Published: March 28th, 2025

Growing up with a visual impairment, you would think my life was going to be hard from the beginning. There would be a lot more obstacles in place along my life path, and many would expect me to give up easily. However, I accept my blindness not as a disability but as a challenge that I face every day. That challenge is one that I will never give up on and will continue overcoming each day.

One common misconception of having a visual impairment or being blind is that you’re not capable of achieving anything or being intelligent. Just because you don’t have vision does not mean that your intelligence levels are below average. In fact, I was an overall A student throughout my school years. Now I am not bragging, but I am stating the fact that my intelligence was not based off my vision. Even after school, in my adult life, I still have had encounters with uneducated adults who think I’m not capable of doing high-functioning jobs. 

With visual impairment, my abilities are limited but not prohibited. I can guide myself alone once I get to know a location. Going up stairs or even down them are not a challenge. Making foods that I love aren’t a challenge as well. Now I’m saying this because people would expect me to not know how to do these things or that I would need constant assistance. My husband understands my visual impairment. He knows that I can do most things that he can do except like driving a car. However, he does assist me with many things. It’s not because I can’t do those things but rather that he loves doing such things for me.

My visual impairment has never prevented me from working in any capacity or getting my education. I’ve graduated from high school, begun my associate’s degree in human services, and became a licensed massage therapist. In my different job fields I have had, I’ve been able to work as any other person would, but I had more obstacles to overcome than they had. When people judge my ability to work, it’s almost like they don’t take the time to understand who I truly am. They just assume that my disability makes me incapable of going above and beyond. It’s like ridiculing a diabetic who has to take insulin because they couldn’t take care of their health. People who aren’t educated enough might take the time of their day to study and understand that they may have the disease passed down genetically. 

Wrapping up this blog, I wanted to talk about assistive technology and how it has impacted my life. Being born during the generation where technology has been revolutionized, companies such as Apple have helped me with my visual impairment. They have made tech easy to use by adding things such as voiceover, zoom display, and other accessible things. In a future blog post, I will expand on this topic of accessibility of tech.