AccessATE and DeafTEC have published a few tip sheets and blog posts on accommodating blind and low vision employees, which have largely been broad overviews of topics like safety, communication, equipment, etc. However, there is much information to consider and many stories to learn from if one wants to fully understand how to make blind/low vision people feel truly welcome in classrooms, labs, workplaces, and beyond. Naturally, these stories are best told by blind/low vision people themselves. Here, we recommend a few blogs about life as someone who is blind/low vision.
Life of a Blind Girl
Life of a Blind Girl is run by Holly, a woman from Yorkshire, UK, who lives with a condition called retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, which causes her to only distinguish light from dark, leaving her with no useful vision. Holly’s blog includes posts about vision impairment and disability, employment, assistive technologies, and education, with lifestyle entries interspersed throughout. Readers can browse her blog posts by topic: Disability, Concerts, and Life. The Disability category in particular contains a great deal of professional and personal accounts and opinions on subjects like supporting disabled colleagues, the impact of accessibility, succeeding in college as a person with a vision impairment, and more.
Navigating Blindness
Navigating Blindness is run by Kim Owens and her adult son Kai, who started losing his vision as a child. While Kai reviews and approves of all content, the blog is largely written from Kim’s perspective as a sighted person acting as a helper and ally – content written by Kai himself is marked “Featured” to distinguish the two writers, and provides first-person accounts of various experiences and advice. Navigating Blindness is about their daily wins and challenges, blindness awareness and advocacy, education, and inclusivity.
Blind New World
Blind New World is a social change campaign run by the Perkins School for the Blind, seeking to empower the blind and low vision community and break down barriers to inclusion on all fronts. Their blog section – called “Our Stories” – contains entries from both the Blind New World team and guests, offering opinions and accounts of blindness and vision impairments in all facets of life. The blog can be filtered by topic, including the topics career and jobs, education, tools and technology, resources for allies, and more. The blog can also be filtered by diagnosis, which might be useful in the event you have a student or employee whose experience and needs might be more specific based on their exact condition.
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