Abstract
Practitioners in the space of blind rehabilitation or education have likely read about the psychosocial aspects of disability in a textbook at some point in their training and spent a great deal of time understanding the identity crisis and interpersonal adjustments that ensue when a person loses their vision. Blending personal narrative with an intellectual exploration of the broader context of the disability rights movement, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, is a captivating and approachable opportunity to see inside the experience of losing vision. From wrestling everything from literacy to relationships, Andrew Leland shares his inner world with the reader. Perpetually curious as a journalist, he goes well beyond telling only his own story, to explore the lived experiences of others, exquisitely balancing breadth and depth in his storyline.
A Writer Confronts Changing Literacy Media Needs
As print became increasingly exhausting to read and unsustainable as a literacy medium for Mr. Leland, he explored the nonvisual options. First, he relinquishes print in its hardcopy form, and he adopts e-books with increasingly large fonts. He discusses the power of reading with the voice in his own head, the ebb and flow as he forms meaning, and the ways in which a robotic screen reader initially seems to wash that control away. He shows readers how, in his early days of using it, assistive technology made writing more difficult for him.
Retelling the History of Braille
His retelling of the history of braille is enchanting and far more detailed than many sources. He promotes the relevance of braille in a digital world, he reminds readers about the internal voice that is accessible to people who are blind when they read braille, and explains a blind viewpoint that “[raised print is] sighted teachers talking to the fingers in the language of the eye; with braille the fingers have found their native language.” Mr. Leland gracefully investigates this interaction of universalism with ableism and the ultimate glory of a blind solution to the literacy needs of blind people. He touts braille without overlooking his own struggles as an adult learner, the attitudes of professionals who wrote off braille as being too difficult or unnecessary to learn, or the limited access to qualified instructors.
Exploration of Blind Communities
This memoir walks through a whole host of experiences related to both vision loss and disability. In the first section of the book, “Phantom Limp,” Mr. Leland discusses his early foray into blind communities with the knowledge that he will eventually lose his sight. We follow the author as he probes the broader blindness experience while trying to find ways to identify with other people who are blind. He shares his insights as he learns about the organized blind movement, and grapples with his sense of not yet belonging in the community.
This section skillfully portrays the internal battles that arise while a person wrestles with integrating disability with their identity. Mr. Leland describes the ways in which these thoughts are resolved, and also their surprising re-emergence later, since adjustment remains a process, not a destination. The author has his first exploration of the National Federation of the Blind, and he describes his own experiences and its larger history in a balanced light. The American Council of the Blind is portrayed through an outsider lens and is much more briefly discussed.
The Effect of Blindness on Social Relationships
In the second part, “The Lost World,” readers hear more about how blindness begins to deeply impact social relationships—about how a marriage changes, and how it does not, when one partner becomes blind. Despite the author losing his vision as he writes the book, he carefully captures experiences that are common to even fully adjusted, or congenitally blind, readers. The historical, almost academic, tangents in Part II describe the evolution of assistive technology, including the essential contributions of blind innovation, to the development of a wide range of mainstream technologies.
Experiences with Rehabilitation Training
In the third, and final, section of the book, “Structured Discovery,” the author takes us on a visit to a training center for blind people, where he learns about more skills and attitudes embodied by successful blind people and the structured discovery techniques that the instructors there leverage.
As the final section of the book unfolds, the author discovers the essential mindset that vision rehabilitation professionals should always hold onto: “A full and joyous blind life is possible.” So often, it can feel to students and clients with visual impairments, who are in the throes of adjustment to disability, that satisfying emotions like joy or completeness are feelings that only their former sighted self was entitled to experience. As Mr. Leland wraps up the story, he acknowledges the unique joys, moments of intimacy, and sensory experiences that enrich his life as a blind man, in ways he could not have enjoyed as a sighted person.
Takeaways for Practitioners
Vision rehabilitation professionals will benefit from the in-depth narrative of Mr. Leland's adjustment to vision loss. Learning to hold onto the knowledge that joy will return, and even include new and wonderful moments that were not available to the person while sighted, can equip professionals to supportively walk alongside someone adjusting to vision loss. Teachers of students with visual impairments will appreciate the insight into the experience of progressive vision loss, as well as the vital role that braille continues to play for working professionals and individuals enjoying leisure time, even in an increasingly digital world. Orientation and mobility specialists will find many familiar touchstones in Mr. Leland's resistance to, and eventual adoption of, the long cane for mobility. Assistive technology specialists will appreciate the disability history of the many ways blind innovators have led to the creation of best-in-class technologies.
Often when a book, like this one, garners wide public acclaim, the disability themes are sensationalized or misrepresented in ways that can be frustrating to people with disabilities. This book, however, will engage readers who are blind or have low vision, as well as families, professionals, and others who are excited to learn about other people's lived experiences through magnificent storytelling. I highly recommend this excellent read.