First Hand Perspective of What It's Like to Be Blind

Hello everyone! A lot of people don't understand what it is like to be blind, or have any "disability" for that matter. Well let me start by saying that I am legally blind. I have an eye condition known as Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP for short). I don't consider my eye condition to be a disability though. To me it's more of an obstacle, and there are almost always ways around many obstacles that all of us face.

One of the things I love to do is puzzles, but my vision is not good enough that I can see the pieces to figure out where they go. Most sighted people would wonder how I do them then. Without the sight to figure out the intended location of the pieced, it's got to be frustrating. Well, it can be, but it is a relaxing thing to do in my free time. I use the puzzles with larger pieces and I do them completely by touch. Most of the time, I find that if a piece fits properly, it belongs. Sometimes I have to change places when this isn't the case but not often. I also do crafts by hand. I use plastic canvas and yarn to make tissue boxes, coasters, placemats, pencil cups, and just about anything you can think of. All I need for that is a sighted person to initially tell me what color my skein of yarn is so that I can label it in braille. Then I do it all by touch. So there you have two things that a lot of sighted people do that I can do as well.

So you may be wondering, what is it like for a blind, or partially blind person, out in the world? Well, apart from the discrimination that many of us face, which is no different than religious, racial, or sexual discrimination, we have pretty thorough lives. A person who cannot see often has heightened senses such as smell, hearing, and touch. These enrich our lives and sometimes even allow us to detect details that a sighted person might not notice. My mother used to call me "Eagle Ears" because when I was young, I could hear my step father coming home. I always heard the garage door open over the television and whenever I'd say "Todd's home," she wouldn't believe me at first. Then he'd walk in about thirty seconds later. She finally realized I was right and gave me that nickname. I've even heard of a blind man by the name of Dan Kish of World Access for the Blind, who could use his sense of hearing in an extraordinary way. He is able to harness the power of echolocation and make clicking sounds with his mouth which echo off of nearby objects and give him an idea of what they are without even touching them. A lot of us use a similar technique but not as honed as he does. We can generally "sense" the presence of large objects around us like buildings and cars, but Mr. Kish can do something as complex as to tell you where there are bushes and walkways and other things like that. He even rides a mountain bike with his blind friends, whom he has tought the technique.

So before anyone tries to say that blind people cannot do something, consider some of the things you have seen here. Maybe make a blind friend and ask them directly, and remember that we are not all alike, just like every other person so just because I can do something doesn't mean all of my blind friends can and just because I can't or don't, doesn't mean I don't know people who can and will. I hope this has given you a little bit of insight into the world of the blind.