Opening society’s eyes
People with visual impairments say they just want chance to contribute. Jim Pfiffer
You can’t tell that Mariann Graley is legally blind by looking at her. That’s the problem.
It’s not her problem as much as it’s a hassle from folks with good vision. The public’s ignorance, misconceptions and prejudices of people with visual
impairments are often a bigger problem for the sight-impaired than is the difficulty in their learning how to live with poor vision.
That’s why people like Mariann, who has limited vision, hope that society’s perception of visual impairment will change now that New York Gov. David A.
Paterson is in office. He, too, is legally blind.
“When I first found out that Paterson was governor, I thought maybe the public will get a better understanding of what legal blindness is,” says 51-year-old
Mariann of Elmira Heights, who has been legally blind since she was 32. She suffers with a genetic disease called retinitis pigmentosa, which is slowly
deteriorating her retina. She’s was diagnosed with the disease at age 12. She will eventually lose all of her sight.
Blindness or low vision affects 3.3 million Americans ages 40 and older. That number is expected to grow as baby boomers get older, because age-related
diseases are the most common causes of vision problems, says the National Eye Institute (
http://www.nei.nigh.gov/
For many people, blindness means the complete loss of vision with no ability to see any light. But complete blindness is rare, says the National Eye Institute.
Far more people have a permanent loss of some, but not all, of their eyesight. They are visually impaired.
Even fewer people know what it means to be legally blind, even though there are about 1 million legally blind adults in the U.S. A legally blind person
has to stand 20 feet from an object to see it — with vision correction — with the same degree of clarity as a normally sighted person could from 200
feet, says the National Eye Institute.
Mariann’s visual impairment makes it difficult for her to read small print, street and store signs, the dollar amounts on cash in her wallets, restaurant
menus and the letters and numbers on TV remotes, microwaves and clothes washers and dryers. She sometimes walks with a cane, but doesn’t like walking by
herself, especially in unfamiliar areas where she doesn’t know the terrain. “I’m also afraid of being mugged because I’d make an easy victim,” says Mariann,
who is married and has twin daughters and a stepdaughter.
Mariann can’t see well enough to drive a car. She has never had a license. I’ve noted what Mariann can’t do, and that’s what bothers visually-impaired folks.
“It’s more important that people know what we can do,” says Mariann, who works at the Southern Tier Association for the Visually Impaired in Elmira, manufacturing
printer cartridges. “We can do whatever we want. It’s all about how much we want it and are willing to fight for it and do our darndest to get it.”
That fight often involves the ignorance of people with good vision. Too many of us think the visually impaired can’t lead normal lives. We think blind people
are helpless and can’t take care of themselves. But blind people raise children, have families and jobs and become governors.
Just as those with vision problems have to retrain and re-educate themselves to lead normal lives, those with sight need to re-educate themselves about
sharing this world with the visually impaired.
“People with vision impairments are no different than you or I,” says Joe Ponzi, manager of marketing and public relations for the Southern Tier Association
for the Visually Impaired. “With proper training, they can do anything. They just do it differently.”
Yet the public’s fears and misconceptions about the visually impaired are the biggest reason that 70 percent to 80 percent of people with vision problems
are unemployed. “Employers are afraid of hiring us because they think we’ll get hurt or cost them a lot of money in adaptive equipment or insurance costs,”
says Mariann as she places instructions and labels in the printer cartridge boxes. The public doesn’t know how to act around people with visual impairments.
We’re afraid we’ll say or do the wrong things and embarrass ourselves.
I’m guilty. While interviewing Mariann, I told her why I was writing this column. I stopped myself before I said, “I want to tell the story through your
eyes,” thinking she would be offended by the “eyes” comment. When I later told her about it, she laughed it off and said she wouldn’t have given it a second
thought. Our lack of understanding and fear make us uncomfortable around people with visual disabilities, so we avoid these folks and further isolate them
from living the American dream. That’s our fault, not theirs. It’s our responsibility to make changes. Then we can all see eye to eye.
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