“Can You See That?”

Happy back to school! I hope everyone going back to school this week has a great first day and a great year. Today’s post is going to be a story time post with a few questions thrown in.

To give a little background for those who read or follow my blog and may not know, sometimes those of us who are blind have to prove we are actually blind. Yes you read that right, even though it is obvious, we still have to prove we aren’t faking it. It’s been quite a while since I’ve proved myself, so I guess I was in for an update. Surprise! Things are still the same. I still have no sight. Or do I? Go ahead and think about what different sight means.

When I got to my eye dr.’s office this morning, one of his assistants was out so they had a dr. from another office helping out. Having just met me, I asked her to guide me to the room for my appointment and she was happy to do that for me. I have to say, everyone there is great about guiding me and giving me time to get my keyboard out and write down my next appointment. Once she guided me back to the room I would be in, she tells me, “I’m sorry, but I have to do it,” and has me cover my left eye. She asks me, “Can you see that?” I tell her I can’t. Now keep in mind, she knows I’m blind because she just guided me. Next, we move onto my right eye. She covers it and again asks me, “Can you see that?” Again, I say that I cannot. Imagine if I said, “Yes! I can see the light! Can I drive now?” The eye dr. is the only place I don’t joke about my blindness when I get this sort of thing done for obvious reasons, so they don’t question me about things when I can’t actually see. She told me to look straight (Hahaha) I guess to see if I could follow with my eyes. My dr. who I have seen since I was a little kid comes in and I tell him what happened. I was his first appointment back after having the summer off. I decided to learn a few things so I asked a few questions. I don’t ever take things like this personally, think they are stupid, and I get a good laugh out of them. Anyone who has been with me for a while knows that I used joking as a way to cope with my URI crap and sometimes laughed things off when they really weren’t funny. This time though, I actually find stupid things like this worth laughing over. My dr. told me he found it insulting that blind people have to prove their loss of vision.

My dr. is great because he knows about blindness and most medical professionals who aren’t specialists don’t know about disability related things. He knows sighted guide and that blind people are known for poking their eyes before stopping it. If you ask a blind person why they poke their eyes, they will say they don’t know. Coming from a previous poker, go ahead and include me on that list.

I asked him if people who can see follow flashes of light when they test like that, and why they cover your eyes when they are figuring out what you can see. He told me that your vision is in the back of your brain and that sometimes people who can see have a different pathway in their brain that gives them vision. He said they cover your eyes because people who can see out of one eye need them closed so they are not seeing with one eye, making them think they are seeing out of both of their eyes. So see kids? Learning never stops and nor should it.

We all prove our blindness. My friends have and I’ve seen (yes I’m blind and just said seen. It’s fine.) People on YouTube talk about doing the same thing. I have readers and followers from the UK and around the world and was wondering if this sort of thing happens there too? I would think so, but I never want to assume anything.

So now I want to hear from you. What do you think of things like this? Do you find them funny and stupid like I do, or do you find them upsetting?

Have a great day and thanks for reading and for sharing your thoughts with me. And remember. If you see a blind person, please know that we can see differently and we do it in other ways. If there’s anything else you’d like me to blog about please reach out. Find me on Twitter at mirandaloakley, leave me a comment here on my website or find me on Facebook at Miranda Oakley. If you find me on Facebook please send me a message telling me who you are and how you found me.

Until my next post,

Miranda ❤