essay about blind person

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Overcoming challenges in daily life as a blind person

Living with visual impairment presents unique challenges, but it doesn’t mean a blind person cannot lead a fulfilling and independent life. Every day, individuals with visual impairments face various obstacles and work to overcome them with resilience, adaptability, and assistive technology. In this blog, we will explore some of the common challenges faced by blind people in their daily lives and discuss strategies and resources that can help them navigate these hurdles with confidence.

Accessible Technology:

In today’s digital age, technology plays a crucial role in empowering blind individuals. Accessible devices and software such as screen readers, braille displays, and voice assistants enable blind people to access information, communicate, and perform tasks independently. Embracing and mastering these technologies can significantly enhance daily life by providing access to education, employment opportunities, social connections, and entertainment.

Orientation and Mobility:

Navigating the physical world can be a major challenge for blind individuals. Developing effective orientation and mobility skills is essential for independence. Orientation techniques, such as using a white cane or guide dog, help blind individuals detect obstacles, locate landmarks, and navigate unfamiliar environments. Learning to use public transportation systems or utilizing ride-sharing apps with accessible features are also key skills for travel and commuting.

Household Tasks and Organization:

Performing household chores can be demanding for blind individuals, but with the right techniques and tools, they can maintain a well-organized and functional living space. Labeling items in braille or using tactile markers can help with identifying and distinguishing between different objects. Learning adaptive cooking techniques, organizing belongings with tactile systems, and utilizing assistive technologies like talking thermometers and talking clocks can greatly simplify daily tasks.

Employment and Education:

Blind individuals often face unique challenges in pursuing education and finding employment. However, with the right accommodations and support, they can excel in various fields. Accessible educational materials, such as braille textbooks or digital resources, and assistive technologies can facilitate learning. Workplace accommodations, including screen magnifiers, screen readers, and accessible formats of documents, enable blind individuals to thrive in professional environments.

Social Inclusion:

Blind individuals may encounter social barriers and misconceptions that can hinder their participation in social activities. Educating others about blindness and promoting inclusivity is crucial. Encouraging open communication, providing accessibility information about events or venues, and fostering inclusive attitudes can help blind individuals feel welcome and actively participate in social gatherings, sports, cultural events, and hobbies.

Conclusion:

While living with blindness presents unique challenges, individuals with visual impairments can overcome them and lead fulfilling lives. By embracing accessible technology, developing orientation and mobility skills, mastering household tasks, accessing education and employment opportunities, and promoting social inclusion, blind individuals can navigate daily challenges with confidence and independence. It is essential for society to recognize the abilities and potential of blind individuals and work towards creating inclusive environments that support their diverse needs.

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How to Be Blind

Andrew Leland reads.

I first noticed something wrong with my eyes in New Mexico. I was a freshman in high school, in the mid-nineties, and had recently been accepted into a clique of older kids whom I admired—the inner circle of Santa Fe Prep’s druggie bohemian scene. We hung out at Hank’s house; he was our charismatic leader, and his mom was maximally permissive. One night, in Hank’s room, our friend Chad sat on a beanbag chair, packing a pipe with weed. Nina danced alone in front of a boom box to Jane’s Addiction, throwing around her bleached hair. After dark, we hiked up the hill behind the house to get a view of the city. The moon was bright, but I found myself tripping on roots and stones and wandering off track. At one point, I walked right into a piñon tree with prickly branches. My friends laughed—“You’re stoned, aren’t you?” Chad said—and I played up my intoxication for effect. But, on the way down, I quietly put a hand on Hank’s shoulder.

This became common. At the movies, I got up to get a soda, and, when I returned, I couldn’t find my mother in the rows of featureless bodies. I complained about night blindness, but my mother assured me it was normal—it was dark out there! Eventually, though, she brought me to see an eye doctor. After a series of tests, he sat us down and said that I had retinitis pigmentosa, or R.P., a rare disease affecting about a hundred thousand people in the U.S. As the disease progressed, the rod cells around the edges of my retina would die, followed by the cones. My vision would contract, like looking through a paper-towel roll. By middle age, I’d be completely blind. The doctor asked if I could see stars, and I said that I hadn’t seen them in years. This was the detail that made it real for my mother. “You can’t see stars?” she asked.

I spent my teen-age years mostly in denial: my blindness seemed distant, like fatherhood, or death. But in my thirties the disease caught up with me. One morning, I swung my car into a crosswalk and heard—and felt—something slamming my hood: I had almost hit a pedestrian, and he was banging my car with his fist, shouting, “Open your fucking eyes!” Soon after, I almost hit a cyclist, and I gave up driving. One weekend, while living in Missouri, I found that I had lost my sunglasses. My wife, Lily, was out of town, so I decided to walk to a nearby LensCrafters. But what was normally a ten-minute drive became a harrowing ordeal on foot. There were few sidewalks, so I walked in the road, with cars speeding past. The sun and haze made it hard to see. I stood for a long time at a large intersection, trying to turn left without getting hit by a truck.

In 2011, I ordered an I.D. cane, used less for tapping around than to signal to the world that its bearer might not see well. It folded up, and mostly I hid it in my bag. But, after running into fire hydrants and hip-checking a toddler in a café, I began using it full time. Reading became difficult: the white of the page took on a wince-inducing glare, and the words frosted over, like the lowermost lines on the optometrist’s eye chart. It was only once I’d reached this stage that my diagnosis started to feel real. I frantically wondered whether I should use my last years to, say, visit Japan, or plow through the Criterion Collection, instead of spending my evenings watching “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” with Lily. One night, I lay awake in bed. I knew that, if Lily were awake, she’d be able to see the blankets, the window, the door, but, when I scanned the room, I saw nothing, just the flashers and floaters that oscillated in my eyes. Is this what it will be like? I wondered, casting my gaze around like a dead flashlight. I felt like I’d been buried alive.

In 2020, I heard about a residential training school called the Colorado Center for the Blind, in Littleton. The C.C.B. is part of the National Federation of the Blind, and is staffed almost entirely by blind people. Students live there for several months, wearing eye-covering shades and learning to navigate the world without sight. The N.F.B. takes a radical approach to cultivating blind independence. Students use power saws in a woodshop, take white-water-rafting trips, and go skiing. To graduate, they have to produce professional documents and cook a meal for sixty people. The most notorious test is the “independent drop”: a student is driven in circles, and then dropped off at a mystery location in Denver, without a smartphone. (Sometimes, advanced students are left in the middle of a park, or the upper level of a parking garage.) Then the student has to find her way back to the Colorado Center, and she is allowed to ask one person one question along the way. A member of an R.P. support group told me, “People come back from those programs loaded for bear ”—ready to hunt the big game of blindness. Katie Carmack, a social worker with R.P., told me, of her time there, “It was an epiphany.” That fall, I signed up.

In 1966, the sociologist Robert Scott spent three years visiting agencies for the blind for his book “ The Making of Blind Men .” Most of these agencies, whose methods were based on the training programs developed for veterans after the First World War, took an “accommodative approach”: they believed that clients could never be truly independent, and strove only to keep them safe and comfortable. The agencies installed automated bells over their front doors so that residents could easily find the entrance from the street, served pre-cut foods, and gave out only spoons. They celebrated clients for the tiniest accomplishments, with the result that, as Scott put it, “many of them come to believe that the underlying assumption must be that blindness makes them incompetent.”

Blind education already had a fraught history. The first secular institution for the blind—the Hospice des Quinze-Vingts, established by King Louis IX of France around 1260—housed residents, but required them to beg on the streets for bread. Blind people were popularly depicted as lecherous, duplicitous, and drunk. The first schools that actually tried to teach blind students were established in the eighteenth century. Catherine Kudlick, a disability historian, pointed out that this was during the height of the Enlightenment, when there were discussions about educating women and people from the lower classes. “The idea was to give them the tools so that they could become educated members of society,” she said. But, in their determination to prepare students for employment, many schools, like other institutions at the time, came to resemble sweatshops, making blind children spin wool and grind tobacco for subminimum wages.

The best institutions Scott visited were those that followed the philosophy of Father Thomas Carroll, a Catholic priest who worked at the Army’s rehabilitation centers during the Second World War, where many innovations—including the long white cane—were first developed. Carroll argued that the average blind person is capable of some independence. His students took fencing lessons, which he thought helped with balance. But Carroll took a surprisingly grim view of blindness. “Loss of sight is a dying,” he wrote. His students, he believed, would always be significantly impaired. One student who recently attended the Carroll Center, in Newton, Massachusetts, told me that he felt coddled there. “I didn’t feel a lot of independence,” he said. “We go to these places because we want to level up our independence, and be pushed to the edge. We need that.”

Carroll’s philosophy met its sharpest critic in Kenneth Jernigan, the president of the National Federation of the Blind. The N.F.B. was founded, in 1940, as an organization of and not for the blind: its constitution mandated that a majority of its chapter members had to be blind. Jernigan rejected Carroll’s Freudian sense of blindness—Carroll has described it in terms of castration—in favor of a civil-rights approach. Blindness, he insisted, was merely a characteristic, like hair color; it was an intolerant society that was disabling. He organized protests against airline policies that forced blind passengers to sit in handicap seats and give up their canes; his followers held sit-ins on planes, and were physically carried off by police.

In the fifties, Jernigan and his colleagues proposed an experiment: the N.F.B. would take control of a state agency for the blind in Iowa—which a federal study had rated one of the worst in the country—and reinvent it. At this center, and those which followed, blind teachers took students waterskiing and rock climbing. At traditional agencies, blind students (but not instructors) were addressed by their first names. Jernigan mandated that his students be addressed by “Mr.” and “Ms.” as a sign of respect. N.F.B. employees followed a strict dress code: ties and jackets for men, skirts for women. Bryan Bashin, the former C.E.O. of the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind, one of the largest blindness agencies in the U.S., compared this to the suited brothers in the Nation of Islam: “We were not going to give our oppressors the right to say we’re sloppy or unprofessional.”

Blindness agencies traditionally taught students to travel by route memorization: walk down the block for fifty-five paces, and the entrance to the café is on your right. Jernigan pointed out the obvious flaw: you were at a loss as soon as you travelled or the coffee shop closed. The N.F.B. developed a method that came to be known as “structured discovery”: students learn to pay attention to their surroundings and use the information to orient themselves. Instructors were constantly asking Socratic questions, such as “What direction do you hear the traffic coming from?” and “Can you feel the sun warming one side of your face?” Bashin told me, of what he learned by spending a year at a center, “Confidence isn’t a deep enough word. It’s a faith in your ability to figure it out.” He added, “Until you get profoundly lost, and know it’s within you to get unlost, you’re not trained—until you know it’s not an emergency but a magnificent puzzle.”

Students were pushed out of their comfort zones. Gene Kim, a recent C.C.B. graduate, told me that, for his independent drop, he was let off at some place resembling a hospital. He spent hours crossing bridges, “weird islands and right-turn lanes, weirdly cut curbs.” He was on the verge of giving up when he heard a dinging sound, and followed it to a light-rail train that took him home. The experience, he said, helped him make peace with the “relentless uncertainty” of blind travel. The historian Zachary Shore, on the other hand, got so lost on his independent drop that he stubbornly picked a direction and just kept walking. Police officers stopped him when he was about to walk onto a highway, and gave him a ride back to the center, where the director told him, “You failed this time. But we’re gonna make you do it again—and you will do it. I know you can do it. And we’re going to give you an even harder route.” (On his second try, Shore found his way back.)

Sometimes teachers crossed a line. In 2020, dozens of students alleged that staff at N.F.B. centers had bullied them, sexually harassed or assaulted them, or made racist remarks. Many students at the centers had, in addition to blindness, a range of other disabilities: hearing loss, mobility impairments, cognitive disabilities. Some reported being mocked for having impairments that made the intense mental mapping required by blind-cane travel a challenge. Bashin ascribed this to the fact that blind people, like any collection of Americans, regrettably included their share of racists, abusers, and jerks. He said, of the N.F.B., “As a people’s movement, it looks like the U.S. It is a very big tent, and it is working to insure respect for all members.” But a group of “victims, survivors, and witnesses of sexual and psychological abuse” wrote an open letter in the wake of the allegations, blaming, in part, the N.F.B.’s tough methods. “What blind consumers want in the year 2020 is not what they may have wanted in previous decades,” they wrote. “We don’t want to be bullied or humiliated or have our boundaries pushed ‘for our own good.’ ”

The N.F.B. has since launched an internal investigation and formed committees dedicated to supporting survivors and minorities. Jernigan once mocked Carroll’s notion that blind people needed emotional support, but the N.F.B. now maintains a counselling fund for members who endured abuse at its centers or any of its affiliated programs or activities. Julie Deden, the director of the Colorado Center, told me, “I’m saddened for these people, and I’m sorry that there’s been sexual misconduct.” She is also sad that people felt like they were pushed so hard that it felt like abuse, she noted. “We don’t want anyone to ever feel that way,” she said. But, she added, “If people really felt that way, maybe this isn’t the program for them. We do challenge people.” Ultimately, she said, she had to defend her staff’s right to push the students: “Really, it’s the heart of what we do.”

The twenty-​four units at the McGeorge Mountain Terrace apartments are all occupied—music often blasts from a window on the second floor, and laughter wafts up by the picnic tables—but there are no cars in the parking lot, because none of its residents have driver’s licenses. The apartments house students from the Colorado Center. At 7:24 A.M. every weekday, residents wait at the bus stop outside, holding long white canes decorated with trinkets and plush toys, to commute to class. I arrived at the center in March, 2021. When the receptionist greeted me, I saw her gaze stray past me. Nearly everyone in the building was blind. In the kitchen, students in eyeshades fried plantain chips, their white canes hanging on pegs in the hall. In the tech room, the computers had no monitors or mouses—they were just desktop towers attached to keyboards and good speakers. A teen-ager played an audio-only video game, which blasted gruesome sounds as he brutalized his enemies with a variety of weapons.

