Introduction
Disability is a part of lie and could not be recognized as a deficiency in acting like a normal being. Every human being would have some sort of disability which could be temporary or permanent at any part of life. Those individuals who have no deficiencies at all and successfully survives to an older age would have difficulties in the functioning of different functions. In United States, it is estimated that majority of the families have a person with some disability and the non-disable (normal) people use to help the person with some disability. People are not able to recognize the problems which the disabled people faces in the society and they try to avoid getting contact with them due to their disturbed or unequal behavior. I am a normal person with no disability and having an experience of a disability is a highly difficult task. A perception of being blind is developed here. The main aim of this paper is to define myself a blind person, having black glasses on eyes and white stick in my hand.
Discussion
There are many people who faces a number of disabilities which include being deaf, having malfunctioning limbs, unable to talk, blind or some similar disorders. Being blind is a very difficult task to live in a busy scheduled world of people who are not able to wait for others at all. I am developing a discussion of how would I feel if I would be blind. There are many people in the developed as well as under developed world who have disabilities since they were born and many lost their abilities in some accidents or because of the medical reasons. The people who have disabilities since they are born would not find difficulty in moving around or practicing life with the disabilities. On the other side the people like me who have already seen the world and suddenly they are not able to see anything would not be able to continue as easily and accept the things as per required.
Background
Manhattan is the busiest area of New York, United States. A disabled person would have a highly difficult time to survive in the busy and highly difficult and tough routines. I am blind since I was in my eighth grade and from the background I am from England but my early childhood and all the previous time is spent in Manhattan. People from all over the world comes to see the city, its hustle life and unpredictable busy schedules of the people living over there. Living with a family and having eyes was a highly energetic and beautiful life but since my eyes were gone, everything turned into darkness. The time when I was not blind we frequently traveled to different parts of United States and England but as now I am blind so its highly difficult for my parents to keep me with them in unknown areas, so they prefer me to visit only closer areas including the New York city, Manhattan park and some other connected regions and rural settings. The life initially was highly comfortable but now I mostly have nothing but to attend my rehabilitation classes and to understand the ways of getting back to the normal life without having eyes.
Physical identity
Due to the loss of my eyes I am completely changed and the behavior of every one is also changed completely. My parents now keeps eyes on me while I am performing the daily routines including bathroom, eating and getting dressed. I forgot the colors. Everything is duff black.
My physical identity is a piece of meat everyone tries to decorate and to make me walk around. Last year my father concerned my dietician because of too much sitting and bed lying as well as belly fat. Due to his concern, the doctor allowed him to bring the tread mill which was placed in the middle of my room and two big forms were placed on the floor behind the mill. I was supposed to run over it and for the first time I have to use a software. My father and the fitness instructors were friends and both of them let me recognize and to get familiar with the device. After a couple of minutes, I was supposed to walk on the tread mill. On the first day I was given the working machine and then they let me try to adjust the speeds and other related things. This helped me to get my figure physically fit.
Mental identity
The mental identity of an individual is highly considered when he have a disorder of a sense like the blindness. I always feel broken and dishearten. Nobody have time for me completely to understand me. My issues are resolved completely but still I miss the completeness and the social life which is completely absent from my life. The people who meet me always have curiosity to know how I am feeling and am I really not able to see anything at all. My father’s friends and my mom’s colleagues usually come to see me as well but these things are very less to be appreciated and mostly affects me negatively. My self-esteem is also highly effected which disabled me to reassess my identity.
The dealing of things in the life are completely changed. Now I have wide mugs on my take rather than the glass and prepared food and dishes for me rather than making my personally developed sanwitches with more cheese and less sauce.
Challenges
As per discussed above about the challenges faced by me when I initially lost my sight. My complete identity was changed. I lost my balance. My feet didn’t recognized the floor properly and every step was taken in an ambiguity. My home had a lots of glass ornaments and crystal vases which I broke while I was in the wish to recognize the home completely. My parents gifted a lot many vases, glass ornaments and other decorations to their friends for my ease. These challenges were very initial but afterwards my ability to move around freely was taken from me. I am now not able to step out of the door alone unless everyone knows that I am leaving and a responsible person is with me. Our home is on the 17th story beside the life third door in the first row. I can find it but still the consciousness of my parents disabled me to move around freely. One of the most terrible experience and challenge is the inability of finding things which are necessary for me in a middle of the night.
