As anticipated in this older post, I am volunteering for a non-profit organization which offers services and assistance to the blind and visually impaired community of San Francisco.
The training we had on Saturday gave me the chance to experience what it means to be blind, what are the main obstacles, what do you discover and what do you give up.
And even if only for a lunch, surprises and insights made it one of the most remarkable food-related event I've ever had.
- Attention adapts: one of the biggest myths about blindness says that when a person loses their vision, their hearing improves. Although this is not true, senses do switch in order of importance. As my guide partner Lena walked me out of the building, the cars appeared much closer; suddenly, sound becomes primary. You don't look for coming cars anymore, you don't wait for the red sign to become a white man, instead you listen to the traffic.
- You're alone, fresh and alone: once your eyes are blindfold, there is nobody to make eye-contact with, there are no people-watching to enjoy, stories are now purely imaginative, there are no visual references to build on except for your imagination and memory. Even more you are fresh, with no experience in this new lifestyle, everything that happens is a new lesson. Conversation is not king anymore, but cardinal. The sound of somebody's voice becomes the closest memory you have with the life you were used to.
- Time is now your friend: or so it felt like. There are way too many things to focus on and to think about. Time and pace slow down, there are no more runs, no shortcuts to cross the street.
The real surprise though was after lunch, when the roles switched and I became Lena's guide. Being able to see again is what made this exercise amazing. A glance at a street corner now means much more, new details are revealed, huge buildings ignored since then, capture my sight, realizing how much more is there to see.
It's a great feeling that I wish everybody could experiment.
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