When I met the students and staff, I was impressed by blindness’s variety: there were people who had been blind from birth, and those who’d been blind for only a few months. There were the greatest hits of eye disease, as well as a few ultra-rare conditions I’d never heard of. Some people had traumatic brain injuries. Makhai, a self-described stoner from Colorado, had been in a head-on collision with a Ford F-250. Steve had been working in a diamond mine in the Arctic Circle when a rock the size of a two-story house fell on top of him, crushing his legs and blinding him. Alice, a woman in her forties, told me that her husband had shot her. She woke up from a coma and doctors informed her that she was permanently blind, and asked her permission to remove her eyeballs. “I never mourned the loss of my vision,” she told me. “I just woke up and started moving forward.” She said that she’d had a number of “shenanigans” at the center, her word for falls, including a visit to the emergency room after she slipped off a curb and slammed her head into a parked truck. At the E.R., she learned that she had hearing loss, too, which affected her balance; when she got hearing aids, her shenanigans decreased.

Soon after, my travel instructor, Charles, had me put on my shades: a hard-​shell mask padded with foam. (Later, the center began using high-performance goggles that a staffer painstakingly painted black, which made me feel like a paratrooper.) I was surprised by how completely the shades blocked out the light—I saw only blackness. I left the office, following the sound of Charles’s voice and the knocking of his cane. “How are you with angles?” he said. “Make a forty-​five-​degree turn to the left here.” I turned. “That’s more like ninety degrees, but O.K.,” he said. Embarrassed, I corrected course. With shades on, angles felt abstract. On my way back to the lobby, I got lost in a foyer full of round tables. Later, another student, Cragar Gonzales, showed me around. He’d fully adopted the N.F.B.’s structured-discovery philosophy, and asked constant questions. “What do you notice about this wall?” he said. This was the only brick wall on this floor, he told me, so whenever I felt it I’d instantly know where I was. By the end of the day, though, I still wasn’t able to get around on my own. I felt a special shame when I had to ask Cragar, once again, to bring me to the bathroom.

That afternoon, I followed Cragar to lunch. He had compared the school’s social organization to high-school cliques, except that the wide age range made for some unlikely friendships; a few teen-agers became drinking buddies with people pushing fifty. A teen-ager named Sophia told me that so many people at the center hooked up that it reminded her of “ Love Island ”: “People come in and out of the ‘villa.’ People are with each other, and then not.” Within a few days, I started hearing gossip about students throughout the years who had sighted spouses back home but had started having affairs. Some of the students had lived very sheltered lives before coming to the program: classes brought together people with Ph.D.s and those who had never learned to tie their shoes. One staff member told me that some students arrive with no sex education, and there are those who become pregnant soon after arriving at the center.

I’d heard that some people find wearing the shades intolerable, and make it to Colorado only to quit after a few days. I found it a pain in the ass, but also fascinating—like solving Bashin’s “magnificent puzzles.” On the same day that I arrived, I’d met a student nicknamed Lewie who had a high voice, and I spent the day thinking he was a woman. But people kept calling him man and buddy , and, with some effort, I reworked my mental image. Lewie had cooked a meal of arroz con pollo . I felt nervous about eating with the shades on, but I found it less difficult than I expected. Only once did I raise an accidentally empty plastic fork to my lips. At one point, I bit into what I thought was a roll, meant to be dipped in sauce, and was sweetly surprised to find that it was an orange-flavored cookie.

I began to think of walking into the center each day as entering a kind of blind space. People gently knocked into one another without complaint; sometimes, they jokingly said, “Hey, man, what’d you bump into me for?”—as if mocking the idea that it might be a problem. Students announced themselves constantly, and I soon felt no shame greeting people with a casual “Who’s that?” Staff members were accustomed to students wandering into their offices accidentally, exchanging pleasantries, then wandering off. One day, I was having lunch, and my classmate Alice entered, then said, “Aw, man, why am I in here ?”

I learned an arsenal of blindness tricks. I wrapped rubber bands around my shampoo bottles to distinguish them from the conditioner. I learned to put safety pins on my bedsheets to keep track of which side was the bottom. I cleaned rooms in quadrants, sweeping, mopping, and wiping down each section before moving on. I had heard about a gizmo you could hang on the lip of a cup that would shriek when a liquid reached the top. But Cragar taught me just to listen: you could hear when a glass was almost full. In my home-management class, Delfina, one of the instructors, taught me to make a grilled-cheese. I used a spoon on the stove like a cane to make sure the pan was centered without torching my fingers. Before I flipped the sandwich, I slid my hand down the spatula to make sure the bread was centered. When I finished, I ate it hungrily; it was nice and hot.

One weekend, I went with a group of students to play blind ice hockey. The puck was three times the size of a normal puck, and filled with ball bearings that rattled loudly. On St. Patrick’s Day, we went to a pub and had Irish slammers. One day, Charles took me and a few other students to Target to go grocery shopping. This was my first time navigating the world on my own with shades, and every step—getting on the bus, listening to the stop announcements—was distressing. When we got to Target, we were assigned a young shopping assistant named Luke. He pulled a shopping cart through the store, as we hung on, travelling like a school of fish. Charles had invited me to his apartment for homemade taquitos , and I asked Luke to show us the tortilla chips. He started listing flavors of Doritos—Flamin’ Hot, Cool Ranch. “Do you have ‘Restaurant Style’?” I asked, with minor humiliation.

At the self-checkout station, I realized that I couldn’t distinguish between my credit and debit cards. “Is this one blue?” I asked, holding one up.

“It’s red,” Luke said.

I couldn’t bring myself to enter my PIN with shades on, so I cheated for my first and only time, and pulled them up. The fluorescent blast of Target’s interior made me dizzy. I found my card, and then quickly pulled the shades back down. We retraced our steps back to the bus stop. As we got closer, we heard the unmistakable squeal of bus brakes. “Go to that sound!” Charles shouted, and we ran. I wound up hugging the side of the bus and had to slide to the door. When I made it to my seat, I was proud and exhausted.

One day, after class, I headed back to the apartments with Ahmed, a student in his thirties. Ahmed has R.P., like me, but he had already lost most of his vision during his last year of law school. He’d managed to learn how to use a cane and a screen reader, which reads a computer’s text aloud, and still graduate on time. But his progression into blindness took a steep toll. After he passed the bar, he moved to Tulsa, where he had what he describes as a “lost year.” He deflected most of my questions about what he did during that time, only gesturing toward its bleakness. “But why Tulsa?” I asked.

“Because it was cheap,” he said. He knew no one in the city. He just needed a place to go and be alone with his blindness.

With apologies to a city that I’ve enjoyed visiting, after listening to Ahmed, I began to think of Tulsa as the depressing place you go when you confront the final loss of sight. When would I move to Tulsa?

The public perception of blindness is that of a waking nightmare. “Consider them, my soul, they are a fright!” Baudelaire wrote in his 1857 poem “The Blind.” “Like mannequins, vaguely ridiculous, / Peculiar, terrible somnambulists, / Beaming—who can say where—their eyes of night.” Literature teems with such descriptions. From Rilke’s “Blindman’s Song”: “It is a curse, / a contradiction, a tiresome farce, / and every day I despair.” In popular culture, Mr. Magoo is cheerfully oblivious to the mayhem that his bumbling creates. Al Pacino , in “Scent of a Woman,” is, beneath his swaggering machismo, deeply depressed. “I got no life,” he says. “I’m in the dark here!” Many blind people (including me) resist using the white cane precisely because of this stigma. One of the strangest parts of being legally blind, while still having enough vision to see somewhat, is that I can observe the way that people look at me with my cane. Their gaze—curious, troubled, averted—makes me feel like Baudelaire’s somnambulist, the walking dead.

In response to this, blind activists have pushed the idea that blindness is nothing to grieve—that it’s something to be celebrated. “Blindness is not a tragedy,” the writer and former C.C.B. counsellor Juliet Cody said. “It’s a positive opportunity to have faith and believe in yourself.” I find this notion appealing, even liberating. But I’ve also struggled to force myself into an epiphany. When I’m honest with myself, I find that I’m already mourning the loss of small things: the ability to drive my son to the mountains for a hike, or to browse the stacks in a library. Cragar told me that, when his vision loss began to accelerate, he told his family that he wasn’t scared—that he was ready. But he admitted to me that he wasn’t so sure: “I say that, but do I really know?” Tony, another student I met at C.C.B., told me that, when he realized he could no longer see the chalkboard in his college classes, he retreated to his dorm room, flunked out, moved back in with his father, and spent his disability money on weed, to numb out. “I hit some very dark chunks,” he told me. One night, in Colorado, I heard a student say, “When I lost my vision, I didn’t leave my bed for a month.”

In my weeks at the center, I began to suspect that consolation lies not in any moment of catharsis but in an acknowledgment of blindness’s ordinariness. The Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote that blindness “should not be seen in a pathetic way. It should be seen as a way of life: one of the styles of living.” Accepting blindness’s difficulty allows one to move on. “Life is never meant to be easy,” Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to climb Mt. Everest, wrote in his memoir, “ Touch the Top of the World .” “Ironically when I finally accepted this reality, that’s when life got easy.” Under sleep shades, I found that I could read, write, cook, travel. There was frustration, but this wasn’t unique to blind life. At one point, as I listened to the chatter of a cafeteria full of blind people, I thought, How strange that I’m still myself. I’d worried over stories of people unable to handle total occlusion, but, in the moment, it felt surprisingly normal.

I began to appreciate the novel experiences that blindness gave me. The notion that blind people have better hearing than the sighted is a myth, but relying on my ears did change my relationship with sound. Neuroscientists have found that the visual cortices of blind people are activated by such activities as reading Braille, listening to speech, and hearing auditory cues, such as the echo of a cane’s taps. At lunch, one day, Cragar’s wife, Meredith, who was visiting from Houston, came into the room carrying their fifteen-month-old daughter, Poppy. The sounds that she made—cooing, laughing—cut through the room like washes of color. I didn’t quite hallucinate these colors, but I came close. In the coming weeks, I had several mildly psychedelic experiences like this, a kind of blind synesthesia. The same thing happened with touch. I played blackjack with a Braille deck, and, after a few days, began to intuitively read the cards as if I were seeing them. In the art room, a teacher taught me to pull a wire through a mound of wet clay. Later, as I described the experience to Lily and our son, Oscar, on a video call, I had to remind myself that I’d never actually seen this tool or the clay. It was so clear in my mind’s eye.

My sense of space gradually transformed. Walking the carpeted halls of the center’s lower level, I could see a faint black-and-blue virtual-reality environment lit by some unseen light source. Sometimes my cane penetrated one of the velvety walls, and I had to redraw my mental map. When I was out in the city, Charles sometimes informed me that what I thought was Alamo Avenue was actually Prince Street, or that east was actually north, and I had to lift the landscape in my mind, rotate it ninety degrees, and set it back down. I could almost feel my brain trembling under the strain. But it was also kind of fun.

On your last day at the center, the staff presents you with a “freedom bell” emblazoned with the words “ TAKE CHARGE WITH CONFIDENCE AND SELF-RELIANCE !” (Students sometimes quote this when doing banal activities like trying to find the bathroom.) At Lewie’s graduation, a few weeks into my stay, Julie invited him to ring the bell, saying that it represented not just his independence but that of blind people everywhere. My time at the center was cut short by family demands, but this spring I returned to see how far I had come. On my second-to-last day, Charles told me that I would be doing an independent drop. This seemed extreme; most students do that test after being at the center for nine months; I had been there for a total of four weeks. I rode out in the center’s van with another instructor, Ernesto, feeling nervous. “I need some reassurance,” I told him. “Do you really think that I’m ready to do this on my own?”

“Actually, Andrew, it was two against one,” Ernesto said flatly. He had been outvoted.

When we arrived at my drop point, Josie, one of the center’s few sighted employees and its designated driver, seemed worried. “Don’t get out on that side!” she said. Stepping out of the van, I felt immediately disoriented. The sun was shining on my face, so I had to be facing east. My cane hit a wooden door, and a dog started barking. This must be a residential street. I’d learned, when lost, to find a bus stop. Most students used their one question to ask the driver where to go, and had memorized the bus routes and rail lines sufficiently to make it home from there. There wouldn’t be a bus stop on a residential block, so I set off toward the sound of traffic.

I soon arrived at a busy intersection. One of the hardest parts of blind travel is crossing the street. Once you leave the curb, there’s nothing guiding you to the other side, and you might walk in front of a car. Most corners have a dip for wheelchairs, but these sometimes point across the street, and sometimes point diagonally into the middle of the intersection. I learned to use my ears to find my way. I listened to the perpendicular traffic driving past my nose and calibrated my alignment so that the sound was equal in both ears—like balancing a stereo. When the light changed, I took off. I listened to the cars roaring past me, adjusting my trajectory to stay parallel to them. I felt the crown of the road (which rises and falls, to allow water to drain) beneath my feet, and that let me know that I was halfway. When my cane connected with the far curb, I could feel my heart pounding.

I must have often looked bewildered on my journey. At one point, I was trying to decide whether a dip was a corner or a driveway, and a driver slowed down and said, “You drop something, buddy?” I answered, with forced cheer, “Thanks! I’m just exploring.” At a big, four-lane intersection, I stood for a long time, listening. A worker from a hospital came out to check on me, and, when I told him I was looking for a bus stop—not technically a question, but a little sneaky nonetheless—he pointed me in the general direction. He went back to work, saying mournfully, as though leaving me to die, “Please take care.”

