The Whole Truth About Partial Sight

The Whole Truth About Partial Sight

Future Reflections Spring 1999, Vol. 18 No. 1
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The Whole Truth
About Partial Sight
by Christine Faltz

Reprinted from the December, 1998, Braille Monitor, the monthly publication of the National Federation
of the Blind.The article was originally published in the Steppingstone, the newsletter of the Long Island
Parents of Blind Children.
From the Editor: As the
blind mother of a little girl who is also blind, Christine is especially interested
in blindness issues and the challenges of raising a blind child to be a normal
kid. Here is an article she wrote last summer:
As President
of the Long Island Chapter of Parents of Blind Children, I am often contacted
by parents in search of resources and information for their children. While
I have been aware for some time that blind people with usable residual vision
face special problems, I am becoming increasingly conscious of the many negative
consequences of the mainstream handling of partially sighted people.
Let me be clear.
I am not overly concerned with the individual whose residual vision allows him
or her to perform most of life’s tasks with age-appropriate skill and efficiency.
If a legally blind or low-vision child is using regular print or large type
without magnification and without fatigue and pain, and if he or she can travel
independently and safely in unfamiliar areas, the alternative techniques of
blindness may well not be necessary. However, when I hear that a child cannot
read efficiently without magnification and that inability to keep up with assignments
in school is accepted as a natural consequence of visual difficulties, I am
deeply troubled by the culture of denial, fear and misinformation which will
ultimately result in a young person ill-equipped for college, employment, or
community involvement.
Why do teachers,
eye-care specialists, and some parents choose to ignore the overwhelming evidence
that a blind person without proficient Braille and independent mobility
skills is significantly less likely to become gainfully employed? How could
an efficient reading system, such as Braille and a safe, effective travel tool
like the white cane, engender mistrust and fear so intimidating and distasteful
that thousands of men and women are robbed of the chance to take advantage of
their full potential, growing to believe that it is normal for them to be slow,
inefficient, uncomfortable, and in need of extraordinary accommodations? What
about their inability to read to their children—if indeed they have the
self-esteem and wherewithal to create a family—and their avoidance
of socializing except in familiar areas because they cannot travel independently?
Part of the
problem lies in the definition of legal blindness. There are many people who
are functionally blind, despite having visual acuity above that of legal blindness.
Another complication is society’s fear of anything it doesn’t understand.
I often hear “This is a difficult age” or “I tried Braille with
him; he didn’t want any part of it.” A teen-ager who refuses cane
instruction because he or she will look different is going to progress from
a difficult age to a difficult life of dependency and inability to experience
the full range of possibilities for employment and recreation because he or
she cannot go wherever the best job interview or the best party is. Is it better
to rely on your friends, dates, and colleagues to get you around, or is it better
to be a competent, confident traveler, eventually practically oblivious to your
travel tool as it becomes a part of you?
When a child
resists learning math because it seems too difficult or because there
is something more fun to do at the moment, we don’t give in; we should
treat students who don’t like learning Braille the same way. It is often
difficult for parents to envision their children as adults, and it is common
to have the not- my-child attitude—after all, if you act as if your
child can do anything despite being afflicted with pesky visual problems, won’t
he or she have the confidence to persevere and succeed? You bet!—Assuming
that child is also equipped with the necessary tools to put such values into
practice. You can tell the child of a broken home who attends a poor school
in a dangerous neighborhood that with belief in oneself one can surmount any
personal obstacles. But if his or her performance is not commensurate
with inherent ability and if a lackluster performance pronounced to be
“just fine” and “all one can expect from someone in such a situation,”
where will all those fine words and good intentions get the student?
It is not acceptable
for a child with poor vision to skate by, depending on special allowances and
privileges, if he or she is capable of age-appropriate work. A child who is
functionally blind and has average to above-average intelligence and no complicating
disabilities should be handing in school assignments with everyone else; should
not be fatigued by reading, and should be completing reading assignments along
with sighted classmates. A child who struggles valiantly to keep excellent grades,
suffering with eyestrain and headaches, spending inordinate amounts of time
on homework, relying on parents, siblings, or classmates to read to him; unable
to read the notes and papers she writes—is not amazing or extraordinary
for all those unnecessary, Herculean efforts. That child is a casualty of fear
and ignorance, someone losing out on extracurricular and other social activities,
someone whose belief in his or her supposed self-worth and equality is being
challenged at every level. The lack of normal vision will never be a nuisance,
an inconvenience to this person: it will be a lifelong social and employment
handicap, a source of increasing frustration and resentment—a recipe for
failure at worst and of untapped potential at best.
Parents and
teachers must look beyond the here and now. When they are gone, their children
and students must be able to live, not merely survive, on their own. Their lives
should not be peppered with “If onlys” and “What ifs.” They
should not grow up with the notion that there was nothing more anyone could
have done to give them opportunities equal to those available to their sighted
peers. Any skill which has the slightest chance of easing their way should be
developed in them while they are young. Shouldn’t a disabled child be given
every reasonable chance to be fully equal, fully independent, a fully contributing,
first-class citizen? Legally blind, low vision, partially sighted, practically
blind—the lexicon of political correctness, euphemisms, and denial marches
on. If your child is not capable of age-appropriate work and play, vision problems
by themselves are no excuse. ‘Partial sight’ should not be allowed
to result in a partial life.
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