Blind Spot

 The short answer is no, but then I cannot speak for all blind people, just myself, it is entirely possible that there is someone out there with Daredevil-like super-senses but alas, that person is not me. However the long answer to this question is still no, but also, maybe?

This is one of those questions that comes up more often than just about any other question, when it comes to blindness. I am not sure from where the myth originated, but it sure is widespread today. Movies, books, and other forms of popular media have certainly spread it far and wide. The aforementioned Marvel superhero Daredevil is a blind lawyer by day and vigilante hero by night. His powers were granted to him in the same accident that cost him his sight and these include super hearing and a sonar-like ability that allows him to essentially “see” but with sound. Unfortunately, I lost my eyesight to boring glaucoma and retinal detachments so I get no cool superpowers. What I do have, is what I like to refer to as, a different level of perception from most sighted people.

I have heard other blind people say this as well, so I know I am not alone in feeling this way. I perceive things differently because I have to use the senses that I do have differently than the sighted. I definitely do not have super-hearing, my wife will tell anyone who will listen about this fact. But, when out for a walk in the city, I hear things that she doesn’t pick up on. I also smell things before she does and she has a fantastic sniffer. In those situations, my senses are working harder to pick up on details to add to my awareness of the space that I am in. 

I have found this to be especially true when using my mobility cane. The cane helps protect me from dangers like running into a mailbox or falling off of a curb. Imagine going through life always looking down and being afraid of falling. Using the mobility cane, I noticed that I was able to look up, wasn’t afraid of falling but also noticed that my other senses were heightened. I think it is so cool how this works and see this as a sign of how we were made by God, with overlapping systems that kick in when certain parts do not work as well. I actually feel that I appreciate the space that I am experiencing more now than I ever did when I could see better. The world really is a beautiful and an interesting place, even if you can’t see it.

Now, I need to find a source of radioactive isotopes that will grant me superpowers like Daredevil.

I Am Blind. I have been for most of my life in fact. But, according to some, I am not blind, but something else. Perhaps blind-ish? Visually-impaired? Vision deficient? 

What I have come to realize, after a lifetime of dealing with my low-vision and others perceptions of it, is that blindness, like so many disabilities, is on a spectrum. While I am not completely blind, I do see some out of one eye, I do easily meet the standards for being labeled legally blind. Yay for me! 

Unfortunately, the English language doesn’t really offer much in the way of distinction between partial blindness, mostly blind, and total blindness. You either are, or you are not. Many people that have normal vision really struggle with understanding this, which leads to awkward looks and even more awkward conversations.

“So, how blind are you?” Um, I don’t know what to compare it to.

“How do you do the work that you do if you are blind?” Quite well, thank you very much.

“I see your white cane, let me step in here and help you out since you obviously can’t see.” (This isn’t said out loud but definitely happens.)

Or, alternatively, this was overheard by my wife while at a Texas Rangers game in 2021. “Look at that cane. I bet he doesn’t even need it.”

People want so badly for my disability to fit within what they are comfortable with. They want it to fit neatly into a binary choice, between one group and another. Trust me, I understand. I have struggled with how to identify myself for most of my life. I have shied away from accepting the label of “blind” and the accompanying stigmas until very recently. It was a matter of pridefulness, that kept me from truly accepting what has been true for decades. I am blind. Now I can move forward with finding how to live my life in the best, most fulfilling way possible, as a blind human. 

Now, in regards to how you feel about it, well, it does not really matter to me. If you see me with my cane, just know that I use it for my own benefit, to help me to get around more confidently and safely. Can I still see the cars whizzing by, yes, I can. But the cracks, curbs, and potholes, not always. So, I choose to use the cane, accept the odd looks and the muttered comments, and I will continue on my blind way. 

“You deserve to take up space, just like everyone else.”

I heard this said on a podcast that I was listening to the other day. The podcast is called Be My Eyes. It is produced by the folks behind the Be My Eyes app. This app is used to connect the blind with volunteers who provide all types of assistance such as reading labels, giving directions, and all manner of other tasks. In this particular episode, a number of blind and visually-impaired people were asked about how they shop for groceries. One of the people interviewed mentioned that she often felt shame when asking for help, from employees at the store. Her husband told her the above quote. She said that he was telling her “that it’s okay to ask the store employees for help because that is what they are there for. That everyone asks the employees for help from time to time and they do not feel bad about it, so neither should you, just because you need a bit more sometimes.”

This really resonated with me and made me think about how often shame, is tied to disability.

This shame is often tied to pride, as in, we do not want to be seen as less than others who are not disabled. However, the shame also comes from how we are treated by others, who do not have a disability. There is a real lack of awareness and understanding that we really just want to be seen as people, not as people that are broken in some way. Do we need assistance sometimes? Yes, we do. But so does just about everyone else at one time or another. In fact, as America ages, more and more people are going to need more help than “normal” people.

We live in a world that just, is not very friendly to those of us with blindness or other disabilities. The vast majority of people have probably never known someone that is blind or had the opportunity to interact with them. It is not that we don’t exist in large numbers. In fact, research shows that there are at least 1.5 million Americans who are blind or severely visually impaired. However, 90% of them do not use a cane or guide dog to get around in public. This means, they are relying solely upon a person to guide them, or more likely, they are not leaving the house very often at all.

