Blindness Awareness in 2021

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

My name is Victor, I am a member of the disability community and work as a disability advocate at Disability Rights Florida. Each year, Blindness Awareness Month allows me the opportunity to recognize the progress that's been made to ensure that people with disabilities—people like me—can, to paraphrase Jacobus tenBroek, exercise the “Right to Live in the World” fully with dignity and equity.

Typically, during Blindness Awareness Month, we celebrate the progress and recognize the achievements in the blind community. We provide education on subjects as varied as blindness etiquette, accommodating blindness in the workplace and in the community, Guide dogs, the white cane, and much more.

But it’s 2021 and my thoughts turn to Blindness Awareness in the context of the world as it is today. It has been a confusing and difficult year and its potential impact is more profound than other years. We experience the George Floyd murder in police custody and the protests that subsequently evolved to express sorrow and outrage. We face COVID-19, the fear surrounding prioritized limited medical resources, and the financial impact of the pandemic. We see increased racial, ethnic, gender, LBGTQ+, and disability hate-based violence. We see violent extremist movements target any and all opposing views.

All of us in the disability community are part of the world in this confusing and difficult year. If this year has taught us nothing, it is that the walls propping up discrimination, hate, and violence based on race, gender, orientation, ethnicity, and disability must come down.

This year in honor of Blindness Awareness Month it is time to ensure that all people, not only people with disabilities, exercise the “Right to Live in the World” fully with dignity and equity.