How my visual impairment is shaping my future

Being blind all of my life means that I don’t know any different, I don’t know what it’s like to experience the world with some useful vision and I have no idea what the world is like from a sighted person’s point of view, I can only paint a picture in my head.

 

In some ways, my visual impairment has had such a huge impact on my life and is definitely shaping my future, but in other ways, not so much. I want to talk about how it’s shaping my future and why believe it or not, that’s not such a bad thing.

 

When I was younger, I didn’t really embrace my disability, but as I got older, my view of my visual impairment changed, and I was no longer that shy little girl.

 

I am beyond grateful to the people that took me under their wing and looked beyond my disability, they got to know me for who I am. Those special people have never stopped believing in me when I found it so hard to believe in myself, they encourage me to not let my disability be a barrier and that has helped shape the view that I have on my visual impairment now.

I can also thank those that didn’t believe in me, people who wouldn’t accommodate me in order for me to succeed and thrive in education, it taught me a lot about fighting for my rights and what I’m entitled to. Also, to those people that thought it ‘wasn’t cool to be friends with the blind girl’ and those that didn’t understand me or my disability. I have learnt so much from all of this. It was almost inevitable that my path wasn’t going to be easy, but it could have been made so much easier.

 

You may be wondering, what has all of this got to do with the way in which your disability is shaping your future? Well it has a lot to do with it. Without all of this and my past experiences, I wouldn’t have the view of my disability that I have now, and I don’t know if I would be where I am today.

 

So how is my disability shaping my future?

My visual impairment isn’t the only thing that defines me and I’m more than my disability, but there’s no denying that it’s shaping my future in many ways, and you know what? I’m ok with that.

Being registered as blind (severely sight impaired) and having no useful vision impacts my life in various ways and it is the main aspect of many things that I do on a daily basis, from getting around, to using assistive technology to enable me to do my job, making myself lunch and educating people on sight loss.

I’m going to break things down a bit and give you an insight as to how my visual impairment is shaping my future in a few ways.

 

Career

If I didn’t have a visual impairment then I wouldn’t be able to do my current job, I work as an Assistive Technology Advisor so I doubt I would have this knowledge if I was fully sighted. Obviously there are people who do this role that are fully sighted, but I feel like my visual impairment puts me at an advantage in some ways because I’ve had a reason to learn much of the technology because I use it on a daily basis.

 

I don’t know where my career will lead to next, but what I do know is that I want to continue working with disabled people. Having a visual impairment has no doubt been the main influence for this career path, I want to help other disabled people and for them to realise their full potential. Would I have wanted to work with disabled people if I was fully sighted? I can’t answer that question, but I most definitely wouldn’t have had such a strong connection and motivation to work in this field. I couldn’t imagine myself working in a job that doesn’t relate to disability somehow, not at the moment anyway.

 

My visual impairment also made me realise that I couldn’t see myself as being a teacher, although I loved the idea of the job, I knew that there would have been a huge amount of hurdles that I would have had to jumped through in order to get the qualification and let alone teach, a ton of adaptions that would have needed to be put in place and my disability would have very much been the main focus of this profession, even when it didn’t need to be. I’m not afraid of hard work or proving myself and my capabilities, that was not what put me off a career as a teacher, I just knew that that wasn’t for me.

 

My disability will also play a role in the future jobs that I do. There are some jobs that I simply can’t do because of my visual impairment so I may not have as much of a wider choice like sighted people, but there is still a long list of jobs that I can do and it doesn’t bother me that I can’t do your typical jobs such as working in a cafe or a shop.

I don’t think it comes as a surprise to you that my disability will play a vital role in my future career path.

 

Independence

It’s no secret that independence was something that I struggled with when I was younger, and that was all because of my disability. Those struggles gave me the determination and motivation to turn it all around, I look back at the negative thoughts that I had about using a long cane and wonder why I had them and question why I used to get myself so worked up. Fast forward a few years later and I couldn’t imagine my life without using my long cane now, it’s given me so much independence and freedom.