We need to get out of the house and experience life outside of those four walls. We need to start adding things back to our lives like hobbies and experiences rather than continuing to strip more and more things away due to our fear and a misplaced sense of shame.

We can do better. We deserve better. We deserve to take up space, just like everyone else.

The Apple iPad. There really has not been anything like it since its introduction in 2010. When it was first announced, I was genuinely excited about it. I was excited to the extent that I went to Best Buy and waited for the store to open to get one of the very first ones sold in my town. The idea of a highly portable device that could run apps and play all sorts of media while fitting comfortably in my hands while sitting on the couch was just irresistible to me. I loved that iPad. I still own that iPad. It sits in a drawer, unused for years but I just can’t bring myself to get rid of it because it was one of the rare times where the hype was matched by the product. 

One of the reasons why I loved that iPad and many since is that as a visually impaired user, the iPad just worked for me. Very early on, Apple’s built-in accessibility features like Magnifier and VoiceOver, and was built in at the operating system level, not just tacked on top where it wouldn’t run as well. Apple has also continued to develop and better integrate these features into new versions of the software.

I currently own a 2018 12.9 inch iPad Pro and an 8th generation of the basic 10.2 inch iPad. I use the smaller one for reading comics since I can zoom way in on that lovely screen, along with reading some magazines, articles from my Pocket saves, and Kindle eBooks. The larger iPad Pro is my daily device for entertainment, mostly watching videos on YouTube or Netflix, creating blog posts, and doing research. I use an Apple Pencil with both devices for taking notes at church, or at work to track what I am doing. 

Accessibility has always seemed like a priority to Apple, and as a result, these devices do accessibility better than any other manufacturer in my experience. I have tried them all. Whether it was Android tablets and phones or even Microsoft Windows systems, running either native or 3rd party software for narration, dictation, and magnification, Apple devices just do it better. 

Lest you think I am some kind of Apple fanboy that only uses Apple devices, know that my current phone is a OnePlus 7 Pro which runs Android and my PCs are mostly Windows machines with both a Chromebook and an iMac in regular use as well. I have only owned an iPhone once and that was for about a year before switching back to Android. I have explored accessibility features deeply with each. In the past, I have also owned numerous other tablets including Samsung Galaxy devices and Amazon Fire tablets. I have tried them all. I very much appreciate that these accessibility features exist across the board now, regardless of manufacturer or software, but in my opinion, Apple has implemented them the best.

How Do I Use Accessibility Features

With how my sight is, the magnification feature, or Zoom as it is referred to on Apple devices, is the feature that I use the most. It is a simple double-tap with three fingers and the full-screen zoom is engaged. It is very easy to scroll around or to increase/decrease the amount of zoom. My favorite part of the way Apple has done magnification from day one is how smoothly it zooms in and out based on your finger gestures. This is not how it has always worked on other devices. In fact, in the current iteration of Windows 10, the magnification function stutters in and stutters out. The smallest increment is to zoom in/out at 5% increments rather than just a smooth in and out. It is jarring and frankly, makes me not want to use it. 

Occasionally, I want my iPad to audibly read an article or some other text to me. I only have to swipe down with two fingers and VoiceOver begins to read to me. The narration is not perfect and does still sound like a robot reading to you, but it is far superior sounding to the other options. 

These two features are the main ones that I use regularly, and I use them so much that they have become second nature to me. 

Conclusion

Google’s Android has been playing catch up from the beginning and its implementation has been getting better and better. The gestures are slightly different but largely work the same way now as Apple’s. However, I really dislike how , they place an orange box around the edges of the zoomed-in area when magnification is enabled. It is distracting and unnecessary. I am sure that it is there to show that the magnifier is enabled but that is pretty obvious already since the screen is magnified. 

I don’t even touch on all the other accessibility features that the iPad offers. There are software adjustments that can be made to make these devices better suited to those with all sorts of disabilities. I sincerely appreciate all of the work being done behind the scenes to iterate and improve on these features.

Apple has shown its commitment to the visually-impaired community from day one with its iPad devices and they continue to lead the pack. Their devices are beautiful, well-built, and aesthetically pleasing all while delivering market-leading apps and features. Additionally, these devices last a very long time and get important updates for years after other manufacturers stop. If you can’t tell, I love them and will never be without at least one.

contrast \ ˈkän-ˌtrast: degree of difference between the lightest and darkest parts of a picture

What a simple term “contrast” is. Yet, as a highly visually impaired person, this simple thing can make a tremendous difference in my day-to-day life. Whether it be spotting a white bathroom door on a white wall in a dimly lit corridor or pouring hot coffee into a dark cup, the contrast matters. Some of these things are within my power to control. Such as choosing a light coffee cup to contrast with the dark liquid. However, I have no control over color and lighting choices made by others out in the bigger world. That is what this post is about. Simple design choices can make a world of difference for the visually impaired. 

