My visual impairment is a big part of who I am. I was born with it, so after 18 years of experiences, I am pretty sure that I'm accustomed to it. When older people, or even people my age, ask me about my vision, I can easily answer them by explaining my diagnosis, giving a numerical comparison between my horrible eye sight and the eye sight of most people, and attempting to describe what I can see. What does not stop surprising me is the fact that I have had more younger people, usually 13 years and younger, ask me than people my own age or older. So here's where a problem arises, how do I answer these kids?!
Attempt #1: "How did your eyes get like that?"
Well, that's an easy one! "At birth, I was diagnosed with Glaucoma, Aniridia, Microphthalmia, Bilateral Cataracts, Nystagmus, Ptosis, and probably more conditions that I don't know how to pronounce nor spell." The big words may not serve as a way to help the kids understand, but I bet it helps them lose interest in the question, yes! Fine, maybe I should explain in smaller words. "So, my eyes are little (michrophthalmia) because they are shrinking. As you can see, one is shrinking more than the other and as that eye gets smaller, my eyelid begins to droop (ptosis). The sun and bright lights make it really hard for me to see (Aniridia). And overall, my vision is this bad because the lenses, like eyeglass lenses, in my eyes are dirty (Bilateral Cataracts), my eye sight is sometimes really shaky (Nystagmus), and my eyes hurt because inside, the pressure is building up (Glaucoma)." I bet the kid won't remember half of what I just said, however, I feel good knowing that I said it. Sometimes, simply attempting to explain my eye situation satisfies them.
Attempt #2: "How many fingers am I holding up?"
Some kids don't bother to ask me what's wrong with my eyes because it is already apparent to them that there is a problem. So, in an attempt to measure my vision, they ask this question. My initial reaction is that of pure disgust. I begin to think of all the rude ways to respond. As I stick up my middle finger I'll ask them, "how many fingers am I holding up?" Or if I'm REALLY pissed, I'll say something like, "however many fingers you stick up your mom!" However, when I open my mouth to answer them, none of that stuff comes out, luckily. Instead, I reply, "I'm sorry, I really cannot see how many fingers you're holding up right now because my vision is really bad in this light." The truth s, it's really bad in most lighting situations so this response is a lie.
Attempt #3: "Mommy, what's wrong with her eyes?"
Before going to ask a stranger, like me, about what's wrong, kids opt to ask their parents, more commonly, their mothers. Out of all of the instances that I have had concerning curious children, this has to be the most painful one. As I observe the dialogue and actions between the mother and her child, after the child asks this question, I become saddened. In most cases, the mom will just shuffle their child away and look at me with, what I can guess, a sad look. In other cases, the mom will try to explain by using crazy phrases like "her eyes are sick" or just simply stating, "she can't see." What hurts me about these statements is that for one, my eyes are sick but the child will never know why or to what extent and secondly, ma'am, I can see ! Wow, as much as I struggle to find the best way to answer a child's questions, I would rather answer them than have someone else do it.
Conclusion and Apology:
So you've seen three possible scenarios that could occur when I am faced with a curious child. Each of them have their good and bad aspects and none of them are perfect. I guess when dealing with children, I have to handle it one situation at a time.
Now that I've discussed that, let me state that I am truly sorry if you thought that my contemplated responses to "How many fingers am I holding up?" were very offensive or somewhat disturbing. I confess, these comebacks are only two of the many ones that me and my blind friends have come up with. We would definitely NOT say these things to children, let alone any person that we do not know well. However, after being asked this question so many times and in the most disrespectful manners, I sometimes cannot help but to think of all the mean ways that I could respond so that the child could sense how annoyed and disrespected I really feel.
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