Today, my teacher told me an uplifting story that I thought I would share here. My teacher knows someone who has been blind since he was a baby. He wasn't born blind, but he was born premature and only weighed two pounds. Now this is back in 1953 when doctors didn't know what to do with a two-pound baby. So they put him into an incubator. Unfortunately, the oxygen level in the incubator was so high that it burnt his retinas and so the boy was able to see for a day and was blind for the rest of his life. This person, however, did not consider himself disabled. Having grown up blind, he adapted to it very well. He does not use a seeing-eye dog, just a walking stick, and he counts his steps so he knows where to go. Sometimes, he'll still walk into the wrong house, but he just asks people where he is so there's no problem there. He also makes very good money working at the Social Security Administration and even learned how to drive. Seriously, he'll just say, "Let's go to the movies!" and then proceed to drive everyone to the movies.
This man ended up marrying a blind woman. Now the woman did not grow up blind, but gradually began losing her sight when she was a teenager. She became completely blind at the age of sixteen and, unlike her husband, considered herself disabled. She was not used to being blind and it was not until a year later, when she got a seeing-eye dog, that her disability "disappeared." The assistance of a seeing-eye dog opened up a whole new world to her and now she gets around very well.
The interesting thing about this couple is that their first children were a set of twins. Who were sighted. It must have been a very interesting household for two blind parents to raise two children who could see. Of course, they had lots of help from their social support group, but they tapped into their creativity as well. For example, they tied bells onto the shoes of the children so they could tell where the children were located in the house at all times. Simple, elegant, and practical.
That story was just so uplifting for me to hear. I love that the people who are often termed "disabled" aren't really disabled at all, and live very fulfilling, well-rounded lives. It's a great testament to the human spirit and human ability.
This man ended up marrying a blind woman. Now the woman did not grow up blind, but gradually began losing her sight when she was a teenager. She became completely blind at the age of sixteen and, unlike her husband, considered herself disabled. She was not used to being blind and it was not until a year later, when she got a seeing-eye dog, that her disability "disappeared." The assistance of a seeing-eye dog opened up a whole new world to her and now she gets around very well.
The interesting thing about this couple is that their first children were a set of twins. Who were sighted. It must have been a very interesting household for two blind parents to raise two children who could see. Of course, they had lots of help from their social support group, but they tapped into their creativity as well. For example, they tied bells onto the shoes of the children so they could tell where the children were located in the house at all times. Simple, elegant, and practical.
That story was just so uplifting for me to hear. I love that the people who are often termed "disabled" aren't really disabled at all, and live very fulfilling, well-rounded lives. It's a great testament to the human spirit and human ability.
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