For the Benefit of Those Who See: Dispatches from the World of the Blind

by Rosemary Mahoney

Rosemary Mahoney tells the story of Braille Without Borders, the first school for the blind in Tibet, and of Sabriye Tenberken, the remarkable blind woman who founded the school. Fascinated and impressed by what she learned from the blind children of Tibet, Mahoney was moved to investigate further the cultural history of blindness. As part of her research, she spent three months teaching at Tenberken's international training center for blind adults in Kerala, India, an experience that reveals both the shocking oppression endured by the world's blind, as well as their great resilience, integrity, ingenuity, and strength. By living among the blind, Rosemary Mahoney enables us to see them in fascinating close up, revealing their particular "quality of ease that seems to broadcast a fundamental connection to the world."

Genres: Nonfiction, Disability, Memoir, Biography, Audiobook, Adult, Health

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Rosemary Mahoney (born January 28, 1961 Boston) is an American non-fiction writer.

She grew up in Milton, Massachusetts, andgraduated from St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire). She worked briefly for Lillian Hellman.

She has attended Yaddo.

She has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Elle, National Geographic Traveler, O Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine.

The Early Arrival of Dreams: A Year in China was a New York Times Notable Book in 1990, and Whoredom in Kimmage: The World of Irish Women, was a New York Times Notable book and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in 1994, British writer Jan Morris listed her 2007 Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff, as one of the 86 best travel books of all time.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 2 out of 5]

I perservered, it had to get better I thought, but no, once we got to the meat of the story, the author investigating blindess, it became offensive so I dnf'd it. I thought this was going to be an objective non-fiction book about blindness. But no it's about "Me - I'm a super recognizer "ok since I have prosopagnosia, maybe I'm a bit jell, jell jealous. "Me - I notice everything even things my friends don't."

"I would have noticed within fifteen seconds if that man was missing merely a button on a shirt cuff. I would have noticed whether he had hair in the spaces between his knuckles, would have noticed the length of his fingernails and exactly what shape the fingernails were. I would have noticed the color of his eyebrows, the size of his ears, the condition of his teeth, the quality of his hair and skin, and all of this without making a conscious effort to do so. I lone person in a group of ten is missing the tip of his little finger, I will notice it immediately."

OMG, she must be so difficult to be friends with. She might not comment on a bit of a stain on a shirt, or a chipped fingernail, or a couple of errant chin or nose hairs, but you would know she saw them!

In the first few pages this is what she wrote about the surgeon who operated on her boyfriend's eye and then disappears from the book

This opthamologist doesn't smile much, but his mouth is slightly lopsided in a way that makes him look perpetually on the verge of a smile. He looks as though he is privately enjoying a mildly amusing joke, although after spending twenty minutes in his company one suspects there really is no joke, it's just the way his mouth is. He is short and stocky and neckless, and though his eyes are small and set close together, and though he doesn't truly smile, there is warmth in his face. He walks slumped a bit to the right, as if he has too much ballast in his starboard pocket, and moves through his clinic in a dogged way, like a weary commuter trudging through Grand Central Station at rush hour. His pending smile notwithstanding, I got the distinct sense tht the surgeon was bored with his job.

and on and and on, and then the operation full of similes "the eyelids looked like desert dunes, the lashes like wind-tossed palms, the creases in the skin like a hundred parched arroyos." etc. Other people might like extended descriptive writing, but it just comes across as self-indulgent and annoys me, get to the story!

But I stuck with it until I got to where she writes she's been to India five times, didn't see any charm in it but was going back to teach in a blind school because

I had developed a strong curiosity about blindness and wanted to meet blind people, to spend time with them, to get to know them, to find out how they think, to see how they live in the world, how they navigate, how they talk and eat and dress and write and shave and brush their teeth and learn just about anything else I could about blind people without trespassing too far beyond the limits of decency.

I found that paragraph was way beyond the limits of decency. The author seems to think the blind are aliens so different from us that they wouldn't talk, brush their teeth, talk or think just like everyone else. I found that patronising and offensive and together with the writing which I could not stand. I dnf'd it.

2 stars because 1 star is reserved for despicable books, and this wasn't, it was just one I couldn't waste any more time on.