Limitations
The limitations are the only things which disturb highly because of the blindness. Whenever my father and mother takes me to the part, they keeps an eye on me and makes me stops me at many areas. I know there would be any unrecognizable danger but still it made me limited to a specific world of interest. The limitations include the lack of handling all of my activities and even minor helps in need my parents support.
Freedom
I have got a freedom from the busy schedule of going to the collage and then to the sports center. Now I am able to sit for a long period of time and have plenty of time to listen to the music and news about the world. I didn’t knew how to explain things to others by writing. My father sent me to the rehabilitation where I was supposed to read the content in the form of depression and the doted content.
I am free from all the responsibilities except a few including managing myself and my room which was initially a difficult task but now it’s quite hectic. Everyday my helper helps me in dressing up properly, pins my tie and knots and buttons the button of my shirt. Most of my tasks are easy now with respect to in the pat. People have hustle routine and they are not able to wait for anyone, while I am completely. My dad have managed my insurances which are paying automatically my helper and the rehabilitation school which is a freedom for me to feel independence of the financial problems.
Discoveries
There are a number of possible discoveries I have made yet. It is not possible to state them without interaction of a real blind person. When I became sightless, my way of pondering things was different, and completely new. I was not recognizing the situations, air, things, whether and sunlight as a person who do but I used to feel things. For this purpose I had to strengthen my listening and feeling abilities. My parents used to take me to the park where I felt the grass, it was green but now just cold carpet with a muddy base beneath it.
There are many things which were not understandable like the sense of fear and the sense of being lost. When I used to move around and not able to hear someone, I sometimes felt like I am dead and people are not able to listen to me. I am able to find the sunshine on the chicks and the about to rain conditions. Also I am able to find the stranger in the room by his fragrance. Sometimes I have to ask If these would be no or limited voice signals. In many cases my life was incomplete in which the most prominent is the inability to discover the people in the initial time period.
Perceptions
As per the English culture, I preferred not to feel about other’s perceptions and my focus is the privacy and my own concerns regards my issues only. After becoming blind, there were a number of issues which cause me to feel negative for myself and my personal routines. The people with whom I used to interact with were all belonged to me as my blood relations but initially my helper was rude and rigid to her job and didn’t focused on my words and perceptions about the life. There are a number of ways through which she showed that her interest in my discussion is rare. As my father acknowledged these things he quickly replaced her with a male helper who was helpful in discussing things and also managing all of my activities of life.
There is a perception that a blind person could be cut off from the society but it’s wrong. I worked as RJ at the radio station where I used to speak out every possible and appropriate thing that was in my mind. I left that job because of unavailability of the transport as well as the distance issue.
Society’s response
The social response of the people towards me is different and caring. They keep updated with me and take necessary updates about my requirements. Socially blind person is difficult to survive and sometimes I heard my parents discussing me that it’s too hard for them to manage a blind person. They don’t have issues with the finances but the responsibility. Round the clock when they are not around me, frequently calls my helper as well as me to check my conditions as well as my health.
I am not able to work but I have managed ti produce some podcasts which are popular on the social media. People don’t know that I am blind but the ones who know just drop a kind gesture for me always. People in all over the world have the disability issues. Everyone have difficulties in managing the daily routines. There are poor people as well who are dependent on others completely with respect to financially as well as physically. Usually they are considered as burden but eventually the society gets use to it.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the life of an individual is not difficult for being blind but completely different. The social circle is missing and the people are unable to recognize themselves and their abilities. The paper is completed with the self-perception to elaborate the problems and difficulties of a blind individual’s life as well as his mental conditions. There are many ways through which the society can help an individual who have physical disabilities in which the easy ones are giving a social support as well a little time as well. It doesn’t cost as much but ends up in happiness of a person who is blind as well as a sense of belongingness and worthiness. Psychologically it is very important as it is not helpful and could be used for mental modeling and structural development of the gaps created in the mind.
Works Cited
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