As someone who is registered blind, I was interested to read this post on Life of a Blind Girl, entitled “As a Disabled person I don’t need fixing”, https://lifeofablindgirl.com/2024/11/17/as-a-disabled-person-i-dont-need-fixing/.

In my case, I was born fully sighted. However, due to a blood clot on the brain I lost the majority of my vision at approximately 18-months-old. As Holly says in her post, disabled people have different experiences of their disability and diverse perspectives as regards whether they wish to be “cured”.

Holly’s article particularly resonated with me as I’ve frequently been asked whether there is a “cure” for my visual impairment. As with Holly, I don’t spend most of my time wishing to be “cured”, I get on with my life.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a restaurant when the waiter asked me whether I had a “helper”. I do, as it happens, pay someone to clean for me. However, this is down to my dislike of cleaning and the fact that I would rather spend my time (when not working at my day job) socialising with friends, reading and, of course composing poetry! It is not because I am visually impaired.

The waiter was a nice guy and I spent time explaining about my disability, the fact that I have a fulltime job and live alone and am to all intents and purposes independent. He did, I think, get the message as the next time I went into the restaurant he asked whether I had been working.

Were I differ from Holly is in neither being proud or ashamed of being disabled. While Holly states that she is “proud” of her disability, I am neither proud or ashamed. To me being disabled is simply a fact of life along with the fact that I am a poet.

Please do visit the original post which is well worth reading.

Kevin