Blind travel requires you to think like an urban planner. Charles had taught me to swing my cane wide in search of a bus pole. On wide downtown blocks, bus stops are curbside, but on narrower streets they’re set back behind the grass line. Halfway up one block, I connected with a metal bench. I lifted my cane and hit a low roof. There was no pole, but what else could this be? When the bus arrived, I climbed aboard and let fly my official question: “How do I get to Littleton/Downtown station?” The driver told me to go to the end of the line, then take the light-rail. When we got to the rail station, I crossed the tracks, and boarded a train. In Littleton, I almost stepped on a person passed out on the ground. I walked back to the center, hearing the familiar sound of tapping canes as I arrived. An announcement went out that I had returned, and cheers rose up from the classrooms.

The next night, I did a cooking test, making lemon-garlic kale salad and red-lentil soup. It took me about twice as long as it would have without shades, and I burned a finger. Still, I was surprised by how good it tasted. The students gathered around the kitchen table, and one sat on the couch; this arrangement would have been visually odd, but, sonically, it felt perfectly natural. Ernest, a member of a Black Methodist church, said that he thought his blindness made him more holy. “I walk by faith, not by sight,” he said, quoting Scripture. My classmate Steve suggested, dubiously, that being blind made him less susceptible to racism. He told us that he’d been working with a physical therapist who came from Japan, and had accidentally touched her cornrows and realized that she was Black—she had been born in Congo. Michelle, a sound engineer from Mexico, disagreed, saying that she didn’t think blindness made her any more “pure.” I spilled a cold cup of coffee into a supermarket cake, but we were all full by then anyway.

The next morning, I flew home. As I exited the plane, sweeping my cane in front of me, a man asked if I needed help. I ignored him and headed toward the baggage claim, but he followed me, irritated, repeating, “Do you need any help ?” I shook my head. I didn’t. I followed the sound of roller bags, feeling the carpet of the gate area give way to the concourse’s linoleum. I was halfway to the escalators before I thought of using my eyes to look around for an exit sign. I already knew where I was going. ♦

This is drawn from “ The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight. ”

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Essay on How to Help Blind Person

Students are often asked to write an essay on How to Help Blind Person in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on How to Help Blind Person

Understanding blindness.

Blindness is a condition where a person cannot see. Blind people need our help to do many things.

Offering Help

Always ask first if they need help. Don’t assume they always need it.

Guiding Them

If they accept, offer your arm. Let them hold it and walk slightly ahead.

Describing Surroundings

Use words to describe things around. Don’t point or say “over there”.

Being Patient

250 words essay on how to help blind person, understanding the challenges.

Blindness presents unique challenges, requiring adaptations to daily tasks most take for granted. To assist a blind person, it’s crucial to understand these hurdles, fostering empathy and respect.

Communication is Key

Effective communication is paramount. Always introduce yourself, speak naturally and directly, and verbalize your actions when necessary. For instance, if you’re guiding them, describe the surroundings and potential obstacles.

Offering Assistance

Assistance should be offered, not assumed. Ask if help is needed before stepping in. If they accept, ask how best to assist. This maintains their autonomy and respects their individual coping mechanisms.

Teaching and Learning Together

Encourage independence by teaching skills such as Braille or using a white cane. Similarly, learn about technologies that aid the visually impaired like screen readers, tactile watches, and smartphone apps.

Creating an Inclusive Environment

Promote inclusivity by advocating for accessible public spaces and digital platforms. This not only aids the visually impaired but also fosters a more empathetic society.

500 Words Essay on How to Help Blind Person

Introduction.

Blindness is a physical condition that significantly alters a person’s life, making them reliant on others to perform simple tasks. However, it’s important to remember that people with visual impairments can lead fulfilling and independent lives with the right support and resources. This essay explores ways to help a blind person, focusing on various strategies and techniques that can foster independence and empowerment.

Understanding and Empathy

To begin with, it’s essential to understand the person’s specific needs and challenges. Blindness varies greatly from person to person, and what works for one may not work for another. Therefore, engaging in open dialogue about their needs and experiences is crucial. It’s also important to empathize with them, acknowledging their challenges and frustrations, and offering support without undermining their autonomy.

Assisting in Daily Tasks

Encouraging independence, advocacy and accessibility.

Advocacy is a powerful tool in making society more inclusive and accessible for visually impaired individuals. This can involve campaigning for better infrastructure like tactile pavements, audio signals at traffic lights, and Braille signage in public places. Additionally, advocating for digital accessibility, such as screen-reader-friendly websites and apps, can significantly improve their quality of life.

Education and Training

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Blind People: Communication and Diversity Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Experience Gained

​transformation, ​list of references.

Transfer of information from one person to another is communication. In communication, there should be a message, the sender, and the receiver of the message. Sometimes the sender may not be aware of the message intended for him. Moreover, the receiver may not be present. For communication to be finished, the receiver must understand the topic. Communication between two parties requires feedback.

Disability refers to physical impairment that limits the victim from performing normal duties. Disabilities vary from one individual to another with some people possessing mild, moderate, or severe body impairments, while in others, the condition is worse. A disability associated with vision is the most common type of disability. Hundreds of people are suffering from small visual impairments though others have serious visual disabilities. Examples of vision impairments include dry eyes, corneal graft, sclera scratches, and scratched cornea (Sack & Kekelis 1992, p.181).

Several communication methods can be used to pass information to blind people. However, the method that an individual chooses to communicate to the blind should be based on the level of the blindness of the disabled individual and the duration. For instance, individuals with limited sight use sign language. Electronic devices or tactile methods of communication are used by people who cannot see (Sack & Kekelis 1992, p.181).

I believe that communication is important for blind people just as it is to other people. They should be taught how to use other senses to cover for the loss of sight. Societies should set up special education programs for the blind to equip blind people with the needed knowledge and skills to enhance communication. I believe that if needed, support is offered to blind people so that they can be successful and independent in life.

Uslan (1990, p.171) argues that many visually impaired persons all over the world need the help of their parents, friends, and family members to attain their goals. Like other people, visually impaired persons want to lead good lives in the future.

For instance, they dream of getting an education, which will help them secure good jobs, they wish to marry and bring up happy families and own properties like cars, and vehicles. Except for visual disabilities, most of them have their senses operating properly. With needed help, they can excel in many studies. My goal is to look at some of the challenges that blind people encounter in their lives and establish applicable solutions to their problems.

I learned that there are different causes of blindness and visual impairments. The effects of visual impairments vary from one person to another. I realized that some people have coped with the situation from birth while others got visual impairments through injuries, accidents, or diseases, which interfered with their vision. I also realized that many people develop vision impairments during their old age. People with mild impairments used contact lenses and glasses to correct their visual impairment.

During communication with a visually impaired person, it is important to identify oneself. Second, other people present should be introduced or allowed to do an introduction for themselves. Communication should use words used in daily life like “see” and “look.” It is important to inform the person when moving from one section to another so that they can understand well. Breaks and time to resume duties should be well communicated. Instructions should be given in a specific and accurate language (Gense & Gense 2005, p.134).

According to Gene and Gense (2005, p.140), materials provided to visually impaired persons should be in the correct format for them to access them quickly. Large prints are preferred for people with low vision but blind people need special software that translates information recorded in computers to audio forms that can be listened to such as screen readers. When preparing written documents, it is important to put into consideration visually impaired persons to ensure it is accessible to them. People should be encouraged to use approaches that include visually impaired persons during communication.

The ability to read and write is important for the academic excellence of blind people. Blind children should be guided and instructed on how to read Braille. The first step is to identify the order of symbols and alphabets on the Braille from right to left. Using the two hands, they should learn to read from one line to the next without skipping any line. Representation of letters and numbers in Braille is in the form of a cell in which two columns each with three dots are displayed.

Letters and numbers are represented in the cells. Letters and words are translated by passing fingers over the dots. They should be able to read complex documents as they grow up. By the time they join high school, blind students should be able to access and use Braille without help (Sacks & Wolffe 2006, p.368).

Sacks and Wolffe (2006, p.370) argue that listening skills are important for blind people and they depend on their ability to listen to grasp information efficiently and quickly. For instance, blind students listen to tapes to understand the contents of a book. Blind people listen to understand what is going on around them. Through the advancement of technology, blind people can access computers. Communication is enhanced by improved technology and their ability to use electronic devices. Technological resources used by the blind include Braille embossers, electronic book players, screen readers, and text-to-speech software.

For blind people to communicate, they should learn to read, write, and listen. This will enable them to understand what other people say and communicate their ideas to other people. Visually impaired persons who lack these skills find it hard to communicate with other people.

Worrall and Hickson (2003, p.90) state that visually impaired persons are different with some requiring several devices to help them communicate. The following ways are used to help communicate with blind people. Touch cues are used to instruct visually impaired persons on what will happen. They help them understand places, people, and activities through touching. For instance, sitting is communicated by placing a hand on the shoulder.

By touching personal belongings like a ring, watch, blind people can tell people familiar to them. Such things are used to identify such people. Continual use of touch cues helps them to recognizer people and things happening around them. Tactile symbols and objects prove important means of communicating with blind people. For instance, giving a blind person a spoon makes them understand that it is time to take their meals.

Clear instructions should be used when communicating with blind people. For instance, they should be directed in the direction of the door from where they are standing or seated. Pointing at things is not needed because they will not see.

This unit has transformed my way of thinking. First, I perceived blind people as helpless people who cannot succeed in their studies. However, it has come to my understanding that with needed help and support, blind people can be independent and successful in life. The most important thing is to help them access the needed supportive devices that will enhance their communication skills. The ability to communicate opens their doors to success and achievements.

Blind people have proved to excel in academic studies even more than other people without vision defects. I learned the role of health services to control visual problems. It came to my knowledge that some people suffer because of negligence. An example is a case in which children suffer from eye diseases and needed measures are not taken (Worrall &Hickson 2003, p.92)

I would urge people to ensure that eye problems are attended to in their early stages when the condition can be treated. Blindness is a physical challenge, and it does not mean that the person is stupid. They should be allowed to exercise their rights and discrimination of any kind should be avoided. The language that people use when describing physical impairments affects the perception that people have of the disabled.

The use of inappropriate language is rude, humiliating, and disempowering. People should ensure that they do not use unnecessary remarks to disabled people. It is wrong to make assumptions about the needs and impairments of disabled people. Last, disable people should be treated with respect like other people.

Genesee, M & Gense, M 2005, Autism spectrum disorders and visual impairment: meeting students’ learning needs , American Foundation for the Blind, New York.

Sacks, S & Wolffe, K 2006, Teaching social skills to students with visual impairments: from theory to practice, American Foundation for the Blind, New York.

Sacks, S & Kekelis, L 1992, The development of social skills by blind and visually impaired students: exploratory studies and strategies , American Foundation for the Blind, New York.

Uslan, M 1990, Access to mass transit for blind and visually impaired travelers , American Foundation for the Blind, New York.

Worrall, L & Hickson, L 2003, Communication disability in aging: from prevention to intervention, Cengage Learning, New York.

• The Process of E-Communication
• American-Chinese Cross-Cultural Communication
• Third Age Living and Computer Technologies in Old Age Learning
• Living with Disabilities in the Nondisabled World
• How Language and Other Types of Cognition Interact
• Networking Skills to Make Personal Connections
• Intercultural Communication as Practiced in the US
• Language Influences on Communication
• Importance of Interpersonal Communication
• Personal Communication and Conflict Styles
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, February 15). Blind People: Communication and Diversity. https://ivypanda.com/essays/blind-people-communication-and-diversity/

"Blind People: Communication and Diversity." IvyPanda , 15 Feb. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/blind-people-communication-and-diversity/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Blind People: Communication and Diversity'. 15 February.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Blind People: Communication and Diversity." February 15, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/blind-people-communication-and-diversity/.

1. IvyPanda . "Blind People: Communication and Diversity." February 15, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/blind-people-communication-and-diversity/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Blind People: Communication and Diversity." February 15, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/blind-people-communication-and-diversity/.

Lesson Plan Understanding Blindness

Society holds misconceptions about the visually impaired, yet the blind can communicate well and perform skills with independent mobility, becoming productive citizens. 

The term blindness can be defined across a wide spectrum. A person who is visually impaired may have difficulty performing ordinary tasks, regardless of the use of glasses and contact lenses. Blurred vision, blind spots, or tunnel vision could be some characteristics of vision impairment. Eye diseases, such as glaucoma—which causes optic nerve damage—can also cause vision loss. In 2012, the World Health Organization estimated that of the 285 million visually impaired people in the world, 39 million were officially blind. In the U.S., The National Federation for the Blind estimates that around 6.6 million Americans are currently living with a visual disability. The total number of legally blind students, ages 16 and up, enrolled in high schools in the U.S. is over 60,000.*

This photo essay depicts lives of the sightless, including both the blind and visually impaired, in New York City. Some of the people highlighted in the photo essay include a blind employment lawyer, a computer teacher, a karate teacher for the visually impaired, and a waiter at a restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Some of the individuals face employer inequalities as well as various discriminations based on social misconceptions of blindness.

Connections to National Standards

Common Core English Language Arts. SL.11-12.1.c. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies. D2.Civ.7.9-12. Apply civic virtues and democratic principles when working with others.

Next Generation Science Standards. HS-LS2-8. Evaluate the evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species' chances to survive and reproduce.

Setting the Stage

Introduce the photo essay by asking students if anyone knows a blind person. Explain that students will be looking at a photo essay that shows the lives of the sightless and the visually impaired in New York City. Ask students what it could be like to navigate the world with disabilities, such as being blind, deaf, or a wheelchair user. What could be some qualities that a person with one of these disabilities could gain? What could be some qualities they could lose?

Introduce the following myths about blindness, asking these questions:

• Blind people see only darkness.* (False) Only 18 percent of people who are visually impaired are totally blind.
• People who are blind cannot read printed materials.* (False) Technology has enabled various kinds of print accessible. Screens and texts can become magnified and enlarged.
• People who are blind have special gifts, or a "sixth sense." * (False) Blind people rely on their senses of touch, hearing, taste, or smell, which become sharper to compensate for their loss of vision.

