A college campus
without eyes is a photo and audio essay that explores the lives of those
whose personal experiences with the blind community can open the eyes of
sighted students. Blindness is often associated with a walking cane, or a
seeing-eye dog, however it isn’t often one will trip across a blind college
student reviewing a calculus book sans brail. However in the 21st
century, technology is enabling the physically handicap to compete head-to-head
with their peer set.
Because this was such a fascinating topic that deserved
further investigation, a second group focused on a more documentary-type
version to learn more. However, I chose to use this photo essay as an
opportunity to ask the provocative questions about how it feels to be blind in
a sighted community. My personal philosophy is that a documentary provides more
factual insight and less wiggle room for interpretation, so can easily convey objective
data. What I’ve learned through watching many photo essays, is they are truly a
medium that can capture the depth and essence of emotion, emotion drawn out
from experiences, facial expressions, and how long a viewer has to rest his or
her eyes on a photograph.
While news writing is an incredibly difficult endeavor, the
art of capturing emotion in a conversation, translating that to photography,
editing sentences and minutes into digestible sound bites is a tenuous, but
rewarding process. Clipping the sound, adding the photos, then choosing music
to emphasize the combination of words and photos, and finally choose the
transitional details that would bring life to my photo essay was a journey I
hope to take again and again.
The three people who offered to speak with me about life as
a blind person on a college campus, or someone on a college campus whose career
has been focused with students whose disabilities included Michele McCandless, the
Director of Disability Services Program, Dave Thomas, an Academic Counselor for
the Learning Effectiveness Program, and Jesse Workman, who is a PhD candidate
for the Theology/Philosophy program at Iliff School of Theology. Michele
McCandless, who you’ll meet in this video expressed her frustration with the
typical student body who “parts like the red sea” when navigating their way
around a blind person. She also discusses college programs that try to simulate
the challenges a blind person faces by blindfolding students or putting cotton
balls in their ears fails miserably to help students connect with their peers.
She unapologetically explains that students only feel more negatively saying,
“Thank God I don’t have disabilities, or else I’d kill myself.”
The hour I spent with Dave Thomas was special primarily because
of his gentle and calming demeanor, but also because he spoke openly about his
life as a blind man. Dave lost his vision when he was 20 years-old. Before
then, he was just like the rest of us. He tells us about his life, love for his
job and his seeing eye-dog, Hatchet.
Jesse Workman, a candidate for the PhD Theology/Philosophy
program at llif was born blind and has lived inside the academic world for more
than several decades. He candidly tells me about what it feels like to be
different and how even though he cannot see people staring at him, the
awkwardness he intuits is just as painful.
All in all, the interviews for this article did in fact dive
into the technological growth of tools and learning aids for the hearing and
seeing impaired, however during our talks occasionally someone revealed a stark
truth, imploring a stereotypic or touching a topic many feel so uncomfortable
to investigate, my photo and audio essay needed to expose those hidden moments.
It is my belief that before someone can appreciate a
technology, or read a fact-based article full of statistics and first-hand
accounts of how technology or a service or even a nonprofit is bettering the
lives of those affected, one must see and experience the struggles of a person
actually involved in those efforts. Through this photo essay my goal is to put
you in the place of a blind person, a blind student whose goal is to graduate
just like you, but must do so without seeing a thing.
