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The Spectrum of Disability — Not Everything is Absolute
This was triggered by a post that I saw circulating on Facebook. It was one of those “Can you spot what’s wrong with this picture?” memes.
The picture, which I won’t link out of respect for the unknown person it, shows a woman with a red-tipped blindness cane and a cell phone. She’s on the sidewalk and appears to be texting.
The “wrong” we’re supposed to see in this picture is that she’s not really blind if she’s texting.
And this comes back to a subtle form of ableism; the assumption that a disability is an on-off switch. An absolute. I’m going to talk primarily about blind people here because of what triggered it, but expect me to tangent into wheelchairs. (And as a note? No, I couldn’t post a picture of a blind person with a cane…Unsplash doesn’t have any).
What does “Blind” Actually Mean?
When I grew up I had a friend who’s mother, a wonderful lady named Pauline, was totally blind since birth. I don’t know why…whatever it was did not pass on to any of her four children, thankfully.