Engaging with the Story

Direct students to view the photo essay in pairs or groups of three. Invite them to look for specific details in the photos that reflect a blind person's perspective. You may want to share with students that this photo essay is an invitation to experience how a blind person might perceive the world. Some characteristics in the photographs include examples of depth perception, the ability to see light and dark, and fragmented images. Describe that some of the blind individuals highlighted in the photo essay include:

• A karate teacher
• A waiter at a restaurant in midtown Manhattan
• An employment lawyer
• A computer teacher

For most individuals, sight is how they interpret the world. People who are blind and visually impaired experience the world in different ways, relying more on their other senses such as hearing, touch, or smell.

Delving Deeper

Lead a discussion with such question as:

• Ask students what they noticed from the photo essay. What was their first impression of these photos? If there is a visually impaired student in the class, ask if he can share his experiences with the class.
• Some of the blind people featured in the photo essay include a computer teacher, an employment lawyer, a karate teacher, and a waiter. What do you think could be some physical or emotional challenges these individuals face daily at their jobs?
• One photograph features a blind waiter serving food in a pitch-black dining room at a restaurant. What could this experience provide for those who are blind and for those who are not?
• "People were scared of me," says a blind lawyer featured in the photo essay. "Many big companies refused me when their managers met me in person and realized that I was blind." Why do you think big companies are afraid to hire a sightless person? Do you think this is fair? Why or why not? What do you think could be some of society's misconceptions around blindness?
• What do you think the photographer wants us to know about people who are blind?
• If you could rename the title of this photo essay, what name would you give it? 

Reflecting and Projecting

Give students one of the following reflective writing prompts to demonstrate their understanding of the story:

• Photographer Gaia Squarci said, "There is an invisible wall between the sighted and visually impaired. One of the women I interviewed has been blind since she was 4 years old. She told me sighted people are almost scared to deal with the blind. Being blind is like speaking a language. If sighted people don't find eye contact - which is the first hint of communication - they feel lost and they don't engage."* What do you think about this statement? Why might sunglasses, worn by a blind person, make a sighted person feel more comfortable? (CCSS.ELA.SL.11-12.1.c)
• The Verbal Description and Touch Tour of the 2012 Biennial at the Whitney museum, captured in the photo essay, as well as traffic lights provided with sound are ways society can enhance services for the blind. What could be some other innovative solutions to improve access to the world environment for the blind? (NGSS.HS-LS2-8)
• What are some ways the photo essay exemplifies how the blind experience the world around them? If you were a museum director creating an exhibit for the blind and visually impaired, how could you utilize these observations of the blind? What elements would you include in the exhibit? Include specifics in your design. For example, would you include an audio tour? Would there be buttons or no buttons? Do you think the exhibit is a civic responsibility—a service for blind citizens? Why or why not? (C3.D2.Civ.7.9-12)

Caroline Casey, " Caroline Casey: Looking past limits ." TED Talk, December 2010.

Rosemary Mahoney, " Why Do We Fear the Blind? " The New York Times , January 4, 2014. 

Whitney Museum of American Art: Verbal Description and Touch Tours .

The Lighthouse International School .

Subject Areas

High school.

• English language arts
• Photography

National Standards

• C3.D2.Civ.7.9-12
• CCSS.ELA.SL.11-12.1.c
• NGSS.HS-LS2-8
• Social misconceptions
• Valuing diversity
• Access to the photo essay online (or printed copies of it)

Preparation

• How to use our lesson plans
• (Optional) Make copies of the photo essay

Related Lesson Plans

• What Does it Mean to Be Resilient?
• Then and Now
• A Tapestry of Multicultural Diversity

More to Explore

Challenges blind people face when living life

What problems do the visually impaired encounter on a daily basis read on about six basic challenges explained in this article..

Having to deal with sight loss or low vision is merely one of the challenges that people who are blind or have low vision are facing when living life. Blind individuals are just like anyone else but they just can’t see. Is this case as simple in real life as in our minds, though? As one of Envision’s founders said in his TEDxGouda talk , we have built a world around us that serves the majority. That means that any individual different than the average, such as the visually impaired, faces difficulties because they’re not what is considered to be average. This article aims to shed light upon the challenges the blind and low vision community face just by living life and being the odd ones out.

Access to information : The major sensory organ of a person is their eyes. One glimpse around us is enough to make us realize how visual is most of the information in our environment. Timetables in train stations, signs indicating the right way or potential danger, a billboard advertising a new product in the market, these are all the visual types of information we all come across in our daily life. Most of this information is inaccessible for the blind and the visually impaired, inhibiting their independence, since access to information signifies autonomy. Consider downloading the free Envision app or check out our Envision Glasses , which offer a hands-free understanding and interaction with the world.

Overly helpful individuals: It’s very common for sighted individuals, strangers, friends or family, to be overly excited to help a visually impaired person. Very frequently, this behavior holds the assumption that the blind or low vision individual requires assistance, although this might not reflect reality. Blind people might perform a regular task slower but that doesn’t mean they’re incapable of completing it. Rushing to help the visually impaired without asking or being asked to do so, might make them feel helpless instead of independent. Moreover, not allowing a visually impaired individual perform a task by themselves, does not give them the room to learn how to do so independently.

Societal stigma: Being blind in a world suited for the sighted, it means there will be multiple normal mishaps. Stumbling upon an office chair that wasn’t neatly tucked under the desk or knocking a glass off the table because it was left right on the edge, are small accidents that can happen and that’s okay. However, such mishaps tend to be perceived by sighted individuals as the inability of the visually impaired to perform tasks, while, in reality, they stem from the inaccessibility of our world. Blindness or low vision does not indicate the intelligence of the individual nor how sad their life is. Just because the sighted cannot imagine their world without vision does not mean that the visually impaired have a sad or unhappy life because of their visual condition.

Finding and keeping a job: Work is a whole different matter if you’re visually impaired. Considering the lack of accessible work and working spaces, one can already imagine why hiring a visually impaired individual would be considered a liability for a company. This has a negative impact on the confidence and emotional well-being of the visually impaired, while it totally cripples their economic independence. Having little to no opportunity to support oneself, blind or low vision individuals are incapacitated from their independence.

Leisure: The lack of accessibility for the visually impaired is central to a number of the issues the blind or low visual individuals face. Leisure is another one on the list. There is a limited number of inclusive/accessible activities for the visually impaired, which are as simple as a museum visit. Moreover, accessible books are not abundant either. According to the World Blind Union , “more than 90% of all published material is not accessible to the blind or partially sighted.” The internet, as in the new era we all surf the internet for fun, is not fully accessible either, since numerous websites disregard their visually impaired visitors and do not curate content that is accessible for the blind and low vision individuals. Considering these points and many more that are not listed here, one can clearly see how limited leisure options there are for the visually impaired.

Often living in isolation: Considering all of the above, it’s not a surprise that living with a visual impairment might signify, often, living in isolation. Dealing with sight loss, already, is a challenge in itself. The lack of emotional support at diagnosis centers, the limited accessibility to activities and information, the societal stigma and the lack of unemployment, are all factors frequently leading blind or low vision individuals in isolation. This last point illustrates how the problem for the visually impaired is not their blindness or lower vision in itself but their segregation from anyone else.

Are you or a loved one struggling with sight loss? Please, seek support in the following organizations or contact us here .   ‍

USA : AFB - American Foundation for the Blind

Canada : CNIB - Canadian National Institute for the Blind

Australia : Vision Australia & RSB - Royal Society for the Blind

UK : RNIB - Royal National Institute of Blind People

Ireland : NCBI - National Council for the Blind in Ireland

The Netherlands : Bartimeus & Visio

Belgium : Blindenzorg Licht en Liefde

Norway : Norges Blindeforbund

Denmark : Dansk Blindesamfund / Danish Association of the Blind

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Articles on Blindness

Displaying 1 - 20 of 72 articles.

Brain implants to restore sight, like Neuralink’s Blindsight, face a fundamental problem − more pixels don’t ensure better vision

Ione Fine , University of Washington and Geoffrey Boynton , University of Washington

An eclipse for everyone – how visually impaired students can ‘get a feel for’ eclipses

Cassandra Runyon , College of Charleston and David Hurd , Pennsylvania Western University

Digital inaccessibility: Blind and low-vision people have powerful technology but still face barriers to the digital world

Michele McDonnall , Mississippi State University

Do you hear what I see? How blindness changes how you process the sound of movement

Ione Fine , University of Washington and Woon Ju Park , University of Washington

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

Amanda Tink , Western Sydney University

All the Light We Cannot See: how progressive congenital cataracts can lead to blindness

Jay E. Self , University of Southampton

Gene therapy helps combat some forms of blindness – and ongoing clinical trials are looking to extend these treatments to other diseases

Jean Bennett , University of Pennsylvania

Disabled people were Holocaust victims, too: they were excluded from German society and murdered by Nazi programs

The magic of touch: how deafblind people taught us to ‘see’ the world differently during COVID

Azadeh Emadi , University of Glasgow

Diabetes targets would cost more but the impact would be worth it: here’s how

Justine Ina Davies , University of Birmingham ; David Flood , University of Michigan ; Jennifer Manne-Goehler , Harvard University , and Sanjay Basu , Harvard University

Steve Kekana: an 80s South African pop star, and much more

Yonela Mnana , University of the Witwatersrand

How The Gambia beat trachoma, an infection that causes blindness

Musa Mutali , University of Benin

Macular degeneration is a leading cause of blindness. Here’s how to prevent it

Langis Michaud , Université de Montréal

Curious Kids: What do blind people experience in their dreams?

Kevin Duffy , Dalhousie University

We could be doing more to prevent vision loss for people with diabetes

Clare Villalba , Queensland University of Technology ; Anjali Jaiprakash , Queensland University of Technology , and Anthony Russell , The University of Queensland

‘Curing blindness’: why we need a new perspective on sight rehabilitation

Meike Scheller , University of Aberdeen

COVID-19 presents new obstacles for people who use service dogs

Virginie Abat-Roy , L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Audio description finally comes to ABC and SBS

Katie Ellis , Curtin University and Gwyneth Peaty , Curtin University

Gene therapy and CRISPR strategies for curing blindness (Yes, you read that right)

Hemant Khanna , UMass Chan Medical School

Study shows how Airbnb hosts discriminate against guests with disabilities as sharing economy remains in ADA gray area

Mason Ameri , Rutgers University - Newark and Douglas L. Kruse , Rutgers University

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Research Fellow at National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University

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Lecturer in Education, University of Bath

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Losing sight can make a patient feel “broken and no longer whole,” Rosemary Robinson explains

Selina Powell

10 February 2017

Optometrists were cautioned against letting their own attitudes towards blindness get in the way of patient care during a 100% Optical presentation on vision loss and psychology.

Consultant ophthalmologist, Rosemary Robinson, emphasised that optometrists and ophthalmologists often viewed blindness as the ultimate professional failure.

“Optical professionals react to loss of vision as other health professionals do to loss of life,” Ms Robinson highlighted at the show (4-6 February, London ExCeL).

This sense of guilt was strongest in relation to vision loss from potentially curable conditions, she added.

However, optical professionals should not lose sight of the individual while treating a disease, Ms Robinson emphasised.

“You are not responsible for vision loss but you are responsible for a patient’s overall care and treatment…Even if you can’t make someone see better you can help make their quality of life better.”

During her presentation, The Psychosocial Impact of Vision Loss , Ms Robinson detailed the different ways that blindness could affect a patient.

Some people who experienced vision loss felt broken and no longer whole, she explained.

“Many people have a negative stereotype of a blind person and they self-impose that idea. They see themselves as an outsider and different from the rest of the community,” she highlighted.

This effect on a person’s self-esteem resulted in a patient reassessing their identity.

“When blindness occurs it’s like they’ve lost the previous person they were and they have to come to terms with who the new person with the sight loss is going to become,” Ms Robinson explained.

Patients were often wary about how their vision would change in the future following a diagnosis.

“When losing vision there is often the fear that they will go in to total darkness when, in fact, rarely this is the case,” Ms Robinson added.

Losing the ability to see familiar faces and sights that bring people pleasure was a significant loss, she told delegates at the show.

Although a scene or object could be described to someone with sight loss, it was not the same, Ms Robinson explained.

“It can be very different seeing it in your mind’s eye and it can be a source of frustration,” she highlighted.

Ms Robinson detailed the different phases of coming to terms with sight loss, including trauma, shock and denial, mourning and withdrawal, and succumbing and depression.

The final stage was reassessment and reaffirmation, she added.

In this stage a patient began to view themselves as essentially the same as before their sight loss.

“They just have to deal with life a little differently,” Ms Robinson concluded.

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Daily Life Problems, Struggle and Challenges Faced by Blind People

Samyak Lalit is an author and disability rights activist. He is a polio survivor and the founder of projects like Kavita Kosh, Gadya Kosh, TechWelkin, WeCapable, Dashamlav and Viklangta Dot Com. Website: www.lalitkumar.in

Blindness is one of the most, if not the most, misunderstood type of disability . The general masses have their own pre-conceived notions about the blind people that they firmly believe to be true without even getting in touch with a blind person. Most of the members of the non-blind community believe that the blind people cannot do their work or live a normal life. ‘My Son will not be a Beggar Be’ by Ved Mehta is a perfect example of the contradiction of society’s perspective and the reality of a blind person’s life.

Blind people do lead a normal life with their own style of doing things. But, they definitely face troubles due to inaccessible infrastructure and social challenges. Let us have an empathetic look at some of the daily life problems, struggles and challenges faced by the blind people.

Navigating Around Places

The biggest challenge for a blind person, especially the one with the complete loss of vision, is to navigate around places. Obviously, blind people roam easily around their house without any help because they know the position of everything in the house. People living with and visiting blind people must make sure not to move things around without informing or asking the blind person.

