Author's Note - Picture Book

Author’s Note - Picture Book

My picture book describes the life of a blind girl, specifically how blindness affects her interactions with others. To begin with, one must understand the varying degrees of blindness. To be legally blind might mean you have really bad eyesight, or you can’t see anything at all. The type of blindness that my main character has is called No Light Perception (NLP), which means she can’t see anything, and can not see light in any form. Living life without any sight at all is very difficult for people with sight to understand. Not many understand the frustration of blind and disabled children. For instance, Helen Keller or Laura Bridgman, two famous deaf-blind women, were described as uncontrollable and angry. Helen was even described as a “wild, destructive animal.” As a child, it is incredibly difficult to learn and assimilate to one’s peers when blind. So confusion and fright may be expressed through tantrums. My book will discuss the struggles of a girl with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH), but her overall ability to adapt.

The strained relationship with parents is also an important issue being discussed in my book. Laura Bridgman was said to be not very close with her parents and longed for companionship, which caused tantrums and outbreaks of anger. It is important to know that children with blindness, or any type of disability must be treated with the love and compassion that all children need.

I am personally not a blind person, and I am not disabled. I also do not know anyone with blindness. However, I think it is a very important issue. Many do not like to talk about the disabled because they feel uncomfortable, but you can’t just ignore it. It is hard for people without disabilities, like myself, to even have a brief understanding of what truly being disabled is like. However, I don’t think it should be ignored and I would like to call attention to how the disabled are currently treated and how they deserve to be treated.

Although, most people don’t know much about blindness, they should treat the blind and other disabled people with respect. Blind and disabled people do need love and compassion, especially from loved ones, but they also need to be respected and treated as human beings.