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Taraneh Fakhra
Professor Holly Batty
English 113B
7 April 2016
They Can See Better
In our society, there are many difficulties for people with visual disabilities to be
approved for a job, or also to be a person who most people and coworkers can count on. In most
cases, people with visual disabilities do not have a job and it is really difficult for them to find
one, mostly because of the stereotypes in societies. There should not be any discrimination for
people who are visually disabled because smart people are not just people who do not have any
disabilities, at least they are not visible. As most of us know people who have difficulty seeing,
have much more strong senses than normal people. Although there may be some cause for
concern that blind people cannot perform at the same level as sight people. Blind/visually
impaired people should still have equal access to jobs because of their unique skills they have.
There are different levels of blindness, not anyone with visual disability are completely
blind. Even people who needs some sort of treatments, are visually impaired. For example,
people who are color blind, are part of the blind/visually impaired group. As Daniel Finkelstein
explains about what is color blind and if color blind people can see at all, and how. Generally
affecting both eyes, it most often takes the form of a loss of perception of one or two
fundamental colors (red-green color blindness is the most common congenital variety), but
occasionally it is complete, so that the individual literally sees only in black and white.
(Finkelstein n.pg) So people who are color blind are still count as a visually impaired which
means people around them might count on them really hard because they do not want their

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business to be a mess.
Blind/visually impaired people, put double effort and use their unique senses to perform
their job and even give a great service to their costumers, which they might never experienced
before. The Foundation Fighting Blindness published and article which talks about job
opportunities for people with visual disabilities. The first part of the book is the short talking of
people who are visually disabled, but they have a good career in society. One of them which got
my attention was Daniel Freedman story, he said I was 38 years old. I was very interested in the
real estate industry and wanted to own my own brokerage firmSince I wanted to be prepared
for showings of properties, I would preview and memorize each property before I took my client
to that location. This was a double effort, but it was necessary. (Freedman) Daniel love his job
and he put double effort to it to make it work. People with visual disabilities have strong senses,
which most people who are not visual disable dont have them. He showed other people with
different disabilities, that nothing is unreachable and impossible to do. If we look at the quote
more closely, we can see that Daniel said that he used his memory to memorize the properties
before he took the client, it shows us that there are many different types of ways that blind
people can use, because they have unique and strong skills.
People with visual disabilities are not the only group who needs special help, there are
many groups of people who society puts them in the normal group, just because their
disabilities are not visible and they look normal. Disable is just a definition for people who has
visible special needs. In a journal named Visual Disabilities in Children Including Childhood
Blindness R Danodna and L. Danodna talked about how different cultures look at visual
disables and how they count on them. It is most about blind children and their abilities. It states,
In industrialized countries and countries with rapidly developing economies like India,

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blindness is defined as vision <6/60 with best possible correction and corresponding restriction
in field of vision. This is different from WHO recommended definition of blind. In view of high
precision visual needs for daily activities, working on computer, entertainment through
television, it is high time the definition of blindness especially in children is revised. (R. and L.
Danodna). As we all read, visual needs are not just for people who are blind or visual disabled, it
is also about people, especially children who use visual needs just because of looking at different
screens too much.
On the other hand, most people still think that people with special need are useless and all
they need is help of other people, but there are many things that people who society names them
normal can learn from disable people, because they think like all other people and also have
more intelligent ideas and abilities. Tobin Siebers wrote about a blind woman who tried to
discover her abilities and interests in art, named Judith Scott. She always was wondering about
what she loved to make and what it will look like. She had her life in art, she could see it, touch
it, and understand it. It explains, First, Scotts art objects feature complex embodiment insofar
as they serve as repositories that hold inside the secrets of her artworkssecrets that only she
might hold in memory and that compel her beholders to probe with a curiosity that borders on
compulsion. (Siebers) Scotts arts were based on memories, thoughts, and imagination. Her art
works were full of meanings and themes, which could have parts of her life in it. Including, her
life and her thoughts in her artworks, made her secrets visual but still secret. Visually impaired or
legally blind people can do many things that sight people are not able to do.
Beside stereotypes, there are real successful people who are visually impaired or legally
blind than sight people. Again, thinking that people who have difficulties seeing are disabled is

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just a stereotype which society made and caused having different groups of people which it is
just about their needs and what they are capable of. This is right that seeing makes most of the
things easier in our lives, but not seeing or having difficulties seeing just changes most of the
things which means the person has nothing less but more than sight people. According to
University of Illinois at Chicago professor and disabilities studies scholar Dr. Lennard Davis,
these stereotypes exist in part because peoples misconceptions of the blind are split between
thinking theyre completely helpless. (Cipriani n.pg). I am agreeing that they are visually
impaired, but they think normally, they have the same feelings, thoughts, emotions, and dreams,
also their other senses are stronger than people who can see easily, because they almost see what
is going on around them by using their senses, that is why they get stronger than they normally
are. By approving people who can not see and counting on them we can have more successful
environment around us.
Blind/visually impaired people are humans, and the only thing that they do not have is
sight, it is mostly the only main thing that they do not have, but sighted people have many things
less than blind people. For example, strong tasting sense, smelling, memorizing, and hearing
because they cannot see or they struggle to see, they need to use their other senses to see around
them and know what is happening. Employees should abolish any discrimination against
individuals who are visually impaired or legally blind, because they have unique and strong
senses and they might be more successful than sighted people. It is true that sight might make
doing different things easier, but it was not peoples choice to be sighted or blind, now they have
a life in front of them and cannot sit and do nothing because they cannot see or they struggle to
see. Starting a life needs a job and there should not be any limited positions for people who are
visually disabled. This should be our responsibility to put the limitations aside and give it a try,

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and also think of those people like they are all our friends and families who we need to fight for
to get their rights and count on them like how we count on sighted people, because if employees
start to hire more visually disable people, we would see how successful, smart, and intelligent
they are.

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Works cited
Cipriani, Belo. "Hiring Blind: The Misconceptions Facing America's Visually Impaired
Workforce." Hiring Blind: The Misconceptions Facing America's Visually Impaired
Workforce. July 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2016

Dandona, R. Dandona, L. Visual Disabilities in Children Including Childhood Blindness.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Br J Ophthalmol, 2001. Web. 11 March. 2016.

Finkelstein, Daniel. Common Eye Conditions and Causes of Blindness in the United States.
www.nfb.org. Web. 29 March. 2016.
Freedman, Daniel. Career Information for the Blind and Visually Impaired. (2000):7. The
Foundation Fighting Blindness. Web. 11 March. 2016.
Siebers, Tobin. Disability and Visual Culture. 239-245. Web. 12 March. 2016.