The following post relates to the above picture that was shared numerous times on social media which questioned if the lady was indeed visually impaired
What you see when you can’t see?
You see a blurred picture apparently showing a woman walking with a white cane in one hand and a phone in another. You see blurry squiggles on the laptop screen that the narrator reads out to you. You see the images from the spoken word forming in your mind and creating the picture that everyone is talking about. You see the innocence of the woman walking along carrying on with her life unaware that she is being watched. You see the courage that she has taken to learn the new skill of walking with a cane through mobility training that she now must use to carry on living independently. You see that now she uses a white cane; her disability is on display for others to judge.
You see that that the person who posted this did not do so out of kindness but out of ignorance. You see the person who did this has enough functional vision to be able to judge in appearance without a care about the persons feelings. You see that the person who posted this image on social media to entice others to join in the judgement does not understand the impact of doing such things has on people. You see the negative comments that people make is just an insensitive epidemic that could do with some educating in certain areas.
You see people’s emotions getting hurt when they talk about things that they know very little about. You see people hating on the haters instead of helping them think in different ways. You see people who once judged on appearance now listen to knowledge that they did not know and change from judgement to acceptance. You see sighted people understand what it is like to live with sight loss and that they too can use technology designed for people who aren’t blessed with perfect vision.
You see people from both the sighted and insightful communities coming together to talk about what sight loss is and what it isn’t.
You see separation change to oneness when people whether sighted or with sight loss learn to see each other as more than the labels that they carry around with them. You see that people begin to feel more open talking about the world that they know little about. You see that when knowledge becomes power then ignorance becomes obsolete. You see that the picture that was taken said everything about the misunderstanding of what sight loss is and nothing about the courageous woman pictured who could teach many a thing or two about living life successfully.
Sometimes it is easier to see the true beauty in life when you use more than your eyes to see.
