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The
Whole Truth About Partial Sight
by
Christine Faltz
Reprinted from Future Reflections
From
the Editor: Christine Faltz is a 1987 NFB scholarship
winner. She has since become a lawyer, has married,
and is the mother of a little girl who is also blind.
Christine often writes about blindness issues and the
challenges of raising a blind child to be a normal kid.
Here is an article she wrote last summer:
As
President of the Long Island Chapter of Parents of Blind
Children, I am often contacted by parents in search
of resources and information for their children. While
I have been aware for some time that blind people with
usable residual vision face special problems, I am becoming
increasingly conscious of the many negative consequences
of the mainstream's handling of partially-sighted people.
Let
me be clear. I am not particularly concerned with the
individual whose residual vision allows him or her to
perform most of life's tasks with age-appropriate skill
and efficiency. If a legally blind or low-vision child
is using regular print or large type without magnification
and without fatigue or pain, and if he or she can travel
independently and safely in unfamiliar areas, the alternative
techniques of blindness may well not be necessary. However,
when I hear that a child cannot read efficiently without
magnification and that inability to keep up with assignments
in school is accepted as a natural consequence of visual
difficulties, I am deeply troubled by the culture of
denial, fear, and misinformation which will ultimately
result in a young person ill-equipped for college, employment,
or community involvement.
Why
do teachers, eye-care specialists, and some parents
choose to ignore the overwhelming evidence that a blind
person without proficient Braille and independent mobility
skills is significantly less likely to become gainfully
employed? How could an efficient reading system such
as Braille and a safe, effective travel tool like the
white cane engender mistrust and fear so intimidating
and distasteful that thousands of men and women are
robbed of the chance to take advantage of their full
potential, growing to believe that it is normal for
them to be slow, inefficient, uncomfortable, and in
need of extraordinary accommodations? What about their
inability to read to their children—if indeed they
have the self-esteem and wherewithal to create a family—and
their avoidance of socializing except in familiar areas
because they cannot travel independently?
Part
of the problem lies in the definition of legal blindness.
Many people are functionally blind, despite having visual
acuity above that of legal blindness. Another complication
is society's fear of anything it doesn't understand.
I often hear "This is a difficult age" or "I tried Braille
with him; he didn't want any part of it." A teenager
who refuses cane instruction because he or she will
look different is going to progress from a difficult
age to a difficult life of dependency and inability
to experience the full range of possibilities for employment
and recreation because he or she cannot go wherever
the best job interview or the best party is. Is it better
to rely on your friends, dates, and colleagues to get
you around, or is it better to be a competent, confident
traveler, eventually more or less oblivious to your
travel tool as it becomes a part of you?
When
a child resists learning math because it seems too difficult
or because there is something more fun to do at the
moment, we don't give in; we should treat students who
don't like learning Braille the same way. It is often
difficult for parents to envision their children as
adults, and it is common to have the not-my-child attitude—after
all, if you act as if your child can do anything despite
being afflicted with pesky visual problems, won't he
or she have the confidence to persevere and succeed?
You bet! Assuming that child is also equipped with the
necessary tools to put such values into practice. You
can tell the child of a broken home who attends a poor
school in a dangerous neighborhood that with belief
in oneself one can surmount any personal obstacles.
But if his or her performance is not commensurate with
inherent ability and if a lackluster performance is
pronounced to be "just fine" and "all one can expect
from someone in such a situation," where will all those
fine words and good intentions get the student?
It
is not acceptable for a child with poor vision to skate
by, depending on special allowances and privileges,
if he or she is capable of age-appropriate work. A child
who is functionally blind and has average to above-average
intelligence and no complicating disabilities should
be handing in school assignments with everyone else,
should not be fatigued by reading, and should be completing
reading assignments along with sighted classmates. A
child who struggles valiantly to keep excellent grades,
suffering with eyestrain and headaches; spending inordinate
amounts of time on homework; relying on parents, siblings,
or classmates to read to him; unable to read the notes
and papers she writes—is not amazing or extraordinary
for all those unnecessary, Herculean efforts. That child
is a casualty of fear and ignorance, someone losing
out on extracurricular and other social activities,
someone whose belief in his or her supposed self-worth
and equality is being challenged at every level. The
lack of normal vision will never be a nuisance, an inconvenience
to this person: it will be a lifelong social and employment
handicap, a source of increasing frustration and resentment—a
recipe for failure at worst and of untapped potential
at best.
Parents
and teachers must look beyond the here and now. When
they are gone, their children and students must be able
to live, not merely survive, on their own. Their lives
should not be peppered with "If onlys" and "What ifs."
They should not grow up with the notion that there was
nothing more anyone could have done to give them opportunities
equal to those available to their sighted peers. Any
skill which has the slightest chance of easing their
way should be developed in them while they are young.
Isn't it better that they have the skills, regardless
of whether they are necessary now? Shouldn't a disabled
child be given every reasonable chance to be fully equal,
fully independent, a fully contributing, first-class
citizen? Legally blind, low vision, partially sighted,
practically blind—the lexicon of political correctness,
euphemisms, and denial marches on. If your child is
not capable of age-appropriate work and play, vision
problems by themselves are no excuse. Partial sight
should not be allowed to result in a partial life.
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