October is Blindness Awareness month, and as a publisher with vision loss, I felt it worthy to show how I overcome my degenerative blindness daily!
(In case you didn't know, anyone who has vision loss that is beyond correction and effects more than their acuity is considered "blind" in legal/social terms.)
Retinitis Pigmentosa is the disease that both my mother and I have. I was diagnosed at age thirteen, and I've been on a perpetual journey of adaptation ever since. My eye disease is degenerative, meaning it causes my sight to deteriorate over the course of my life. There is no rhyme-or-reason as to when my eyesight will take a hit, it just happens. Now that I have brought my two daughters into this world, I am faced with testing them as well to find out if they have the disease too (they have a 50/50 chance); a whole other rollercoaster of emotions there...
The photos within this article are of my former guide dog, Katie and I. Katie lived a great 9 years with me as my best friend! I received her from Southeastern Guide Dogs in Palmetto, FL. If you would like to know more information about her guide dog school, visit https://www.guidedogs.org. They are always looking for sponsors and puppy raisers! If you have questions about how the process goes of getting a guide dog, you can always email me at kierstane@macaronikid.com.
Given the season of life that I am currently in, my new Macaroni Mama identity has been a true lifesaver. A new found sense of confidence and innovation have rushed over me, and describing it as thankful doesn't even suffice. A publisher's job at Macaroni KID is intense, time-consuming, and requires a lot of thought and planning.
For a publisher like me, it requires even more time, planning, and effort. What takes a typical publisher a few minutes to accomplish, might take me a little longer. I can't drive, so I have to have a very planned out schedule based on when I can receive assistance. Sales tactics for me may look a little different at times, because I won't necessarily be the one going door-to-door; this allows me to be more creative and persistent about how I run my Macaroni KID business. The opportunity to be challenged and overcome those challenges has been well-worth it for me.
I jumped in head-first like every other publisher on Macaroni KID, and I don't regret it! My confidence has sky rocketed, and I am finding that I am capable of more than what I originally thought. Molded into a marketing mind, creativity pulsing through my veins, and a true skill of relationship building have been ignited for me. Things I felt excelled at before, but tucked away for quite some time after becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom!
Needless to say, if you are disabled and you wonder if Macaroni KID would be doable for you - I say, go for it! You never know what doors this opportunity may open for you, and I always think the sky is the limit!
I am proud to be a partcipiant, and reason, that Blindness Awareness month exists!
In the spirit of advocacy, read on for some important blindness facts:
- Only an estimated 2-8% of the blind community use a white cane, the rest rely on guide dogs, sighted guides (a person helping them), or their residual vision. (nfb.org)
- There are an estimated 10,000 guide teams working in the US right now, but that still only makes up about 2% of the blind population that uses guide dogs (nfb.org)
- It is recorded that there are 7+ million people in the US that are blind/visually impaired. (nfb.org) And there are 1.1 Billion people around the world dealing with vision loss too. (operationeyesight.com)
- 90% of vision loss is preventable/treatable (this means that those like me with incurable genetic inheritance is a much smaller percentage of these totals) (operationeyesight.com)
- Of the population that we deem completely blind, only 10-15% of them actually see nothing at all. Many retain light perception and actually see something. (perkins.org)
For Your Further Reading/Resources cited above (The first link is highly interesting!):
10 Little Known Facts About Blindness: https://www.perkins.org/10-little-known-facts-about-blindness/
Blindness Statistics: https://nfb.org/resources/blindness-statistics
Avoidable Blindness: https://operationeyesight.com/avoidable-blindness/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsp6pBhCfARIsAD3GZuYscB8H-geai03fSVmzoBgnGlZvl6JdJIYv5VS7HKTHG6J7-K-B06YaAg1EEALw_wcB
Southeastern Guide Dogs https://www.guidedogs.org/
If you want to know more about how I handle my blindness in motherhood/daily life, feel free to follow me over on my TikTok @KMama_20!