Like most people that are considered blind, but can see a little, I am often faced with trying to distinguish between similar color shades and it is nearly always frustrating and difficult. As in the example mentioned above, trying to locate a bathroom door that is essentially the same color as the wall that is around it. Why not paint the door a contrasting color?  It would be impossible for me to tell you how many times I have walked into doors and walls, embarrassing myself and often causing some level of pain, just because I couldn’t quite find the door. A dark wall with a light door or a light wall with a dark door. Either way works for me and it takes no more effort and likely, no additional cost, on the part of the person that designed that space. 

What about walls and floors? Why are these so often the same colors in restrooms? Seriously. Once I stumble through the door I couldn’t see, I am faced with a landscape of sameness. Hello, the wall that I just ran into because it is the same color as everything else. Where is your sink that is also the same color? In these cases, I am thankful that the soap and towel dispensers are usually contrasting shades because I can usually spot those and that tells me where the sink could be. Why do they make this so difficult?

On a side note, because I love side notes, what are “public spaces?” My definition would be places where people commonly go in public. This might include restaurants, gyms, sporting/concert venues, and movie theaters. These are all places that I love to go to, even as someone who is blind. Blind people like to go out and have fun too. I do find that the vast majority of them are not friendly to people with limited sight. 

While we are on the subject, maybe consider adding some additional or better lighting to your public spaces. A well-lit space is more inviting, easier to navigate, and makes a big difference for most people with visual impairment. Why are restaurants always so dark? Why should I have to use my flashlight on my phone to read the menu? Why are movie theater hallways so dimly lit? Do we need “mood lighting” in these hallways? 

Let me make this clear. I do not expect the world to conform to meet all of my needs. However, I do think that many people would benefit from making some small adjustments in design to the spaces that we all visit. Whether you are blind, aging, or simply have tired eyes, more contrast really can help.

Driving a car. Such a simple, modern convenience. Driving is probably something most all of you do daily. You most likely drove somewhere even today, to work, school or even to get groceries or to hit a drive-through for dinner. I, on the other hand, have not driven a car in seventeen years. Do I miss it? Yep. I miss the freedom that it brought and the independence that it gave me. Unfortunately, with my low-vision, it just got to the point where it wasn’t safe for me to keep driving. I chose to give it up, soon after getting married. Now, I am completely reliant on others for vehicular transportation and to be honest, it stinks.

Then, I begin hearing news about major advancements in self-driving cars a few years back. What’s that you say? Cars that drive themselves and their passengers, places, a la the cars in the iRobot movie starring will Smith? Color me interested. And so I have waited, not so patiently. Numerous companies are doing live tests in urban environments. Tesla Motors is even offering auto-pilot features in certain driving situations.

But no one has rolled out a full, self-driving car yet. I want my Jetsons’ car and I want it sooner, not later. I always hear folks that drive say that they love the act of driving and would never give that up to a computer. Not me! I can’t wait for my robot-driving overlord to ferry me places. I can’t imagine what that feeling of freedom would feel like again. Plus, if my robot driver almost hits a pedestrian, I probably wouldn’t even notice. Since I don’t see that well anyway, thus the point of the robot driver in the first place.

So, let’s go Apple, Google, Tesla, or whoever gets there first. I will be first in line. If I can get someone to drive me to the line, that is.

With a family of six to feed, clothe and keep healthy, we visit the local supermarket, natural food grocer or Wal-Mart about four times a week on average. These kids go through gallons of milk, bagels, bananas, and Nutella at a pace that has to be seen to be believed. I often go along with my wife to keep her company and give her moral support. In fact, we have had numerous date nights wandering the aisles. Unfortunately, these places are not well-designed for people with a visual impairment, although some do better than others.

One of my biggest issues is with the aisles themselves. Are they wide enough to get through without running into other shoppers or the items on the shelves? And if they are nice and wide, the stores will put random product displays that jut out into the aisle which I will inevitably clip with my hip, shoulder or basket, when she lets me push it. Knocking stuff off these displays is embarrassing and could lead to damaged products or a mess on the floor. The easy fix is to use the shelves and end caps and not encroach into the aisle but capitalism and marketing reign supreme. Finding the right aisle is also an issue. The signs above the aisle that provide a list of items in that particular row have gotten smaller and harder to read if they even have the signs at all. 

Safely navigating a supermarket is an adventure all on its own. Crossing from one aisle to another is like being the frog in the classic videogame Frogger. Look left, then right, then left again and make a mad dash for it. Potential collisions with other shoppers and their carts lurk around every corner. 

And then we have the single biggest issue with most every retail establishment. The lack of easily legible price tags and stickers. My pocket magnifier makes a regular appearance in my hand to read the prices, in order to be helpful to my shopping date. It is not terribly dignified to be looking through a magnifier while standing two inches away from the shelves. 

This is not to even mention parking lots that are not very well lit and overly narrow check out aisles. I freely acknowledge that these issues are not unique to grocery stores. Clothes shopping is a nightmare best saved for another post. Fixing these issues or even providing improvements would help not only those with visual disabilities but also those who use wheelchairs or mobility scooters to make their way through the store. In the meantime, we will just continue to do our best. Keep an eye out for us because we may not see you first.

Image attribution
“Luncheon Meat” by xomiele is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0