Friday essay: blind people are often exhausted by daily prejudice – but being blind is ‘inherently creative’

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 05:13:25 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-blind-people-are-often-exhausted-by-daily-prejudice-but-being-blind-is-inherently-creative-212343>

"Andrew Leland was in his thirties when he had to stop driving at night – and
then stop driving at all. Next, he had to start using a cane in public. As the
cycle of decreasing vision became familiar, each absent sliver of vision
required more adjustment to how he navigated the world.

He moves through the same steps in the same sequence each time, but each loss
is unique, and uniquely stressful. And he can still see the disdain of sighted
people, which makes him long to lose all his vision at once:"

I thought about my periodic desire for the eye disease to just get it over
with, and take the rest of my sight. I wanted to be relieved of seeing the
way people look at blindness: the scorn, the condescension, the entitled,
almost sexual leer. Skepticism, pity, revulsion, curiosity. I know I’ve
looked at blind people this way too […] But I was a different person then: I
didn’t really think of myself as blind.

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

Comment via email

Home E-Mail Sponsors Index Search About Us