Navigating Vision
A Journey Inspired by Friendship and Eyesight
Exploring the path to vision health
The most pathetic person in the world is some one who has sight but no vision. Helen Keller
The first person with blindness I met was Pat, my mother’s friend from high school. She had Type II Diabetes, and the illness had taken her vision. I learned from Pat how to pour a drink without it spilling over by keeping my clean finger at the rim.
Because of Pat’s influence, I spent a summer school break with the Iowa Commission for the Blind, volunteering in their lending library of books on tape and filing manila Dewey Decimal cards.
At lunchtime, I ate in the Commission’s cafeteria. It was operated by people who participated in the state’s Vocational Rehabilitation program. They learned new skills which helped them live independently. That place made the best hamburgers and French fries!
One of the requirements for sighted people who wanted to work with the Commission was to spend a day as if they were blind. They maneuvered around Des Moines’s city streets, blindfolded with a white cane. Because I was a teenage volunteer, I wasn’t required to participate in the activity. I wanted to, though, and sometimes, at home, I walked around the house with my eyes…