[Shannon Dyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strange book for me to read. I've read quite a bit about blindness, but the books I've read have been written by blind people. This book was written by a sighted woman with a very great fear of blindness, and a grave discomfort around those who could not see.

As a college student, the author suffered an eye injury which caused her to lose the sight in her right eye for a month. This terrified her, and, from this experience, she formed the idea that she would rather be dead than blind. I find such things difficult to read. I'm a 33-year-old, totally blind woman who leads a well-adjusted life. I don't think of myself as being all that different from sighted people. The author sees people like me quite differently, and there were times I found it difficult to keep myself from internalizing what she wrote.

She went to Tibet to write a magazine article about Braille without Borders, a school founded by a totally blind woman from Germany. When she met the school's founder, she was surprised by her capability and self-possession. In fact, there was a scene where she actually tries to get this woman to admit she's not really blind. I found this very childish behavior.

She agrees to teach English at a school for blind adults in India. I'm not sure why she chose to do this, since her fear of blindness is still very present. As she gets to know her blind students, she slowly comes to the understanding that blind people aren't really all that different from those who can see. What a concept!

I found myself greatly disturbed by her need to describe the eyes of every blind person she encountered. I'm aware that many blind people have eyes that look unhealthy. I did not need to read countless descriptions. Some of them made me a bit queasy, and I failed to see the necessity for that kind of description.

There is a chapter that deals with the history of the blind, how society treated them, what misconceptions have been held throughout the centuries. This could have been interesting, but it went on way too long. She went off on several tangents, and these made the book difficult to follow.

Maybe this book is helpful for the sighted, but I found it to be pretty annoying. I did enjoy learning what life was like for blind people in developing countries, but I could have found that out some other way.

To sighted people who may read this, please don't think all blind people act like the ones in this book. I have never dumped hot tea down someone's neck. I do not routinely bang my head on countless objects, and I travel with a guide dog instead of a white cane. All I can really say is that we are individuals with our own strengths and weaknesses, just like anyone else.

[Diane]

This book opens with a description of an eye surgery.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

That freaked me out so much I haven't been able to get past page 10. I'll try to read this again later when I'm no longer hiding under my bed covers.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are drawn to that which relates to us. Our perspective is shaped by our experience, and because people in similar circumstances connect and draw from the well of similar experiences, our experience is also colored by our perspective.

I am certain that I am drawn to books about blindness because of my experience. (For those of you who don't know, I have an amazing and wonderfully intelligent daughter who also happens to be blind.)

My wife started reading this book, but became (justifiably) rather annoyed by it. The author seemed to be overly patronizing, focused ostensibly on how difficult it is to be blind. She was in a state of constant incredulity, which I found off-putting. It seemed that for how much time she spent around the blind, she was only able to see them as blind people, rather than people.

It was as if she was saying, "Look at what these poor blind people can do! We shouldn't pity these poor blind people. They can walk to town! On their own!"

Look: Pity the fool. Don't pity the blind.

Mahoney gives a quote in the book, which I appreciated: "It is more difficult to teach the ignorant to think than it is to teach an intelligent blind man to see the grandeur of Niagara Falls." - Helen Keller (pg. 258)

As I said in the beginning though, our perspective is shaped by our experience, and vice versa. So I don't want to be too critical of Mahoney for something that's true of all of us. My experience has been that the public at large has very little contact with blindness outside its portrayal in books, movies, and pop culture. And as Mahoney pointed out in the book, these portrayals have often been less than flattering.

Maybe I'm being more critical of her though, because she had extensive experience with blind people, and I expected more.

There were parts of the book I loved: often they had nothing to do with blindness. Here's a quote from Sabriye Tenberken - the founder of Braille Without Borders, and more or less THE main character of Mahoney's book:

"Not until I accepted my blindness did I begin to live." (pg 29) Ok, ok... it's true. That quote is about blindness - but really, it's not. Realizing and accepting our station and being honest about it is vital to have a fulfilling life. (I just read another book, which I loved called The Secret Side of Empty in which a girl cannot truly be who she is until she accepts her situation.)

I also liked one of the stories a student at the Kerala school wrote, explaining to the sighted how to interact with the blind.

As I read that essay, and other interactions with students at the school, I wondered if they had been given the opportunity to read the book. (Often there was very personal information shared.) I wondered what they thought of it. If anyone has a link to a review from a student of either school, post it in the comments.