 

Looking towards the future, I’m hoping to get a guide dog which will hopefully enhance my independence even further. I think it’s a given that my disability is shaping my future in terms of independence.

 

Independence is key in so many aspects of life, I’m sure my disability will prove that to me along the way in the future.

 

Taking the next steps

This could mean anything from getting a new job, to moving out, visiting new places or something smaller like trying something for the first time. Whatever steps I take in the future, many of them will involve my disability in one way or another, I may need adaptions or assistance in order for me to reach the next level in whatever that may be. There is no reason why I can’t do all of these things even though I’m blind, it’s all about knowing what adaptions I may need but also finding the balance between that and being independent.

 

The people I surround myself with

I’m very lucky to have amazing people in my life who see me for who I really am and look beyond my disability. I’m surrounded by a group of caring, understanding and amazing individuals who I couldn’t imagine my life without.

Having a disability means that I often meet people who are ignorant, rude and don’t understand that disabled people are humans and have feelings as well. I will never surround myself with that sort of people, because that’s not me.

My visual impairment means that I get to know people for who they really are, and that will always be the case.

 

Blogging

If I didn’t have a visual impairment then my blog wouldn’t be what it is today, Life of a Blind Girl most certainly wouldn’t exist. If I was sighted, I may have started a blog to discuss other things and share my interests such as music, beauty and fashion, but it wouldn’t be centred around disability. Therefore, I wouldn’t be known as a disability blogger.

I have no idea what’s in store for me and my blog in the future, but what I do know is that my blog will always be focused on disability and my experiences of living with a visual impairment.

I’ve had some fantastic blogging opportunities over the last four years and I really hope these continue, I’m determined to expand my portfolio. But not only that, I want to continue to help people through my writing.

In the future I’d really like to write for publications, do some more radio interviews and be on a podcast discussing all things disability and visual impairment. If I didn’t have a visual impairment, then I wouldn’t have these goals and aspirations.

 

Campaigning for change

One saying that you often see popping up in my blog posts is that we “live in a predominantly sighted world” and that’s because I believe we do; the world wasn’t exactly made for disabled people. There are many barriers and constant issues with accessibility and inclusion to name a few. I’m aware of the issues disabled people face because I have first-hand experience of them, from not being able to access websites, to having endless problems with passenger assistance, to fighting for my rights in education, I’ve been through the mill with it all and continue to do so.

Having all of these experiences has made me want to campaign for change which is something that I try to do, whether this is getting involved in campaigns by organisations and charities, signing petitions, writing to my local MP or speaking out about my experiences, campaigning for change for disabled people is something that I do because I’m passionate about it.

This is something that I hope to do more of in the future and my disability is the reason why I’m so passionate.

 

There’s no doubt about it, my disability has a huge impact on my life and many aspects of it are shaping my future. However, my disability isn’t the only thing that defines me, my visual impairment is one of the many aspects that makes me who I am.

 

My disability is shaping my future in many ways – in terms of fighting for accessibility, inclusion and change but not only that, it’s making me strive for what I want and gives me the determination to achieve my goals.

Many people may see a disability having an impact on a person’s future as something negative but for me, it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I do wish that I could drive and do some of the things that sighted people can do, but I try not to dwell on those thoughts too much.

 

My past experiences have also played a part, the ignorance of others, the rejection, the painful times in education, the assumptions and lack of understanding have all contributed to how I view my disability today which is shaping my future.

Not only this, my disability has given me the passion to educate people and help others, it’s also given me a desire to be more influential in the future. It has taught me so much about life, about myself and the world around us.

 

I don’t know how much my disability will shape my future, only time will tell, but whatever impact it has, I’m ok with it.

 

My visual impairment isn’t just a disability to me, it’s a door to learning unique skills, a way of educating sighted folk, a chance to tackle common misconceptions surrounding sight loss and disability, a chance to try new things, a way of experiencing the world from a different perspective and the opportunity to help others in any way I can. If all of these things have an impact on my future, then it’ll hopefully be a bright one full of opportunities and the chance to succeed.

 

Do you think your disability is shaping your future? If so, how? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to know your thoughts.

Holly x