I represented my school at the Southeast Regional Student Advisory Council and my region at the State Student Advisory Council. My school district sent me to Massachusetts Boys/Girls State, the American Legion civics and leadership program where students build and run a mock state government, and I was elected Lieutenant Governor.
I was also a member of the National Honor Society, the debate team, and the mock trial team. The 2016 presidential election, controversial, historic, and completely wild, is what pulled me into politics for real. High school is also where I discovered that I loved teaching.
My Inner Nerd
My love of fantasy began at age 10 with the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, and it grew with Harry Potter. At 12, shortly after finishing chemotherapy and radiation, I used my Make-A-Wish to meet Daniel Radcliffe. Gaming began at 7, when I received a Nintendo DS Lite for my birthday. Pokemon Pearl was one of my first games, and a Nintendo Wii followed soon after. When I lost my vision, I was sure I would never game again. At 12, I learned to keep playing Pokemon by memorizing the maps and the sounds, with some help. I did not discover accessible mobile gaming until my sophomore year of high school, or accessible PC gaming until my freshman year of college. The first accessible RPG I ever played was A Hero’s Call, from Out of Sight Games.
Boston College
I attended Boston College for both my undergraduate and graduate studies. I started as a political science major, switched to economics, and added a philosophy minor, then changed economics to history and turned the philosophy minor into a second major. I wanted to learn everything, so I more or less did. I earned bachelor’s degrees in history and philosophy, and through a five-year accelerated BA and MA program, in which my senior year of undergrad was also my first year of graduate school, I earned my master’s in philosophy in my fifth year. At BC, I was part of the Council for Students with Disabilities (CSD), which sits within the Undergraduate Government of Boston College, and I served as Director during my junior year, in the middle of Covid. I sang with The Common Tones of Boston College, a community service-themed a cappella group that performs at fundraisers, shelters, children’s hospitals, and more. I also taught high school students about logical fallacies as a student teacher with BC Splash, Boston College’s chapter of Education for Students by Students. As a child, I wanted to be a famous singer, a math teacher, and a therapist, all at once. In high school, I thought I would go to law school and become a disability lawyer.
Teaching, and the Full Circle
My first official job came in 2021, as a resident assistant at the Carroll Center for the Blind, where I also interned as a technology skills instructor. I worked there per diem as an instructor from November 2021, moved into a full-time technology skills instructor position in May 2023, after finishing graduate school, and stayed until September 2024. Perkins School for the Blind has been part of my life since childhood. As a blind student, I spent years in Perkins Outreach programs: science weekend, transportation weekend, cooking weekend, self-defense weekend, theater week, Camp Abilities, Space Camp, summer programs, and so many more. All that time, one thought sat in the back of my head: how cool would it be to work here as a teacher? In May 2025, I began a master’s degree in education at UMass Boston, in the Vision Studies program, on the TVI certification track. In August 2025, I started teaching at Perkins. I am doing it now.
Circe and D&D
I played official D&D for the first time in October 2023, and it is now my full hyperfixation. For the last two years, I have been writing my own homebrew campaign. I currently DM it for two different groups, playtesting it before creating the final written version. In games and online, I go by Circe.
What I Care About
I have been passionate about LGBTQ rights since I was a queer child, before I had the understanding, or the words, for it. More recently, I have been learning a great deal about neurodiversity. I was recently diagnosed as AuDHD, autism and ADHD together, and many of my friends are neurodivergent. Knowing that my brain is wired differently has given me a colorful way of thinking, and of going about life. If I had all the time in the world, I would start my own a cappella group, my own theater group, and my own accessible gaming company. I would write a billion novels, become a pop star, go on Broadway, write and star in my own TV show, run for political office, and run a nonprofit where people from minority demographics can find community and host events together. My deepest fantasy would be to go on a real adventure as an RPG character, with my friends as my party members.
You can reach me at circe@nikkisnook.me.
