My daughter is blind. She is also funny, cuddly, silly, a lover of music, and has the cutest laugh. Her blindness isn’t the first thing I think about when I am asked about her. It is a part of her, but not something that defines her. We live in India and tend to stand out wherever we go; the white woman dressed in Indian clothing with the brown 4-year old holding a cane. It frustrates me when people wait until I look to the side, and then rush to snap…
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My grandmother lost sight in one eye due to an accident when she was only 18 years old. And this has made me aware, since I was born, of the difficulties and barriers that people with reduced vision have to face – and the effort required for a person who is disabled to do daily, basic things such as reading, walking, or cooking, just to name some examples. My mother, who suffered from sudden and permanent hearing loss in one ear after surgery, has also given me insight into what it means to…
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My sister-in-law, who has lived with visual impairment for many years, recently came to live with my husband and me – and while we were incredibly happy to have her, we knew we were going to have to make some significant changes around the house to make it more accessible. Knowing that many people likely face similar circumstances, I thought it would be a great idea to share some tips with the BlindNewWorld audience. If you’re tasked with preparing your home for a person with a visual impairment, you may…
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It is amazing when you hear a miraculous story over and over again how ordinary it becomes. It is like a song that is played repetitively on the radio – you can’t wait to hear it, but then it is requested constantly so it doesn’t seem quite as special anymore. I cannot count the number of times I have heard about my birth. It was told to me so many times that I almost believe I was there to experience the whole thing as an observer! I was born premature,…
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I’m a mother to my 17-year-old daughter. She lost her sight 3 ½ years ago to a brain tumor. I have watched her work hard to gain the physical skills necessary to function independently in a sighted world. I have watched her learn and practice the reading and technological skills necessary to participate in school and future professions. The hardest thing to watch is her social struggles. She can do her part, but it requires another willing participant to have a conversion, let alone a relationship. I saw BlindNewWorld and…
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I remember, when I was young, being afraid of the dark. I recall running into my parents’ bedroom to hurry and turn the lights on and run back. It is funny when I think about it now, but I never really understood the reason I was so afraid. Maybe it was just the unknown – but it would be a feeling I would never forget. In August of 2013, I lost my eyesight to diabetic retinopathy. At this time, I was 28 years old and I had just become a…
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Being 14 years old already sucks enough or at least I thought it did. Then throw in your mom going blind within a matter of 8 months…it was more than this young teenager wanted to deal with. Adding that into my melting pot of teenage problems, I felt like my life was beginning to unwind. I say problems in a loose fashion because in all reality there weren’t big problems, but to a fourteen year old girl they were. It was the end of the world if I didn’t get…
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I came from a family that was uncomfortable with differences. I was made to feel inferior by all of them. My husband was the first person who showed me that it was OK to be me and that I was someone with value. He couldn’t see me and told me I was pretty. He was smart and did so many things on his own. I thought if he can, so can I. I am the happy wife of Jerry who is blind and has Parkinson’s. He has taught me to…
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I was sighted my entire life, until at the age of 27, I lost all of my eyesight from diabetic retinopathy. I was a single mom, working to support my family, and now I lost my site in a matter of three months, lost my job and could not see to do anything. I felt like my life is over and that my only option was giving up. I could not have been more wrong. This is not the end of my life, but rather the beginning to an incredible…
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Throughout much of my 20’s, I battled breast cancer. Chemotherapy and radiation impacted my body in ways I never expected, including effecting my vision. Beginning at age 28, my eyesight began to decline. First it was my color vision, then my depth perception. Doctors attributed my vision loss to a neurological disconnect; my brain was having problems communicating with my optic nerves. On January 3, 2012, I woke up and headed to my job as a social worker at a local school. Throughout the day, I developed a horrible headache….
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