I am ever so grateful for the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired (WCBVI), and for the Pre-school-6 Year conference that they put together annually here in Wisconsin. Over the years, I think we attended four conferences and enjoyed each of them and gained something new every time.
I specifically remember one presentation that my husband and I attended in which we were given a pair of goggles to wear that simulated a vision impairment close to that of our daughter's. It wasn't the perfect simulation of her vision, but it had a couple of key things:
- A hemorrhage in one eye, which our daughter did not have, but the hemorrhage occluded the vision from that eye, and our daughter can't see with her left eye
- 20/200 vision in the other eye
Seeing things "the way" she sees them was startling enough, but the session director then had us attempt to complete various tasks. If I recall correctly, I was supposed to put together a cabin out of Linkin' Logs. I recall having to turn my head so I could use just my right eye to read the directions and find the pieces, because only the right eye was "working". I found it incredibly difficult to adapt, and I started to get a headache because my right eye was working so much harder than my left eye. I grew frustrated and tired.
My husband also participated in this same session only it was the hour after me, so we didn't have a chance to debrief before he went into the room. He wore a pair of simulation goggles and completed a task as well. He recounts a thought-provoking experience that he had while performing his task. My husband was concentrating on what he was supposed to be doing, when suddenly someone came up behind him, without warning, and wiped his nose with a tissue. Wow! Brilliant! How many of us would do that to our children without thinking about how alarming that would be?
I realized, after that particular WCBVI conference, that it's important for me to try to see the world through my daughter's eyes. When she's tired or frustrated, or when a task is more difficult for her than I think it should be, I remember my experience with the goggles I wore that day; the goggles that gave me a whole new perspective, and a healthy respect for everything my daughter DOES accomplish without grumbling or complaining.
You can check out the various low-vision simulation goggles at places like http://www.lowvisionsimulators.com/, or look at some of the vision simulation activities at http://www.perkins.org/resources/scout/vision-and-blindness/simulation-of-vision.html.
Don't we all wear our own pair of goggles everyday? We never really see every situation the same way that others see it, because we have our own individual interpretations based on our life experiences. Maybe Tennessee Williams said it best:
Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos. That is the way we all see ...each other in life. Vanity, fear, desire, competition-- all such distortions within our own egos-- condition our vision of those in relation to us... That's how it is in all living relationships except when there is that rare case of two people who love intensely enough to burn through all those layers of opacity and see each others' naked hearts. (accessed 2/13/14 at http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/290058-nobody-sees-anybody-truly-but-all-through-the-flaws-of)
