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Eyes and spine

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Written by Sean on Tuesday, February 14, 2006

I??ve been recently contacted by a young gal who is transabled. She expressed relief at finding someone who shares her "stuff". She??s not weird. Or rather, she??s not the only weird one out there. But the focus of her transability is vision, not SCI.

That is, she wants/needs to be blind, not a paraplegic. While I??ve interacted on and off with people who blindsim (that??s what they call "pretending to be blind"), I??ve never actually spoken to someone who actually would like to actually be blind.

Comparing notes is interesting, because it simply confirms a lot of what I??ve been feeling: It doesn??t matter what "flavour" of transabled you are, experiences are so similar it??s just about the same thing. Oh, yes, of course there *are* differences, but all in all, it??s close enough to be comparable.

I??ve also been curious about blindness. Not that I want to be blind, not by a long shot. In fact, after a TBI, I probably fear blindness the most. I say fear for lack of a better word. I *know* one can function fully and be blind at the same time. But my world is so visual that I really would feel at a loss were I to become blind. I know the resources to regain independence, but it would take time.

That said, strangely enough, I would be curious to blindsim, at home anyway, and try to function. Get a cane (even though most people don??t use them at home), and perhaps even get opaque "blind" contact lenses. Bah! This one??s a project for the back burner, there??s much else to ??do? before that?

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2 Comments

1 On 26 December, 2006, Emmy said:

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It’s good to know there’s more out there than para and amputee transabled people :) Sometimes it feels like I’m the only one out there, so it’s nice to read stuff like this. It’s MS for me, not specifically vision/mobility/hearing/etc. but MS in general, with everything it brings. Though, I have been starting to think more and more about wheeling lately…

 

2 On 23 January, 2007, Nikki said:

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Oh….my. I’m sorry but that just made my jaw drop. There is someone else in the world who does want MS! It was a relief knowing that there are others out there who want to be paraplegics, but it’s also a relief to know I am not the only one who wants MS. In my case, I have been praying for one or the other, preferably MS with paraplegia.

 

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About Sean

Sean is transabled. His body image is that of an L2 paraplegic. He has been living pretty much 100% of his public life from a wheelchair for the last decade, but hasn't found peace of mind (and is unlikely to until he does become a para).