Much of the history was fascinating, if also at times horrifying.

On page 100, Mahoney tells us, "...It should come as no surprise that 90 percent of the world's blind or visually impaired people live in developing countries." And later on the same page, "...To put the the present status of the world's blind into perspective, nine out of ten blind or visually impaired children in developing countries have no access whatsoever to education. Because they are blind."

Sobering. The world needs more Tenberkens. And I'm thankful to have been born here, and that my daughters were born here.

As for history, the worst was when when Howe - who worked with and was an advocate for the blind - threw them under the bus. He also, by the way, threw their parents under the bus... Extra dickish, if you ask me. For instance, there was a girl who went blind from fever, "...Howe suggested that her susceptibility to the disease and the resultant blindness derived from her slightly 'scrofulous' and supposedly small-brained parents. (The parents naturally took umbrage.)" (pg. 131-132)

Or maybe the worst was when Dufau burned a school's entire Braille (as well as Hauy's raised-print) Library... Because the blind would become, "too dependent" on it. I think the sighted are too dependent on print. ...Jackass.

Throughout the book, I kept thinking of Schrodinger's Cat, and the realities we create. The blind experience a substantially different world than the sighted. But that doesn't mean that their experiences or reality are wrong. In fact the world and science need people to look at things with a fresh set of... well... you know what I mean... Brains...

The last section of the book deals with what happens when a new reality is created: when the blind gain sight. Often, it's not pretty. I would hate to lose my sight now, because this is what I know. But many blind people scoff at the thought of gaining sight - because blindness is what they know.

Mahoney pulls a lot from the book Crashing Through. Liz says it's fantastic, though I haven't gotten around to read it. Even the Mahoney's cover is reminiscent of that book:



But in that case - and many others, it wasn't wine and roses when the blind "gained" sight. I imagine it like being given super-sight, and being able to see all the germs and bacteria crawling over everything. I'd never go into a carpeted house again. Maybe if someone was born with super-sight, they'd be able to create a reality that was livable and help mankind. But as for me? No thanks.

By the end of the book, I hadn't figured out if Mahoney had gotten over her own fear of being blind or not. Or if she stopped seeing the blind as people to be pitied, rather than people to be people...

But if nothing else, she got out the word about Braille Without Borders as well as Tenberken's book: My Path to Tibet - and that in itself is something.

[LATOYA JOVENA · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is beautifully written. The author is empathetic with the blind people she encounters, you get to walk in their shoes. Yet you won't pity them, because quite frankly they don't need it. I doubt anyone would choose to be blind but the book does reveal that relying solely on site has some disadvantages. The feel of the world around us is something we ignore when we can see it. This was a truly rewarding read.

[Luke]

A remarkable look at the lives of those who are blind. The author worked in several schools for blind and spent a lot of time with them with a great appreciation for their world. Very helpful and encouraging book. "It seemed to me that they knew the city every bit as well as its sighted residents, and I was beginning to wonder whether I too couldn't benefit from knowing my environment from this different perspective." "For most of the blind people I knew, there were sadnesses and tragedies far more painful than the failure of their eyes. For most of them, their blindness was not psychologically, or even practically, their greatest hardship. They were frustrated and disappointed at having been marginalized, scorned, and treated with disrespect because of their blindness. They had chosen to devote their lives to changing that and similar discriminations, to battling ignorance and the hatreds that arise from it."

[Rebecca McPhedran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by Rosemary Mahoney, who traveled to two schools for the blind, one in India and one in Tibet. She followed the work of Sabriye Tenberken, a blind woman who founded Braille Without Boarders, the first school for the blind in Tibet.
Mahoney does a good job describing how the blind have been treated in the past (as lazy, conduits for the devil, horrible members of society-pretty much anything negative you could think of). I thought this book was ok, but I wanted to hear more from the blind members of the schools. At the beginning she was like "oh being blind would be the worst thing ever. I would rather die" etc, etc. As someone who loves and lived with a blind person, (my mother), I was a little put off. I know first hand how self reliant, smart, and as far from "handicapped" they can be.

