Entering the World of the Blind

Over this past year I have walked closely with a young man that has lost his eyesight. His name is Jason.

I was there the day that it happened. He woke one Saturday morning with no vision. Then, during the course of the year, vision was limited to small amounts of light at the perimeter of his eyes. Finally one eye lost all vision and the other has a very small amount of light and dark recognition. Jason is a diabetic that faces many challenges.

Pausing here to say, Jason doesn’t look for sympathy, he is amazing. His attitude is ready for anything that he faces.

Yesterday I watched, with great appreciation, as he took his first computer training class. Together we sat and listened to a very capable instructor “show us” the great things that Jason’s new computer will do. And Jason is one of the most amazing students that I have had the opportunity to work with. His new instructor said the same about him as well.

With his new machine Jason can read and write. He has now applied to a College for the Blind and expects to finally become a Social Worker some day.

I believe he will do it. In fact I know he will.

Jason’s world is a dark one in our terms of reference as seeing people. However, in his terms he can see everything. I have entered the Blind World with him and it is amazing what you can see when you try to do it Jason’s way. As the instructor talked to us we both discovered amazing things that the new computer could do.

After three hours of this kind of “seeing” I was exhausted but so delighted at what I had learned. Jason called later to ask how I thought he had done in the first session together. He was so excited about the new things that he had picked up in our time together. I was humbled by his ability.

Thank you Jason for letting me be apart of your world.