While a student in 2015 she was diagnosed with total and irreversible vision loss, and she rose to public prominence in subsequent years as a disability activist and social media influencer. Under the moniker "Blind Goddess", she posts vlogs about parenting while blind on TikTok, where she had over 126,000 followers by January 2024.[5] She also founded several companies and charitable organisations, including a non-profit called Disabled Women Living with Dignity.[3]
In 2019 she founded Featherlinx, a Pretoria-based tech company which aims to develop assistive technology for persons with disabilities; it is a member of the GrindstoneX programme, a startup incubator founded by Grindstone Accelerator and Naspers Labs.[6]
Political career
In July 2022, the African National Congress (ANC) announced that Chauke would stand as its candidate in an upcoming by-election in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. She stood in Tshwane's Ward 42, a southeastern region comprising Waterkloof and Monument Park, where the incumbent councillor, Phillip Nel of the Democratic Alliance (DA), had died.[7] The by-election was held on 3 August 2022 and the DA held the ward; Chauke lost to Shane Maas, who received 77 per cent of the vote.[8]
Chauke's vision loss was caused by permanent optic nerve damage as a complication of idiopathic intracranial hypertension.[2] After suffering persistent unexplained headaches and blackouts, she began losing her vision in January 2015 while awaiting a diagnosis.[3][5] She has said that she suffered depression and anxiety attacks both while awaiting a diagnosis and after receiving the hypertension diagnosis.[3][5] She is legally blind but can see light, silhouettes, and some colour,[2] which she describes as "like looking through a blanket of fog".[11]
In 2018 she married Sikhumbuzo Adonis, her boyfriend of five years.[2][4] They have two sons together, born in 2016 and 2023.[2][12]