[Sumei · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subtitle is misleading, since the writer is not blind. I found her to be clueless, rude, and sometimes offensive. She finally learns something, on page 266 out of 268: "...[blind people] were human beings just like the rest of us, with lives and important relationships and personal complications that from time to time took precedence over everything else. Just like the rest of us." Well duh. She met some fascinating people but told their stories in a patronizing way. Historical points are the most interesting part, but they are tossed into the narrative seemingly randomly.

[FM · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a tough one for me. The first two thirds of this book made me so mad that I kept saying I should just bring it back to the library unfinished. The author's attitude toward blindness and blind people was so over-the-top negative that I had a hard time believing it. Seriously, she has never had to deal with ANYone who is different in some way? This woman who has traveled all over the world and seen all kinds of people and customs and different ways of life? I really cannot understand how she had such a weirdly negative reaction to blindness and that her own experience of having to deal with being in a dark room was so exaggeratedly and bizarrely negative. I kept wanting to yell at her, "JUST PAY ATTENTION!!"
On the other hand . . .
She definitely knows how to write and her powers of description, such as her description of Kerala (where she lived for a while) was vivid and often amusing. And ultimately, she did begin to see her students as actual people and not superhumans or conversely unhuman. The last couple of chapters as she explained what some of her students have gone through (civil war, illness, death of loved ones, discrimination, lack of education, lack of opportunity) was genuinely moving. It was worth reading the book for me to be introduced to her students.

[Rachel Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

An interesting read about schooling but the hope that author changes her opinions and obvious fear is not fulfilled. Unfortunately. Unnecessary inclusions such as giving rude gestures towards the head of the school are uncalled for. The author would have done well to research in schools across different cultures and examine people with varying ambition, perspectives and talent. Overall it does nothing to dispel any myths of grotesque stereotypical imagery.

[Zivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book for the blind, as the title states, it is for the benefit of those who see.

Blind people may take offense at the level of ignorance displayed by the author. However I think this ignorance real, or exaggerated serves a purpose. It allows a reader that approaches blind people with such misconceptions to take the journey into enlightenment together with the narrator.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the majority of us who can see, the very idea of losing our sight is terrifying. The author of this book admits to this very fear at the beginning of this book. But in her efforts to better understand what life is like for the blind, she ventures to a school for the blind in Lhasa, Tibet and another in southern India. After living among the blind and working closely with them, she gradually comes to appreciate that her perspectives on being blind are not generally shared by those she meets. To her amazement, many of the blind she meets are surprisingly adept at using their other senses to perceive their world, often in in greater detail than she can with her eyes.

This is a powerful exploration of what it means to be blind, dispelling the myths and misconceptions that those of us who can see. It is highly enlightening, and even, at times, entertaining.

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both thought-provoking and perhaps a little disappointing. Others have covered the book (good and bad) better than I can, so I'll keep this short.

Mahoney, spurred on by a fear of blindness, seeks to better understand the lives of the blind and how they perceived the world around them. It is in many ways a slow process for her; teaching English in a school where most of the students are blind (run by Sabriye Tenberken -- not a school for basic academics and functioning but for aspiring entrepreneurs), although she fairly quickly adjusts to the ways in which the students have learned to navigate the world around them, it is much longer before she can detach from...I'm not sure what term I want here. Automatic pity?

The subtitle is dispatches from the world of the blind, but make no mistake: This is a book by the sighted, for the sighted. Although Mahoney profiles both students she taught and people of historical interest, the focus ends up being more about her own journey. That's not necessarily a bad thing, or out of line, but I did want more perspectives from the people she's interacting with rather than her perspectives of their lives. (She spends a lot of time talking about Tenberken, which also doesn't seem unreasonable -- except that Tenberken's already told her own story.) I'm also curious about how her experience would have been different had her interactions been with people in more developed countries. Some of her students were from highly developed countries -- Germany, Japan, etc. -- but they get a lot less screen time, for whatever reason. Probably outside the scope of this book, but (leaving aside the question of academics vs. entrepreneurship) I'd be interested to know how experiences differ at, say, any of the dozens of schools for the blind in the U.S.

One of the most interesting things Mahoney discusses, though, is the question of those who gain sight after a life lived without it. It's here that some of her students' comments really click -- how can you miss a sense that you've never had? When she talks about the struggles particular individuals have had in adjusting to sight, it's clearer than ever that the problem is not sightlessness but a society built solely for the sighted. How do you prepare someone for a sense (an incredibly stimulating sense, at that) they've never experienced?