Commercial places can be made easily accessible for the blinds with tactile tiles . But, unfortunately, this is not done in most of the places. This creates a big problem for blind people who might want to visit the place.

Finding Reading Material

Blind people have a tough time finding good reading materials in accessible formats. Millions of people in India are blind but we do not have even the proper textbooks in braille , leave alone the novels and other leisure reading materials. Internet, the treasure trove of information and reading materials, too is mostly inaccessible for the blind people. Even though a blind person can use screen reading software but it does not make the Internet surfing experience very smooth if the websites are not designed accordingly. Blind person depends on the image description for understanding whatever is represented through pictures. But most of the time, websites do not provide clear image description.

Arranging Clothes

As most of the blind people depend on the objects’ shape and texture to identify them — arranging the laundry becomes a challenging task. Although a majority of blind people device their own technique to recognize and arrange at least their own clothes but it still is a challenging chore. This becomes a daredevil task if it’s about pairing and arranging the socks. All this is because recognizing colors is almost impossible for the persons with total blindness.

Overly Helpful Individuals

It is good to be kind and help others. But overly helpful individuals often create problems for the blind person. There are lots of individuals who get so excited to help a disabled person that they forget even to ask the person whether she needs help or not. A blind person might be doing something painfully slow (from your perspective) but you should not hurry in doing the work without asking the person properly. You might end up creating some trouble for the blind person.

Getting Devices to Become Independent

The most valuable thing for a disabled person is gaining independence. A blind person can lead an independent life with some specifically designed adaptive things for them. There are lots of adaptive equipment that can enable a blind person to live their life independently but they are not easily available in the local shops or markets. Refreshable Braille Display is an example of such useful devices. A blind person needs to hunt and put much effort to get each equipment that can take them one step closer towards independence.

Everyone faces challenges in their life… blind people face a lot more. But, this certainly does not mean that you can show sympathy to blind persons. They too, just like any individual, take up life’s challenges and live a normal life, even if it does not seem normal to the sighted individuals.

Are you a person with visual impairment? Please share with us the problems that you face in your day-to-day life. Sharing information can show path to the solution of many problems! Thank you for connecting with WeCapable!

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5 responses to “Daily Life Problems, Struggle and Challenges Faced by Blind People”

I am totally blind, and can relate to this article. As a 65-year-old, I can honestly say things are easier now than when I was growing up. Mobility canes, phones and products with screen-readers, and educating the general public have helped a lot. But the challenges of everyday life are still many. Yet when one has lived as long as I, the blind person knows what his challenges are, and can either ask for sighted assistance, or find a product suitable for his needs.

can u tell what are your hardships

My husband has type 2 diabetes and is losing his eyesight. He is not totally blind but the prospect of the possibility of him going blind is very scary for me. He’s 63 years old and very independent. I’m afraid of what this will do to him. I know people who are blind can be very productive and independent but I also know that initially, it can be a challenge accepting life without vision. I know my husband is going through a lot of different emotions, right now he’s angry, and I’d like to know what I can do to help but not be too helpful as I want him to be as independent as he is now. Any resources you can provide are greatly appreciated.

I recently began living with an old friend who became totally blind 14 months ago. He connected with Lighthouse for the Blind. He was taught how to function being blind. One of his biggest challenges was using Uber to get to places. He experienced a lot of anxiety being picked up and taken to his destination. He’s afraid the driver will drop him off at the wrong place and abandon him. Recently he had to pick up a prescription and told the driver as such, when they arrived at Walgreens driver wanted to drop him off. He had to plead with the driver to go thru. the drive thru and take him home after. Bad experience. Also when ordering a ride you cant communicate your condition or wishes. Uber needs to become more blind user friendly.

This article sheds light on the daily challenges faced by individuals with blindness, and it’s important to recognize the impact of cataract-induced blindness, which is a prevalent and treatable condition. Initiatives like the Tej Kohli Eye Foundation, play a crucial role in addressing these challenges by providing accessible eye care and working towards a world where cataracts no longer hinder the daily lives of those affected. Let’s continue advocating for awareness and support for those navigating life with visual impairments.

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A collection of TED Talks (and more) on the topic of Blindness.

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Blindness isn't a tragic binary — it's a rich spectrum

How I helped make Lego accessible to the blind

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A new way to fund health care for the most vulnerable

What causes hallucinations?

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What reality are you creating for yourself?

How Argentina's blind soccer team became champions

Clues to prehistoric times, found in blind cavefish

How a blind astronomer found a way to hear the stars

How new technology helps blind people explore the world

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Exclusive articles about blindness, a teeny tiny bike, and other stories you should read today, chris downey: my life as a blind architect in san francisco, san francisco in pictures: a blind architect’s experience.

Understanding the needs of blind and partially sighted people

A 2009 study to gain an understanding of the experiences, needs and expectations of blind and partially sighted people and how they can be supported.

Title: Understanding the needs of blind and partially sighted people: their experiences, perspectives, and expectations.

Author: SSMR at the University of Surrey, Publisher: SSMR, on behalf of RNIB

The overall aims of the research were:

• to gain an understanding of the experiences, needs and expectations of blind and partially sighted people
• to explore ways in which they can be supported to lead independent and fulfilling lives; and to investigate how needs change over time. This report presents a summary of information collected through in-depth interviews with people who are blind and partially sighted. Recommendations are also included.

Key findings

The report presents a wide range of experiences in the participants' own words. An overview of some of the themes explored includes:

• key life changes, especially the loss of independence
• support received by participants, as reported
• employment (challenges in obtaining work and receiving adequate support within work)
• emotional support
• information needs (what information, where to obtain it, provision in suitable formats)
• transport (public services, cost, environment)
• education (mainstream, specialist, and further education institutions)
• enablement (making the most of residual sight and encouraging independence).

Download Understanding Needs: Literature Review (/documents/737/Understanding_Needs_Lit_Review.doc)

Download Understanding Needs: Case study (/documents/738/Understanding_Needs_Case_Study.doc)

Download Understanding Needs: Executive summary (/documents/739/Undersanding_Needs_Summary.doc)

Download Understanding Needs: Full Report (/documents/740/Understanding_Needs_Full_Report.doc)

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The world of the blind – essay.

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Close your eyes and try to do something you do every day, like putting toothpaste on a toothbrush. You will soon realise how difficult it is to do things if you cannot see what you are doing. People who cannot see face such difficulties every day. They depend on their other senses (touch, smell, sound and taste) to learn about the world around them. And, with practice, they learn to use these senses better than people with sight.

One of the things the blind cannot do is read ordinary books. So, they learn to read books printed in Braille. Braille is a system of representing characters by raised dots. Combinations of raised dots in a six-dot ‘cell’ make up different characters.

The characters are read by touching them with fingers. This system was invented by Louis Braille, who lost his sight as a child. Nowadays, there are other means by which a blind person can enjoy a book. For example, they can use a computer to listen to stories or articles that are saved as electronic files.

Blindness does not stop people from doing great things. Helen Keller was about two when she became blind and deaf following an illness. But she learnt to read and write Braille, and went on to study in a college and even write books. Throughout her life she worked to help the blind and the deaf. She showed them how people with disabilities can hold their head high.

Like Helen Keller and Louis Braille, there are many other blind heroes. Surdas, the famous poet and saint, was blind. The English poet John Milton dictated his best-known work (Paradise Lost) after he became blind. Stevie Wonder was born blind. He went on to become a famous musician and won an Oscar and many Grammy Awards.

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Following the people and events that make up the research community at Duke

Visual Perception in Congenitally Blind Adults

By Cydney Livingston

On January 24, 2020

In Behavior/Psychology , Lecture , Neuroscience

Vision provides a rich source of information that most people’s lives revolve around. Yet, for blind people, how do they conceive of visual intake and what happens to regions of the brain dedicated to vision if a person doesn’t have typical visual input? These are questions that drive Marina Bedny PhD, an Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and principal investigator of a neuroplasticity and development lab at John Hopkins University.

Bedny spoke at Duke’s Institute for Brain Sciences on Friday, January 17 th , about her work with congenitally blind adults. Her lab explores similarities and distinctions of visual perceptions between blind and seeing people and seeks to understand how nuanced, natural variation in experience shapes the human mind and brain.

Many of the studies Bedny discussed have very important linguistic components. In one trial, she investigated the meaning of verbs pertaining to light events and visual perception as compared to touch, amodal , auditory, and motion verbs.

Both blind and sighted people displayed nearly identical results when comparing the different types of verbs used in the study. This showed that there were no differences in what blind people knew about the terms. Analysis of the verbs revealed that linguistic dimensions of intensity and instability were used to evaluate the words’ comparative meanings. Blind people agreed more on the comparison of sound emission and touch perception words. This shows that blind participants have more aligned comprehension of the meanings of other sensory terms compared to sighted people.

In other cases, Bedny’s lab assessed what blind individuals know about color. One study used three object types – natural kinds, functional artifacts, and non-functional artifacts. These categories were used to evaluate agreeance not only on color, but the relevancy of color to certain objects’ functions as well.

Another crucial question of Bedny’s work looks at how the innate structure of the brain constrains cortical function. The findings show that the visual system in blind participants has been repurposed for higher cognitive functions and that portions of the visual system connected to high cognitive abilities are invaded by the visual systems. Along with repurposing visual regions for linguistic use, Bedny’s lab found that visual regions of the brain are active during numerical processing tasks too.

Blind people display additional activity in the visual centers of their brain in numerous studies beyond having the same regional brain responsiveness as sighted people. Though further research is necessary, Bedny proposes that there is a sensitive period during development that is critical to the specialization of the brain. Study participants who have adult-onset blindness do not show the same sensitivity and patterned responses in visual cortices repurposed for different functions as congenitally blind subjects.

At birth, the human cortex is pluripotent – providing the best of both worlds, Bedny said. The brain is prepared but highly flexible. Her studies have repeatedly shown that the brain is built for and transformed by language, and they underscore the importance of nature and nurture in human development.

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How to Write a Blind or Vision Impaired Character

Diversity representation in works of fiction is becoming more and more mainstream, and with good reason! People of all races, genders, and abilities deserve to see themselves represented in the stories they read. However, a lot of representation ends up being poorly researched and presented, and that is often the case for blind characters. This lack of research contributes to the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes and overused clichés, and in many cases, will make readers (not just blind ones) put down the story in disappointment. 

If you want to include a blind protagonist in your story, but you aren’t sure how to go about it (or if it’s even a good idea at all), then you’re not alone! Writing a blind protagonist can be daunting, but it’s not as challenging as you might think! All it takes is a little research and practice, and you’ll be able to create a compelling blind character to add to your diverse cast of characters. 

What Is It Like to Be Blind?

This might surprise you, but the vast majority of blind individuals (about 80-90%) actually retain some form of sight . Usually, that means a person is still able to perceive light and shadows, but sometimes a person can still see colors or vague shapes, or they may have tunnel vision or only be able to see in their peripheral. Some conditions can cause visual impairments that look like snow or debris that obscures vision, or dark spots could cover a large portion of a person’s field of vision. Some people just have eyes that vibrate so intensely that their sight is too blurry and dizzying. 

With that said, 10-20% of blind people are completely blind , with no light, shape, or color perception at all. And, obviously, if your character does not have eyeballs at all (due to accident or birth defect), then they would fall into this category.

Contrary to what you might expect, totally blind individuals don’t “see” darkness–they actually don’t see anything at all. Most people assume that the absence of sight is equivalent to darkness, but that isn’t the case. Darkness requires sight to perceive. Even if your eyes are closed, you are still seeing the inside of your eyelids, thus why it is dark when you close your eyes. 

However, experiences can vary. A person who was born blind will not even know what darkness is supposed to look like. Someone who loses their sight later in life may remember, and their brain could try to fill in the gaps in perception with what makes the most sense. If the brain isn’t receiving any visual information, it may assume that it is dark, thus creating the imaginary perception of darkness. 

How A Character Can Become Blind

There are three primary ways a person can become blind: injury, illness, and birth defects.

No matter what you choose, do the research to make sure you are accurately portraying the character’s experience. 

There are several ways an injury can result in blindness, and some are not as obvious as you might think. 

The most straightforward option is to have the character experience some kind of physical trauma to the eye that would cause the eye to rupture. Other options include acidic or corrosive substances getting into the eye and burning it, lasers, shrapnel, or anything else that could cut, smash, bruise, or burn the eye or the tissues around the eye. 

In addition to trauma to the eyes themselves, a character can become blind when the part of their brain that processes sight becomes damaged, or if the nerves connecting the eyes to the brain are damaged or severed. This can happen in a high-speed car crash, hitting the ground from a high distance, concussions, stroke, asphyxiation, and more. 

If you decide to justify your character’s blindness with brain damage, there are a ton of other complications that you’re going to need to be aware of. I highly recommend taking a look at my other article How to Write About Brain Damage (Accurately!) just to make sure you can write about the topic convincingly. 

Illness is another way that you can justify a character being blind in your story. 

Brain tumors and some kinds of cancers can end up interfering with the eyes or optic nerves and result in blindness. Aside from that, however, there are a ton of other options for illnesses impacting a character’s vision. Autoimmune disorders can sometimes result in a person’s immune system attacking the cells in and around their eyes, whereas diseases that interfere with cardiovascular health may cause the eyes to degenerate because there isn’t enough blood and oxygen getting to the eyes’ cells. 

Of course, there are also many eye-specific diseases like cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration that can result in vision impairment or loss. Bacterial or viral infection can result in blindness as well.

If you’re writing a fictional story, then the disease that makes a character blind doesn’t even have to be a real disease. You could create your own disease from scratch with blindness being one of the symptoms. Of course, that’s a lot easier said than done, but if you’re willing to consider it, creating a fictional disease for your story can be a cool experience. Check out my other article How to Create a Fictional Illness for Your Story for a comprehensive breakdown of how to do this!

