If there’s one thing we can probably all agree on, it’s that 2020 has been an objectively bad year. However, one silver lining has been that I’ve had far more time to read than I anticipated. I was supposed to start postgraduate study in September, however due to the Coronavirus pandemic my start date was…
The Truth Is: You’ll Never Be The Perfect Blind Person
I’m a perfectionist. I look at my completed work and feel irritated and disappointed because it’s never quite good enough. No matter how much time I spend refining a piece of writing or carefully preparing presentation notes, the outcome can never live up to my expectations. I’m also a control freak, so handing over responsibility…
It’s Okay to be My Authentic Self
I’ve been blogging for almost ten years. Writing that down feels a bit scary, especially because I’m not sure how much I have to show for it. I started this blog because I was a confused, unhappy seventeen-year-old. It was fuelled by teen angst and the need for other people to understand just what I…
Guest Post: Top Ten Things Sighted People Never Tell Us About Kissing
This post was submitted to the blog by Caitlin Hernandez. As a totally blind high schooler, I read every online “How To Kiss” article I could find. I lived in terror that, one day, I’d find myself with a partner and they’d laugh, the way my peers often laughed at my choreography. Articles assume, not…
Teachers Change Lives
I’m pretty critical of the education system. I’m pretty critical about everything actually, I’m just that kind of person. Despite this, I look back at my experiences in school very fondly. I am able to do this because I was fortunate enough to have so many wonderful teachers who shaped my life in different ways….
Stop Taking Our Canes Away
This blog post is essentially an expansion of a very long thread about cane travel which I wrote on Twitter. Feel free to check out and engage with the original thread, though much of the content is the same. Cane travel, or orientation and mobility instructors, are tasked with the job of teaching blind people…
Not Every Student Learns the Same way. We Need to Normalise this Difference
I often find myself saying “I failed my A-levels,” when what I actually mean is I got two c’s at a2 history and politics and a B in AS sociology. I also didn’t do well in English literature, psychology or economics. I took so many classes because I started year 12 with four subjects, English…
Is Your Awareness Accessible? A Study of Content Posted on Twitter for Blindness Awareness Month
Introduction At the beginning of Blindness Awareness Month, which took place during October, I was left feeling frustrated and disheartened by the high level of inaccessible blindness content I saw being posted online. Each year it seems I speak out about the problem of inaccessibility within blindness spaces and every time I’m told it can’t…
Sharing Posts for Blindness Awareness Month Might Make You Feel Good, But Where is the Meaningful Change?
October is blindness awareness month, or so countless posts over on Facebook tell me. I forget about it for the most part, until I’m reminded by organisations who want me to support their campaigns, and friends and family who ask me to share their posts. I have come to the conclusion, after years of sharing…
I’m not sure any of us are ok, maybe all we can do is say it out loud
I keep a journal. Sometimes I write in it multiple times a day for weeks on end and then I don’t write at all for a month. But I keep it in some form. I’m sharing some of what I wrote in my journal today because even though it’s not happy or reassuring, maybe somehow…