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's one of those cases where a half star would work. But, that being impossible in goodreads, I just can't get to a place where I round up.

There are two fascinating stories here. The author's travels through the worlds of the blind, with her description of their total self sufficiency and confidence. There's also the story which we could call a cultural history of blindness, including an all-too-short chapter on the immense challenges those who gain sight late in life encounter. But Rosemary Mahoney can't entirely bring together the two threads. Her writing is of high quality (though, and this is purely personal observation, it seemed a bit patrician in places) but I was never sure, when we switched from memoir to history, why we fetched up in a particular place in either strand. It didn't perform as admirably as another book I read this year that made similar narrative switches.

So maybe this book just suffers from the ill luck, in my reading year, of a fresh comparison.

Follow me on Twitter: @Dr_A_Taubman

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a very interesting look at specific areas relating to blindness. Because of her interest in the subject, the author visited a school for the blind in Tibet and taught for several months at a related one in India. The book is mostly the story her encounters at those two schools. They are both operated by Braille without Borders, founded by an amazing German woman who is blind and her sighted husband. The stories of the people there are fascinating. Most of the blind people had heartbreaking pasts. I was not aware that there was so much prejudice and discrimination against blind people, worldwide and far back into history. The author also includes sections on the history of (mostly Western) civilization dealing with blindness and on what happens when people blind since birth or early childhood have their vision restored.

The book is well written and the subject matter is fascinating. The only things I didn't always like were the author's periodic revelations about her own fears and dislikes. I guess they aren't unusual, and she expresses them in an insightful and sometimes humorous way; I just didn't like some of them.

[Kathleen Hagen]

For the Benefit of Those Who See: Dispatches from the World of the Blind, by Rosemary Mahoney, narrated by the author, produced by Hachette Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Rosemary Mahoney tells the story of Braille Without Borders, the first school for the
blind in Tibet, and of Sabriye Tenberken, the blind woman from Germany who founded the school. Fascinated and impressed by what she learned from the blind
children of Tibet, Mahoney was moved to investigate further the cultural history of blindness. As part of her research, she spent three months teaching
at Tenberken's international training center for blind adults in Kerala, India, an experience that reveals both the shocking oppression endured by the
world's blind, as well as their great resilience. Her research also alerts us to the dismal progress society has made in accepting the blind as pproductive citizens. I didn’t expect to like this book, and the beginning of the book bore this out for me. Rosemary talks initially about the things in her life that made her fear blindness above all things. But then she goes on to brave those fears and break her perceptions. Her voice is perfect for narrating her book.

[Mom2nine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, well researched book. Some reviews have stated that she gives too much physical detail, but I think that it is fair to say that many of us have had few if any encounters with blind people; so I am sorry for our ignorance about the subject. Mahoney asks the questions that we would all like answers to, even if they sometimes seem juvenile, perhaps that is partially why we read the book. Although she gives a history of the treatment of blind people, her writing flows and her descriptions are very well written. "Sight is a slick and overbearing autocrat, trumpeting its prodigal knowledge and perceptions so forcefully that it drowns out the other, subtler senses. We go through our day semi-oblivious to a whole range of sensory information because we are distracted and enslaved by our eyes." p 79

[Nelda Brangwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book written by a woman who worked for Braille Without Boundaries in both Tibet and India. Her description of the people with whom she worked brings them springing from the pages. She is continually surprised by how they are able to navigate the world where we assume sighted people have and advantage. In between her recollections of her work in BWB, she gives a history of the blind. One of the most surprising things I found in this "history book" section was that most blindness in third world countries could be cured with cataract surgery. This is an educating, entertaining book I'd recommend to anyone interested in people with "disabilities". The people she met didn't see themselves disabled although society does.

[Hilary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting to start with, but for me it became too much about her and not enough about the blind. Read about 2/3.

[Nolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Essentially, the book details the sighted author’s experiences working with blind students in India and Tibet. It is a chronicle of her own assumptions and fears, and she makes a gallant attempt here at demonstrating to her sighted readership how false many of her assumptions were.

This was probably a good book for me to read because it enhanced my empathy toward those who lose their sight. My initial inclination is to encourage such individuals to “just suck it up and move forward,” a perfectly horrible thing to quietly believe, let alone say out loud to anyone. After all, how well did I just suck it up and move forward when I spent three months in a wheelchair in early 2016? I was an abysmal failure at Suck It Up and Move Forward school during that time, I can tell you. So I’ll be the first to say I needed the empathy.