Birth Defects

Blindness caused by birth defects is referred to as “congenital blindness,” and it can be caused by a variety of different conditions. The two most common kinds of congenital blindness results from anophthalmia and microphthalmia, and these conditions can occur on their own or as a result of another birth defect or disorder. 

Anophthalmia is a condition in which a child is born without one or both of their eyes. 

Microphthalmia is a condition in which one or both of a child’s eyes do not develop properly, which makes the eye(s) small and non-functional. 

With that said, any condition that results in the underdevelopment or mutation of any of the tissues or nerves in or around the eyes and occipital lobe in the brain can result in some form of vision impairment. 

Okay, okay. I know I said there were three major ways for a character to become blind, but this is worth mentioning too. 

If you’re writing a story in which magic is possible, it stands to reason that a character can lose their sight due to being magically cursed. This option is of course very niche so I won’t go into detail here, but if you want to know more about curses, you can check out Curse Your Characters! (Writing About Magical Curses) .

What Do Blind Eyes Look Like?

Contrary to what popular media would have you believe, blind eyes usually look just like normal eyes. Almost all of the most common types of blindness don’t affect the appearance of the eyes at all. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but it is your duty to do the research for the character’s specific condition to see if their eyes would look any different from anyone else’s eyes. 

In general, a character’s eyes will not look cloudy or milky unless they have sustained the right kind of damage that would result in scar tissue forming on the cornea (the clear membrane that covers the eye). This can occur as a result of surgery that was done poorly or didn’t heal well, acid or foreign objects getting into the eye, corneal ulcers, or other physical trauma to the eye. Cataracts are the most common cause of cloudy eyes, but there is a surgery to reverse this. Some other conditions can result in cloudiness as well. Wikipedia has a good list of some of these conditions, but be warned that they do include images of scarred eyes.

Naturally, if the character was born without eyes, or had them removed (either traumatically or surgically), you won’t be describing what their eyes look like–you’ll be describing what their lack of eyes looks like. Do they still have fully formed eyelids and sockets? Do they wear fake eyes? Is there any scar tissue around where the eyes used to be? Depending on how they lost their eyes, your answers to these questions could be quite variable. 

There are also some rarer conditions that can make eyes look rather unusual, while also affecting vision. (Emphasis on RARE.)

Ocular albinism describes a condition in which there is a lack of pigment in the eyes, so they appear very light blue (or even pale pink in certain light). The condition often results in extreme light sensitivity and blurry vision.

Coloboma is another interesting congenital condition that results in the eye’s pupil being distorted due to missing tissue. Sometimes, this condition interferes with the optic nerve, which results in blurry vision that cannot be corrected using glasses or contacts. 

Polycoria is a condition in which an eye has two pupils. Although it is cool to look at, the condition can cause problems with blurry vision and light glare. Both of these pupils can constrict and dilate. Pseudopolycoria is a similar condition, but rather than an eye having multiple pupils, the iris simply has holes in it that look like additional pupils, but they cannot constrict or dilate. Unlike with polycoria, pseudopolycoria does not generally affect vision.

Remember that just because a person cannot see does not mean their eyes will be cloudy. In most cases, if a person becomes blind, their eyes will not suddenly turn white. 

Tips for Writing Blind Characters

Writing a character in a story who cannot see can be a challenge–especially if you are not vision impaired yourself. There are many things you will need to keep in mind as you are writing, to ensure you don’t make any simple mistakes to contradict the character’s condition. In addition to that, it can be difficult to know how a blind character would navigate in different situations, and that can end up stalling your plot.

Here are some tips for things to keep in mind before you get started. 

Make the Character Interesting Before You Make Them Blind

I’m sure everyone is tired of me saying this by now, but here goes. As with any marginalized community, disabled characters deserve to be interesting and complex in ways not related to their disability. Your blind character needs to have a personality that isn’t centered around being blind, and they should have interests, hobbies, skills, flaws, dreams, love interests, and more. Being blind should not exclude them from any of the character development that any non-disabled character would have. 

If you want some pointers for creating characters that are complex and interesting, regardless of their disability status, then you can take a look at another one of my articles: How to Make Characters Interesting, Complex, and Unique.

Utilize Other Characters

In a story with a blind protagonist, your supporting characters are going to become really important. Generally, the blind character will rely on others to help them navigate and understand their surroundings. These characters will also play an important role in narrating the visuals to your readers, especially in a story told in first-person or closed third-person from the perspective of the blind character. 

Supporting characters are going to be the voice through which you describe the visual setting. However, they should not just be mindless plot devices who objectively narrate their surroundings.

The way each character describes the world is going to depend heavily on their personality and biases. For example, there are many ways different characters could describe a group of college boys approaching them. One character may say “There are a bunch of guys coming towards us. One of them is really cute…” A different character might have something to say that’s entirely contrary to that sentiment, like “Dudebros inbound, watch out.” Very rarely will anyone give an unbiased account of what they see around them. 

Of course, if you want this kind of commentary to feel natural, then you’re going to need to have a good handle on what the supporting character’s personality and biases are. Depending on the role they play in the story, you could go about creating them in the same way you would any other major character, but if they aren’t that important to the plot, you shouldn’t sink a lot of time into fully fleshing them out. You can check out one of my articles, How to Write Minor Characters , for tips on finding the right balance. 

A fun consequence of relying on supporting characters to relay information is the fact that you can mislead your readers (and your main character). Everyone is inherently a little bit of an unreliable narrator, so some things they say might be misinterpreted, misunderstood, or downright misleading. If you want to foster distrust or conflict in your plot, that’s one way of doing it.

And of course, there may be times when your blind character is alone, and that’s perfectly reasonable. Blind people can often live independently. But if you have other characters present, it would be a waste not to take advantage of their presence. 

Emphasize the Character’s Other Senses

Blind individuals have to rely more heavily on their other senses, like hearing and touch. Setting can be a challenge in a story with a blind protagonist, but you’ll be surprised just how little the visual descriptions matter. The things the character hears, smells, and feels creates the setting—what the place looks like doesn’t matter. For example, if a protagonist is outside, do they feel the sun on their face, a breeze, rain, or some other kind of weather? Do they hear or feel bugs flying around? What other sounds can they hear? Birds chirping, wind chimes, crowds chattering, or children playing? Do they smell flowers, trash, or bread baking? You can really bring a setting to life just by describing the sound, smell, and feel. 

It can be helpful to remember that readers can’t physically see a setting when they’re reading either, so they’re already fairly good at filling in the gaps with their imagination.

It’s important that you don’t misunderstand this section. Blind people do rely on their other senses a lot to compensate for their lack of sight, but this does not mean those senses are heightened. A person’s hearing does not magically get better once they lose their sight, and the same rule applies to their other senses as well.  

The reason it may appear that a blind person is better at picking up on things with their other senses is due to two things: practice, and a lack of visual distraction. No one is born good at picking up on subtle vibrations or picking out specific sounds in a noisy environment. These are things a person gets better at doing because they have to , and it is very much a skill that has to be learned, not a superpower. Secondly, not having visual stimuli as a distraction means that a blind person’s brain can spare more energy on interpreting audio and tactile information. Multitasking is hard, but the moment you eliminate one of those tasks, the others become a little easier to focus on. 

Understand The Limits of the Blind Character

Blind protagonists are inherently unreliable narrators. They are not going to be able to narrate a story perfectly if they are missing a major part of the experience–namely the visuals. This is not in any way a bad thing, however! In fact, it is an opportunity for you as a storyteller to find creative ways to utilize that in the narrative. With that said, there are some things you need to be careful to keep in mind. 

When a blind character is moving about the world, they are going to miss a lot of information around them. Even if they retain some sight, they might still not be able to tell the difference between signs, displays in shops, and even a dog from a pile of garbage. They might not know about ice on the road or a puddle until it’s too late. 

They won’t be able to tell who they are talking to without being given some indication (like “Hey it’s George”). Even something distinctive like the smell of a strong perfume or the sound of someone’s voice may not be enough to confirm who they are speaking with. Generally, unless a character’s voice is particularly unique, the blind character is only going to recognize people they are really familiar with by the sound of their voice, such as family, close friends, or an actor they listen to a lot. 

If you’re writing a story with a blind protagonist and they notice something that doesn’t make sense with the limitations of their abilities, then you’ll end up ruining the immersion and making readers question your authority as a storyteller.

How to Write a Character Who Uses a Guide Dog

Guide dogs can be a huge help to people who cannot see. Giving a blind character a guide dog in a story also comes with the added bonus of them having an iconic animal companion that travels with them (almost) everywhere. However, there are some things to keep in mind if you want to write a guide dog realistically. 

What is a Guide Dog?

Guide dogs are service dogs that help a blind or vision-impaired individual navigate. These dogs undergo intensive training programs from a young age to ensure they are able to recognize and act upon the required commands to help their blind handler. Guide dogs must be the right size to easily guide a person around, and though any dog that is the correct size can become a guide dog, the most common breeds are shepherds, labradors, and golden retrievers. 

You need to understand that guide dogs are not superheroes–they’re just dogs. Don’t get me wrong, they’re some of the best-trained dogs that exist, but they’re still just dogs. Not only are they going to make mistakes every now and then, but they’re also going to behave like regular pets when they’re not working. They’ll play, bug people to pet them, and dig holes in the yard, among many other things. They can be bratty, mischievous, lazy, or playful, but once their harness goes on, they mellow out and take their job seriously. 

What Can Guide Dogs Do?

Next, you’re going to need to understand how guide dogs do their jobs, and what specific tasks you want your character’s dog to be responsible for. 

The specific list of commands, how they are communicated, and how they are executed depends a lot on the individual’s needs and preferences, as well as the institution that trained the dog.

However, in addition to standard obedience commands like sit and stay, all guide dogs know the commands:

• Forward. This means the dog will lead the person in a straight line in whatever direction they are facing. If the dog stops suddenly, that alerts the person of some kind of obstacle in the path that they can use other context (like sound, touch, and their knowledge of the location) to determine the nature of, and maneuver around it.
• Left/Right. Simply saying one of these commands will instruct the dog to turn 90 degrees in the specified direction.
• Halt. This directs the dog to stop moving.
• Hop up. This directs a dog to step up onto an elevated obstacle, such as a curb or step. This can also be used for getting the dog to step onto a moving escalator. 
• Forward up/Forward down. This command is used to instruct a dog to move up or down stairs.
• Get busy. This command (or a similar one) is used to tell a dog when to urinate. As long as their harness is on, a guide dog will not go without being directed, to ensure they don’t stop unexpectedly or relieve themself somewhere inappropriate. 

In addition to these, many guide dogs will also know commands for finding exits in a building, finding a specific person (like “find grandma” or “find Holly”), locating an empty chair for the handler to rest in, finding a curb, and more. It depends on the needs and preferences of the handler.

When a handler gives a command that would put them in danger (such as giving the “forward” command into a road with traffic), the guide dog will demonstrate what is known as “intelligent disobedience,” and refuse the command to protect the handler. Similarly, the dog may act without commands to navigate the handler away from imminent danger or around immovable obstacles like a parked car.

What Can Guide Dogs NOT Do?

Guide dogs do not have GPS. The blind handler has to know the route in advance, and then they tell the dog where to go, one step at a time. The dog’s job is to navigate around unexpected things in the path and respond to potential hazards– not to show the handler how to get from point A to point B. 

Similarly, dogs cannot read traffic signs, and since they are colorblind, they cannot tell the difference between lights on a stoplight. It is still the responsibility of the handler to gauge when it is safe to travel across a road. 

This should go without saying, but even the best guide dog in the world cannot read minds. That is to say, dogs are not good at intuitively guessing what the handler wants them to do. Guide dogs need verbal commands to know what is expected of them, so if your character is being led around by a dog they never communicate with, that’s simply not realistic. 

How to Write a Character Who Uses a Cane

Blind individuals often rely on what’s known as a “long cane” or “white cane” to help them move around. Canes can be used to roll or tap along the ground to ensure the path in front of the person is clear, to minimize the risk of stumbling on obstacles. Canes also make it easier to identify landmarks and changes in terrain that can help orient the person to their location, since different surfaces will feel and sound different. Because of this, snow on the ground can really disorient a person who uses a cane to navigate, since all their tactile landmarks will be indistinguishable while under a blanket of snow. 

For tips on writing about how blind individuals do this, as well as how different surfaces sound and feel to cane users, you can check out this article on the Late Night Writing Advice Blog on Tumblr: Writing A Blind/Visually Impaired Character: Canes, Guide Dogs, O&M . It gets far more in-depth than I would be able to, and is written by a visually-impaired person with cane experience. 

In addition to all this, some individuals may even be able to use their cane to echolocate in very specific instances, such as in a large parking lot in front of a store. Tapping on the ground and listening for the echo can help inform the person of how close they are to a large building. However, it’s important to keep in mind that this technique only works in certain environments when it is sufficiently quiet, and not everyone is able to do this. 

How to Write About Assistive Technologies for Blind Characters

There are many different technologies and assistive devices to help blind individuals navigate the world independently. It’s important to do the research to understand some of the technologies that might be easily overlooked or considered mundane, so you can have your characters talk about them or use them casually throughout your story. 

The first and most obvious thing that falls under this category is braille , which is a written language comprised of raised bumps that a person can feel with their fingertips. You don’t need to know how to write in braille in order to include this in your story, but you should know where braille commonly appears–such as elevator buttons, bathroom signs, and ATMs. You should also familiarize yourself with where braille frustratingly doesn’t appear in places it would sure be nicer if it did. 

One thing that blind people use on a regular basis to navigate online spaces is a screen reader . This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a program will read out text and image descriptions that appear on a webpage, as well as anything the person scrolls over with their cursor. This is an easy thing to familiarize yourself with since you can install one right now and try it out for yourself. You’ll be able to hear the exact phrasing the program uses, as well as details about the tone, words it would mispronounce, and the descriptions it gives for things like emojis. 

