The Gift of Blindness

October is Blindness Awareness month! I’m going to make my blogs this month center around the capabilities and the positivity of being blind.

The National Federation of the Blind promotes the belief that blindness is a characteristic like having red hair and/or blue eyes. Blindness is a part of us, yet doesn’t define us.

When I speak to elementary children, I always tell them that we all are like presents. The outsides of us are like the wrapping paper; we come in different colors: brown, yellow, white. Our hair is like ribbons: black, red, or blond. We may be a large present or small. We may have a ding on one corner; however, whatever the outside presents to us, it’s the inner package that matters. Inside you find the real gift: love and pain, compassion and worry, peace and fear, and joy and sorrow. My blindness is like the ding in the corner of the box. It’s a small part of me, not my whole outer or inner package.

How do you see other people who are different from you?
Do you see their outer or inner dings as a flaw?
How do you view blind people? Be honest.

Unconsciously, we all in a blink of an eye quickly judge others. We can’t help this, it’s human nature. However, we can notice if we hold onto our misconceptions and allow them to blur our vision.

When I attended the Naropa Institute for my Master of Psychology and Counseling degree, I once had a lunch server say, “You didn’t sign your name on your check on the line!” Another time, in a class we had to write words down on a card and then pass them to another student to be read aloud. I had partial sight as a child and wrote my word in large capital letters remembered from that time long ago. As life would have it, my card was drawn, and the woman who read it said, “This looks like a first grader wrote it.” Both of these comments were insensitive. I can’t be blamed for not writing on the line exactly, nor could I help writing the way I did. From these circumstances, I learned that discrimination could be subtle or blatant.

Thirty years later, I understand that people can’t help the way they are. They are doing the best they can with what they got. It’s up to me to educate people that I’m just like them, I just don’t see. I want the same things they want, dignity, respect, love, and joy. I go to movies, watch TV, read books, grocery shop, cook meals, wash clothes, attend concerts, travel, and write blogs, just like they do. The only difference is, I do these things differently. I am an independent woman who just happens to be blind.

There’s a great quote by Elizabeth Ann Lawless which says: “Diversity creates dimension in the world.” I totally believe this. Differences are just differences, just like being blind, is just being blind. We acknowledge them, ask how we can assist, be willing to share ourselves, and move on.

I challenge you to look inside, see how you view diversity and find your blind spots regarding blind people. In this way, you will understand that blind people, in fact, all people, are gifts; we just come in different shapes and sizes. By shifting your perspective, you will change the way you see and change the way you live.