Recently, a temporary health issue rendered me blind for about 2 weeks. I was not able to drive, read, watch TV, or use the computer. Thankfully, my sight has nearly fully recovered, but there are many people not as lucky as I. This experience gave me a rare look at what it feels like in our society to have a disability.
Diversity is a term that we hear frequently. Mostly, we think of it as descriptive of the differences in people based on race or ethnicity, but there are many things that make us different. As a practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Assessment, I have come to realize that even the ways we perceive the world and make choices and judgments are diverse.
Not having the benefit of sight, even for just a little while, opened my eyes to how it must be to navigate with a disability. The sudden inability to see presents difficulties which are obvious, but I was not expecting everything that happened. When people realized that I couldn't see, they began to treat me differently. They talked louder (nothing wrong with my hearing!) They discussed things about me without including me in the conversation (as though I wasn't there.) They spoke to me like I was a child instead of a well-educated adult. The effect of such treatment creates anger, resentment, and a feeling of defeat. I am ashamed to think that I may have been guilty of such insensitivity in the past.