Similarly, most smartphones have accessibility settings that make them easier to use for people with vision impairments. These settings often include a screen reader, but also certain gestures, voice-to-text options, accessibility shortcuts, digital assistants like Siri, and more. Like with the point above, you can turn these settings on right now and try them out for yourself to get some real experience with them. 

Obviously, understanding the digital technology is really only going to be important for you if your story takes place in a modern or futuristic world. 

Writing Dialogue for Blind Characters

Dialogue is something you’ll have to pay extra attention to if you’re writing a blind character in first-person or closed third-person perspective. The reason for this is simply because the action beats that writers commonly rely on to break up dialogue are dependent on the conversing characters being able to see one another.

(pst! Check out Action Beats: What They Are and How to Use Them for tips!) 

If you’re used to writing dialogue for sighted characters, you may include details like the character running their fingers through their hair, smirking, or gesturing, without really thinking about it. However, if you’re telling the story from the perspective of a blind character, they aren’t going to be able to see their conversation partner move or emote. If they cannot notice it, then it should not be included.

However, action beats are really important for reducing redundancy, setting the tone of a character’s speech, and breaking up large bits of dialogue into manageable chunks. You don’t have to (and in fact shouldn’t ) cut out action beats entirely. You just need to be more conscious of how you use them. 

If you’re writing action beats for the blind protagonist’s lines, then you can freely use beats that describe movement, body language, and whatever else you want. The character doesn’t have to see what they are doing with their own body to know that they are doing it. However , if you are writing action beats for other characters’ dialogue, then you need to focus more on the tone of their voice, the noises they make, and how they articulate. Only include things that their blind conversation partner would notice. 

Dos and Don’ts for Writing Blind Characters

DON’T cure their blindness as part of the story’s resolution.

DO show them living well and being fulfilled as a disabled person.

DON’T have them touch other characters’ faces to “see” them. That doesn’t happen in real life (except perhaps with children).

DO have them learn to associate important people with the way they smell, speak, and sound.

DON’T give them superpowers that negate their blindness.

DO make blind superheroes if you’re writing a story about superheroes. (And make their blindness an obstacle to them. It’s a disability, not an accessory.)

DON’T victimize your blind characters just because they are blind.

DO give blind characters stories with depth, including those with heartbreak, loss, pain, and anything any other character could experience in a story.

DON’T make the character’s entire personality about mourning their blindness.

DO depict a character grieving realistically if they lost their sight recently.

DON’T give characters heightened senses as a result of being blind. That is not the reality for most people with vision impairments.

DO show how blind people rely on their other senses to navigate the world.

DON’T make your blind characters completely useless or wholly reliant on other characters.

DO show how your blind characters can be independent individuals.

DON’T normalize other characters babying the blind character too much.

DO show other characters accommodating and including the blind character casually, such as announcing their arrival with their name, making noises to let the blind character know where they are, and describing interesting things in the environment.

DON’T assume things about being blind if you don’t have the lived experience to back it up.

DO conduct lots of research on different topics related to being blind, like guide dogs, lifestyles, habits, accessible technology, and microaggressions or struggles blind people regularly face.

Things to Keep In Mind When Writing Blind Characters

Don’t assume that you will never have blind readers. I know that sounds odd, but blind people actually read (well… listen) to stories all the time, so you will likely have real blind people reading about your blind characters. In fact, they might have specifically sought your story out because of the blind character. Make sure you take the time to represent this community respectfully.

Fiction can be a great escape from reality, and people of all marginalized communities deserve to have stories where they are represented fairly. If your blind characters are stereotyped caricatures, or they are victimized and taken advantage of simply because of being blind, that isn’t going to be fun for blind people (or any compassionate person) to read. In fact, you could be preying on the insecurities and paranoia of the people you’re trying to represent, taking advantage of their lived experiences and fears just to create a cheap thrill. 

Take the time to do the research, and do your best to create good representation for the groups you depict in your stories. Try finding blind beta readers, or asking them for advice on the character you’ve created or the way they are depicted. They might have some good insight for you to make them even more realistic. 

I know this can be tough, but I believe in you. Good luck!

As a Blind Parent, I've Learned to Embrace My Role, Site Unseen.

I lost my vision when my daughter was an infant. But a supportive community, a few ingenious tools and a whole lot of patience have made raising her my biggest joy.

I haven’t always been blind. When my wife was pregnant, I developed a cataract that prevented me from driving at night, and when my daughter was 3 weeks old I underwent cataract surgery. Unfortunately, I had a bad reaction to post-surgery medications and the once-clear window I had seen out of was replaced with a blurry pinhole.

At first I couldn’t help but feel sorry for myself. How could I possibly contribute to raising my daughter? But over the years I’ve learned that I can do much more than I initially imagined. Parenting while blind has presented my family and me with more than a few unique challenges, but as any other parent can probably understand, I’ve learned that there’s always a solution to a problem, even if you have to adapt over time.

A Nice Ring

One of my earliest conundrums was how to keep my daughter safe during our trips to a neighborhood park without my wife. At first the fear of losing track of her amid the joyful sounds of children playing was overwhelming, but I was determined to create a secure and carefree childhood for her. After racking my brain for solutions, I turned to an Internet support group for blind parents to get suggestions. Their idea: Put bells on her shoes! Those jingles allowed me to keep tabs on my little one amid the laughter and babble of other children, and the ringing became a harmonious soundtrack for our many fun-filled afternoons outside. “My wife and I want to convey to our daughter that we both play an active role in her upbringing.,” says Sameer.

As my daughter grew, our communication method got even more creative. We introduced a call-and-response system, akin to an out-of-the-pool version of Marco Polo. A simple shout of “Cupcake!” would summon her from behind the trees, and in return I had to abandon my favorite hiding spots when she called out “Pizza!” The bells and our special nicknames made us quite a memorable sight in the park. And our having a silly “secret language” has fostered a close connection between us that we enjoy to this day.

Kitchen Keys

From the beginning, my (sighted) wife and I wanted to send the message to our daughter that her parents both played an active role in her upbringing. That meant figuring out ways in which I could be an equal partner in household duties. Enter bump dots! These textured stickers are one of the most relied-upon tools in making a home accessible for a blind person, and they changed our lives. We put stickers on the buttons of the oven, the dishwasher and many other household appliances to allow me to do chores independently. For example, on our washer and dryer, square stickers mean permanent press, flat circles indicate delicates and rough squares are for sanitary cleaning.

“My wife and I want to convey to our daughter that we both play an active role in her upbringing.”

We developed some ingenious solutions for cooking too. In my household, spices play a big role in our meals, and we have an extensive collection of them that would require far too many bump dots to make sense. For these we use near field communication (NFC) stickers and the WayAround app. With my phone I can program and scan these stickers, which are equipped with a miniature computer chip, to instantly access detailed information about each spice. For instance, the nutmeg label not only identifies the spice but also contains the full recipe for pumpkin spice so I can satisfy my pumpkin spice latte cravings at any time. As for meal planning, my wife’s cooking blog plays a pivotal role. This online resource serves as our shared cookbook, allowing us to prepare meals using the same recipes. Leveraging various accessibility tools, I can swiftly navigate the website and replicate my wife’s culinary creations.

High-Tech Teachers

In the early days of my blindness, I relied on a tabletop-size stand-alone magnifier for tasks like reviewing school worksheets. One of the initial challenges I encountered with that method was when my daughter began learning to read. Even with flashcard-size text, the process of scanning my limited field of vision over each word, letter by letter, proved time- consuming. The introduction of free apps such as Microsoft’s SeeingAI and BeMyEyes (full disclosure: I work at Microsoft) marked a significant shift. These apps are equipped with AI-assisted sight services to narrate surroundings, which revolutionized my interaction with the visual world.

“As a blind parent, each day is a journey. I’m happy to be along for the ride.”

In 2015, SeeingAI added color identification that revealed the true hues of items, correcting my perception. The next year, the app unveiled a handwriting mode that was a game changer — it allowed me to read and assist my then 5-year-old with all her written homework. Weekends became opportunities for joint math lessons on Khan Academy, leveraging the built-in accessibility features on her iPad. Activating voice-over allowed both of us to engage with the material, providing assistance to her budding reading skills while accommodating my visual impairment. As for my own leisure reading, I’ve been using the National Library Services’ Talking Book program to read at least a book a month. As my daughter has gotten older, she has even recommended books for me to read! Talking about the same book we’re both reading — predicting the ending and complaining about annoying characters — has become one of the most joyous parts of my mornings.

The Ride of My Life

As a blind parent, each day is a journey. I’m lucky to be supported by a spouse who actively engages in finding accessible solutions to our challenges, even ones that make us laugh (once I put a diaper on backward — with disastrous results!). My ability to ask for help and the patience to work through challenges that I’ve developed has made our relationship even stronger.

My daughter is 11 now, and I shudder to think about one of the next rites of passage: driving! (The struggle is not because I’m blind but because teenagers rarely enjoy getting traffic tips from their parents.) But because we have a history of adapting together, I know that we’ll be able to figure it out. My daughter still has many milestones ahead of her, and as it has been from the beginning, I’m proud to just be along for the ride.

Icon illustrations: Ananya Rao-Middleton.

Take me back to the issue!

Check out all the stories from our first-ever Accessibility Issue , including expert-approved ways to future-proof your home , an interview with Broadway star Ali Stroker and more!

Sameer Doshi, author of The Work Ahead , is a humorist, a technologist and DevOps enthusiast. Employed at Microsoft, he spends his time doing buzzwordy things like “adding value,” “having impact” and “breaking barriers.” Sameer lives in the U.S. in a fly-over state and in his free time, he annoys his wife and kids with jokes. Sameer writes under the name Sameer Chopra. 

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Book Reviews

'i just keep talking' is a refreshing and wide-ranging essay collection.

Martha Anne Toll

Nell Irvin Painter — author, scholar, historian, artist, raconteur — rocked my world with her The History of White People and endeared me with her memoir Old in Art School . Painter’s latest book, I Just Keep Talking is an insightful addition to her canon.

Painter’s professional accomplishments are stratospheric: a chair in the American History Department at Princeton, bestselling author of eight books along with others she’s edited, too many other publications to count, and an entirely separate career as a visual artist. She calls her latest book “A Life in Essays,” which I found reductive. Although the first group of essays is entitled “Autobiography,” this volume reaches far beyond Nell Painter’s own story in the best possible way.

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Author examines 'the history of white people'.

Painter’s The History of White People combines scholarship with readability to prove that “whiteness” is a relatively newly created sociological construct. Slavery has been around for millennia, as has war and conquering peoples, but whiteness, with its bizarre, insidious, and pervasive myths about racial superiority, dates from around the 15th century forward. The concept of whiteness is entangled with America’s mendacious justifications for its capture and trade in human beings, and the terrible, lasting consequences of chattel slavery.

Painter has been clear that she stands on the shoulders of others in naming whiteness as a construct. What makes The History of White People indispensable is that it collects the historical antecedents of whiteness in a compelling narrative, and calls out to readers, including myself, the need to unlearn whiteness as a norm, even — and especially — if it is an unconscious norm.

Author Interviews

'old in art school': an mfa inspires a memoir of age.

As Painter wound down from a full academic load at Princeton, she obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees in fine art. In Old in Art School, as well as this current volume, she recounts the putdowns and hazing she suffered from fellow art students and her art professors, just as The History of White People was hitting the bestseller lists. Painter acknowledges that book’s commercial success but does not hide her bitterness that it did not win any major prizes.

Painter’s tour through her life and interests makes for a fascinating journey. To introduce her essay collection, Painter writes, “My Blackness isn’t broken… Mine is a Blackness of solidarity, a community, a connectedness….” She grew up in an intellectual family in the Bay Area amidst the burgeoning Black power movement. Her studies took her to Ghana and Paris, before completing her Ph.D. in U.S. history at Harvard.

Painter started making art at an early age. She threads that interest through the essays, wondering what would have happened if her professional life had started with art, instead of as a scholar.

Code Switch

Is beauty in the eyes of the colonizer.

Painter’s captivating mixed media illustrations in I Just Keep Talking speak to injustice. She combines words that blister — “same frustrations for 25 years” (a work from 2022), with blocks of color and figurative representations. I felt drawn in by these visual pieces with their trenchant messages. “This text + art is the way I work, the way I think,” she writes. In Painter’s hands, a picture can be worth a thousand words.

Painter’s essays pose critical questions. She will not accept received wisdom at face value, refuses the status quo, and freely offers her expert opinions. The pieces in this book address such wide topics as the meaning of history and historiography; America’s false, rose-colored-glasses-interpretation of slavery; the appalling absence of Black people from America’s story about itself; how and where feminism fits in; southern American history; the white gaze; and visual culture.

She takes a hard look at Thomas Jefferson’s hypocrisy concerning Black people and slavery, and compares his viewpoint to that of Charles Dickens, who toured the U.S. 15 years after Jefferson died. Audiences cooled to Dickens after he “excoriate[d] Americans for…tolerating the continued existence of enslavement by shrugging their shoulders, saying nothing can be done on account of ‘public opinion.’”

Here are the new books we're looking forward to this fall

Painter was onto Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas well before Professor Hill delivered her explosive testimony at his confirmation hearing. In a chapter called “Hill, Thomas, and the Use of Racial Stereotype,” Painter delivers a withering takedown of Thomas’ manipulation of gender stereotypes to advantage himself.

Painter dates her essays and provides extensive endnotes, but I wanted more information about which essays had been previously published and which, if any, derived from unpublished journal entries. I wondered particularly about the shorter, less annotated pieces, which I could imagine her writing to develop analyses for longer efforts (though only speculation on my part).

The variety in length and scholarly sophistication is refreshing in this collection. Each entry deals with topics that are sadly as relevant today as they have been throughout America’s history.

Please keep talking Nell Painter, and we’ll keep listening.

