Humor Winning Writing > How the Blind Survive in a Sighted World

How the Blind Survive in a Sighted World

What Sight-Dependent People Are Just Itching to Know But Are Too Afraid to Ask

By Penny L. MacPherson, M.T.

Only a tiny fraction of people have been clothed in a robe of "blindness." Every day blind people interface and interact with a "sight-dependent" world! Whether it begins at infancy or sneaks in and speaks up in a person's existence while life is in the middle of happening, the impact is the same.

The blind are confronted with completing activities of daily living just like their sighted peers. For the select minority who have been favored with being blind, they have learned how to adapt and be creative and resourceful. In other words, they must do ordinary tasks as if they are "sight-dependent". For me, these tasks included: eating jello or rice, buttering a slice of bread, crossing a busy street, securing the respect and cooperation of a classroom of elementary school-aged students, sewing a table ensemble — complete with napkins, placemats, and table runner, labeling household appliances and other items so I can use them, labeling CD's so I don't have to spend an hour looking for the one I want, learning the difference between the gas and the brake the hard way when an former boyfriend foolishly allowed me, a strong-willed girlfriend to drive his car one night in a deserted parking lot (with a policeman almost catching us), finding walls the hard way, learning how to use a computer, and keeping current with adaptive technology, just to name a few.

What tips would I give people facing this eventuality? Get used to waiting patiently when needing other people's help. Learn how to speak up for yourself because "sight-dependent" people tend to think your disability extends to your ears and mouth and feet as well. Find a friend with a sense of humor who refuses to let you wallow in self-pity — a friend who insists on holding you as accountable for what you do and say as anyone else. Or even worse, learn to ask for assistance whether or not you feel like it. Better yet, resign yourself to having to trust and be guided by someone else at one time or another in certain situations. However, I have appointed the “Don't take it too seriously” philosophy my Chief of Coping Strategies. It has proven to be the best prescription for combating self-pity and the the preferred antidote for constant and accustomed inconvenience and nagging frustration. One thing's for sure: unexpected power outages or sudden darkness NEITHER rattle me much nor hinder my productivity!!! •

© 2010 Penny L. MacPherson. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Ms. MacPherson, holds both a B.A. from Wells College (Aurora, NY) and a Master's of Teaching degree from the University of Virginia (Charlottesville.) She has offered poetry workshops at various elementary schools. MacPherson conducts women's healing through writing workshops spiritual writing intensives, and community poetry readings. She has authored seven books of poetry. Her work has appeared in such publications as: Just Another Writing Magazine, Beginnings: a Magazine for Emerging Writers, Access, Expressions, The Glens Falls Post Star, Discovery: the John Milton Magazine, and Muscadine Lines: a Southern Journal. She currently resides in Florida.

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