That said, I didn’t feel like I could relate to the other students in ways I should have—probably speaks to a personal deficiency of mine, not the author’s talent or efforts at bridging that gap. I also think the book accurately describes the fear and hatred and revulsion that greets blind and visually impaired people even here in the U.S. on a regular basis. There’s always a choice—either dwell on that revulsion or push through it and educate whomever you can one at a time. The book serves as a stark reminder of how relatively well off those of us in the U.S. really are. I get that many of us live in horrific circumstances, but a heck of a lot of us think nothing of whipping out the iPhone X or the iPad Pro without agonizing over whether we can afford to do that. Granted, there’s some reference in this book to Internet connections and screen readers, but there’s a lot in here about stinging red ants infesting a bed and snakes that rear up in preparation for who knows what kind of horror.

There are horror stories here about parents who deliberately abandon blind children or even seek to kill them. While sighted Americans aren't engaging in the wholesale destruction of the nation's blind and visually impaired population, the author points out that blindness is the one life condition feared most by Americans who aren't blind. It apparently ranks above terminal illnesses in the most feared category. That doesn't surprise me based on interactions I've had with others.

[Yaaresse · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at abt 56%.

I've had it with this author. The whole "OMG! Blind people can dress themselves and look in the direction of a speaker! How? How?. It's AMAZING!" incredulous manner drove me up the wall.

I'd hoped the book would be more about the school/program in Tibet and its founder, not this trigger-prone anxious writer wringing her hands about her own fears and hangups. Her condescension and ableist musings were just too much to stomach. All three conditions of my disclaimer below apply.

___
DNF Disclaimer: Usually I don't mark my DNF/abandoned books as "read" or give them a rating. That said, I might do one or both if any of the following is applicable:
A) I read 25% or more. It's a completely arbitrary limit, but that is more than enough time for a book to prove its value to me.
B) I find the content or writing especially inane, insufferable, or just plain old dull.
C) Either the content or author's POV simply annoyed the hell out of me.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a special insight into the daily life of people who are blind and the prejudices they must endure. Braille Without Borders is a boarding school in Tibet and India and emphasizes the persecutions the blind are subject to in developing countries.
Years ago, I worked with a co-worker who was blind. The co-worker was a successful employee in the operations department of a bank. He used a Braille typewriter. This book discusses the importance of access to affordable Braille machines to blind people in developing counties.
The book discusses the psychological challenges faced by blind people whose sight was restored. It was very enlightening.

[Cricket Muse · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title sets a tone of the book being a type of prescription for those who have sight. In a way the author does dispel some stereotypes that might exist a sighted reader might have about the blind; however, the author is not objective in presenting her thoughts and experiences and the book.

While engaging in part, as many of the blind students are personable and inspirational, the book ends up being more of a memoir with a couple of historical chapters about education and the blind.

[April Helene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read an excerpt of this book for class. From what I read, I loved the Author's writing style and I liked the people involved with this moment. There were some moments that I found to be a bit dull and to me, there was nothing groundbreaking so I only rated a 3 out of 5. Maybe in the future I'll read the full book to see how I actually feel about it, but for now it was a "meh" read.

[Tong Kosong · Rating 5 out of 5]

love the genuine, honesty, witty humour.
I have come to understand more about the culture around blindness through reading this book.
Definitely a good first step to reading more of the similar genre to better understand the lives of people with a disability through a more humane non-medical lens.

[Cathy Smyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book immensely! It was a combination of literature review on perceptions on blindness and learning about how blindness is a gift if you see it that way! I will definitely be addicting it to my reading list for my Intro to Visual impairment class.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally thought well of her writing and of the research apart from her personal experience. I would want to read more from her but only if she had no interest in or experience with the subject matter

[Sara Leacock · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The experience of this book was a little uneven for me. There were sections I enjoyed a great deal, and then sections that were much slower and also a number of philosophical arguments the author made that I didn’t really agree with. Overall, a very interesting read though.

[V.K. Budd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible look into how blind people interpret and handle life.

[Jan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing. Learned so much about those with limited or no sight.