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Martha Anne Toll is a D.C.-based writer and reviewer. Her debut novel, Three Muses , won the Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction and was shortlisted for the Gotham Book Prize. Her second novel, Duet for One , is due out May 2025.

• DOI: 10.1007/s11042-024-20070-9
• Corpus ID: 272387107

A TinyML model for sidewalk obstacle detection: aiding the blind and visually impaired people

• Ahmed Boussihmed , Khalid El Makkaoui , +2 authors Abdelaziz Chetouani
• Published in Multimedia tools and… 3 September 2024
• Engineering, Computer Science, Medicine

54 References

Spvinet: a lightweight multitask learning network for assisting visually impaired people in multiscene perception, multi-sensory learning framework for visually impaired learners: use of 3d, haptic, audio, olfactory media, innovative haptic-based system for upper limb rehabilitation in visually impaired individuals: a multilayer approach, a systematic review and applications of how ai evolved in healthcare, review of sensor-driven assistive device technologies for enhancing navigation for the visually impaired, clinical decision support system based on rst with machine learning for medical data classification, an aiot-based assistance system for visually impaired people, a comprehensive review on machine learning in healthcare industry: classification, restrictions, opportunities and challenges, a realtime portable and accessible aiding system for the blind – a cloud based approach, tinyml for ultra-low power ai and large scale iot deployments: a systematic review, related papers.

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Guest Essay

‘Slut-Shaming’ Isn’t the Only Reason People Blame Rape Victims

By Jillian Jordan and Roseanna Sommers

Dr. Jordan, a research psychologist, is an assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Dr. Sommers is a research psychologist and an assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan.

There’s a widespread belief that society has a default tendency to “blame the victim” — to minimize injustice by suggesting the injured party somehow deserved the harm. But psychological research has shown that people often perceive victims in the precisely opposite way: as being especially morally virtuous because of what they’ve endured.

In a 2021 study led by one of us (Dr. Jordan), the researchers asked participants to imagine a woman whose friend had stolen her iPad. People tended to see the woman as more moral and trustworthy than they did an identical woman who hadn’t been victimized. Notably, they did not grant the woman the same moral character boost when her iPad was destroyed in an earthquake. Only being the victim of wrongdoing cast a moral glow.

This “moral halo” effect has been observed for victims of all sorts of wrongdoing: theft, verbal abuse, medical misconduct. While it may seem irrational (isn’t it your own behavior that determines how moral you are?), the moral halo effect probably serves an important social function, making communities more likely to rally around victims and to punish their wrongdoers.

But there are certain situations in which people do seem more inclined to blame the victim. Perhaps the classic case is a rape that is preceded by consensual sexual activity like kissing or foreplay between the victim and the perpetrator. Here — even when the victim ultimately and unambiguously refuses consent — she is often seen as complicit in her assault.

“Slut-shaming” seems like an obvious explanation: When the victim is judged harshly for her consensual sexual activity, she may be seen as less moral and thus less deserving of support.

But in research published last month, we found that slut-shaming is not necessarily the main explanation for why people view the victims of such assaults less sympathetically. This finding has important implications for how society should educate people about rape.

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Love Is Blind 's Shaina Hurley Was Diagnosed with Cancer While 3 Months Pregnant: 'Nothing Was Going to Stop Me' (Exclusive)

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the 'Love Is Blind' star opens up publicly about how she confronted the news

Kirill Samarits

Shaina Hurley  was just a few months pregnant with her "miracle" baby when she got the news that would turn her world upside down: she had cervical cancer.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the  Love Is Blind  star opens up publicly about how she confronted the news — and how trusting her instincts helped her through a tumultuous pregnancy that ultimately resulted in the birth of her healthy baby boy.

As of June 2024, Hurley is cancer-free, telling PEOPLE, "I am on the other side now."

On the other side, and finally ready to tell her story.

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Hurley welcomed her first baby , a son named Yiorgos David, with husband  Christos Lardakis , on Monday, Feb. 1, she previously shared exclusively with PEOPLE. But the road to her delivery was a long one wrapped in joy, fear and uncertainty following a routine, eight-week pap smear.

"I had no symptoms," Hurley explains in a recent interview. "But later, the doctor called me and said the pap smear results had come back as abnormal and they needed to get me in for a colposcopy."

About a month later, she underwent the procedure, with a doctor telling her "right away, 'It's not looking good.'"

After the test was sent off to Northwestern, doctors were able to confirm one day later that she had Stage 2 cervical cancer.

"I felt the fear creeping in but I knew then and there, I can't let the enemy take over my mind. I can't go down that dark hole," Hurley says. "I had to go into survival mode and tell God, 'I trust you.' I just prayed for the best, at the end of the day."

Doctors were pressing Hurley to undergo a cold-knife conization, a procedure which would allow them to see how far the cancer had spread and to get rid of as much of it as they could.

But the procedure — which entails removing a cone-shaped piece of tissue from the cervix — came with risks.

"The problem is, I was pregnant. [The] cervix is what holds pregnancy. I was at just around three months and so I would most likely lose the baby," Hurley says. "At that point, I just couldn't risk it."

The next alternative, with Hurley at 22 weeks pregnant, was to perform a laparoscopic surgery to ensure the cancer had not spread to the lymph nodes.

"It hadn't spread to the lymph nodes but they were still wanting to do chemotherapy," Hurley says. "I still had no symptoms, so I did deny chemotherapy. It was hard for the doctors because I was their patient first. And I was a tough patient."

Shaina Hurley

Over the next few weeks, Hurley says she acted both as an advocate for herself and her baby, denying doctors when they suggested she deliver at 32 weeks, which would allow them to see if the cancer had changed or spread.

"I felt it was too early," she says. "I took the risk and pushed it to 37-and-a-half weeks and delivered a healthy baby boy."

And while her delivery was without any major complications, she says her friends and family were worried.

"I don't think my husband and I ever had stronger battles in our marriage," she says. "He wanted the baby but he would also say, 'Shaina, I don't want to lose my wife. I want you to be here to raise the baby.'"

She adds: "My faith and my strong will kicked in and there was no other way I was going to do it, We had a miscarriage before Yiorgos and so when I finally got a healthy pregnancy, nothing was going to stop me. But it did put a gray cloud over it."

While doctors did take biopsies during her C-section, Hurley wasn't out of the woods just yet. In fact, two weeks after she gave birth, she had a mini-stroke (TIA).

"I was feeding my son and my hands went numb and then it shot down the left side of my body. My face drooped, I wasn't making sense," she describes.

She recovered from the mini-stroke without any major side effects and then, four weeks later, she underwent the cold knife conization that doctors had been urging her to get for months — but it was unsuccessful.

"They did the surgery, waited two weeks, and it didn't work," Hurley says. "The cancer was still in there."

Six weeks later, she underwent another cold knife conization and, two weeks after that, received the words she had prayed for: "As of June, I'm finally cancer-free."

For the next few years, she will go to the doctor every three months for check-ups. "We have to wait a year officially from the last surgery, just to make sure my body is okay," she says, "but we do want more babies."

She continues: "For now, I'm focusing on being a mom and taking it day by day."

Part of that day-by-day includes reconnecting with old cast mates — like Love Is Blind season 3's Zanab Jaffrey, who recently visited Hurley in Chicago.

"I did kind of isolate myself to protect my own mental health but I opened up to Zanab and she's been checking up on me," Hurley says.

Hurley adds that she's purposely shied away from speaking about her cancer publicly, choosing instead to stay strong, and silent.

"My strength came from my relationship with the Lord," she says. "On this earth, we do suffer. But it's how we suffer that's the real test. If it wasn't for my relationship with God, I don't think I would have had the strength."

She adds that she wouldn't even say the word "cancer" during or after her pregnancy — until it was out of her body.

Now, though, she views the journey as one of strength. So much so that, in a gala that she and her husband are co-chairing on Nov. 2 , she'll deliver remarks about her cancer publicly.

"I'll be giving a speech with my testimony and we'll be raising money for more cancer research. It's a new journey for sure — a different life," she says. "And it made me stronger."

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A teacher caught students using ChatGPT on their first assignment to introduce themselves. Her post about it started a debate.

• A teacher's students ChatGPT for a simple introductory assignment in an ethics and technology class.
• Professor Megan Fritts shared her concerns on X, sparking debate on AI's role in education.
• Educators are divided on AI's impact, with some feeling it undermines critical thinking skills.

Professor Megan Fritts' first assignment to her students was what she considered an easy A: "Briefly introduce yourself and say what you're hoping to get out of this class."

Yet many of the students enrolled in her Ethics and Technology course decided to introduce themselves with ChatGPT .

"They all owned up to it, to their credit," Fritts told Business Insider. "But it was just really surprising to me that — what was supposed to be a kind of freebie in terms of assignments — even that they felt compelled to generate with an LLM."

When Fritts, an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, took her concern to X, formerly Twitter, in a tweet that has now garnered 3.5 million views, some replies argued that students would obviously combat " busywork " assignments with similarly low-effort AI-generated answers.

Second week of the semester and I've already had students use (and own up to using) ChatGPT to write their first assignment: "briefly introduce yourself and say what you're hoping to get out of this class". They are also using it to word the *questions they ask in class*. — Megan Fritts (@freganmitts) August 28, 2024

However, Fritts said that the assignment was not only to help students get acquainted with using the online  Blackboard  discussion board feature, but she was also "genuinely curious" about the introductory question.

"A lot of students who take philosophy classes, especially if they're not majors, don't really know what philosophy is," she said. "So I like to get an idea of what their expectations are so I can know how to respond to them."

The AI-written responses, however, did not reflect what the students, as individuals, were expecting from the course but rather a regurgitated description of what a technology ethics class is, which clued Fritts in that they were generated by ChatGPT or a similar chatbot.

"When you're a professor, and you've read dozens and dozens of AI essays, you can just tell," she said.

The calculator argument — why ChatGPT is not just another problem-solving tool

While a common defense permeating Fritts' replies likened ChatGPT for writing to a calculator for math problems, she said that viewing LLMs as just another problem-solving tool is a "mistaken" comparison, especially in the context of humanities.

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Calculators reduce the time needed to solve mechanical operations that students are already taught to produce a singular correct solution. But Fritts said that the aim of humanities education is not to create a product but to "shape people" by "giving them the ability to think about things that they wouldn't naturally be prompted to think about."

"The goal is to create liberated minds — liberated people — and offloading the thinking onto a machine, by definition, doesn't achieve that," she said.

Lasting impacts on students

Beyond cheating on papers, Fritts said that students have, in general, become compromised in their thinking ability — and they've noticed.

"They're like, 'When I was young, I used to love to read, and now I can't. I can't even get through the chapter of a book,'" she said. "'My attention span is so bad, and I know it's from looking at my phone, always having YouTube or TikTok on.' And they're sad about it."

Fritts said that technology addiction has affected students' general agency when interacting with information. She  cited a 2015 paper  by Professor Charles Harvey, chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Central Arkansas, which examines the effects that interactions with technology could have had on human agency and concentration.

Harvey wrote that two different eye-tracking experiments indicated that the vast majority of people skim online text quickly, "skipping down the page" rather than reading line by line. Deep reading of paper texts is being snipped into "even smaller, disconnected" thoughts.

"The new generations will not be experiencing this technology for the first time. They'll have grown up with it," Fritts said. "I think we can expect a lot of changes in the really foundational aspects of human agency, and I'm not convinced those changes are going to be good."

Teachers are getting tired

Fritts acknowledges that educators have some obligation to teach students how to use AI in a productive and edifying way. However, she said that placing the burden of fixing the cheating trend on scholars teaching AI literacy to students is "naive to the point of unbelievability."

"Let's not deceive ourselves that students are using AI because they're just so siked about the new tech, and they're not sure of what the right way to use it in the classroom," Fritts said.

"And I'm not trying to slam them," she added. "All of us are inclined to take measures to make things easier for us."

But Fritts also feels just as "pessimistic" about the alternative solution — educators and institutions forming a "united front" in keeping AI out of the classroom.

"Which isn't going to happen because so many educators are now fueled by sentiments from university administration," Fritts said. "They're being encouraged to incorporate this into the curriculum."

At least 22 state departments of education have released official guidelines for AI use in schools, The Information recently reported . A 2024 survey by EdWeek Research Center found that 56% of over 900 educators anticipated AI use to rise. And some are excited for it.

Curby Alexander, an associate education professor at Texas Christian University, previously told BI that he uses AI to help brainstorm ideas and develop case studies "without taking up a lot of class time."

ASU's Anna Cunningham, a Dean's Fellow, and Joel Nishimura, an associate professor in the Mathematical and Natural Sciences department, wrote  an op-ed  encouraging having students teach ChatGPT agents with programmed misunderstandings.

"With this, we are on the cusp of being able to give all students as many opportunities as they want to learn by teaching," they wrote.

OpenAI even partnered with Arizona State University to offer students and faculty full access to ChatGPT Enterprise for tutoring, coursework, research, and more.

However, many educators remain skeptical. Some professors have even reverted back to pen and paper to combat ChatGPT usage, but Fritts said many are tired of trying to fight the seemingly inevitable. And students are left in the middle of education and AI's love-hate relationship.

"I think it, understandably, creates a lot of confusion and makes them feel like the professors who are saying 'Absolutely not' are maybe philistines or behind the times or unnecessarily strict," Fritts said.

Fritts is not the only professor voicing concerns about AI use among students. In a Reddit thread titled " ChatGPT: It's getting worse ," several users who identified as professors lamented increased AI usage in classrooms, especially in online courses. One commented, "This is one reason I'm genuinely considering leaving academia."

A professor in another post that received over 600 upvotes said that ChatGPT was "ruining" their love of teaching. "The students are no longer interpreting a text, they're just giving me this automated verbiage," they wrote. "Grading it as if they wrote it makes me feel complicit. I'm honestly despairing."

Watch: What is ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of AI chatbots?

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