Helping You “See”

On live-ing, translated…

I’d Never Imagined, that One Day, I Will Become a Set of Eyes for the Visually Impaired………

The famous visually impaired singer, Huang-Chih Hsiao’s “You are My Eyes”, had sounded off in the streets big and small a few years back, and the music video had made me cry several times, but, I’d never imagined, that one day, I will become, a set of eyes, for someone who’s visually impaired too.

The Ability to Tell Where Someone is by the Voices

The first time I met Chang, it was at a chamber concert, as the primary speaker, he was, the leader of the visually impaired musicians, he’d chatted on the modern music histories with me, and played a few songs, we were all having a good time, chatting and listening to the music. Other than needing someone to help him to sit down by his piano, I’d not felt, that Chang was that much different than any of us, until by chance, I was asked to be Chang’s company, and, gone with him to places, did I understand more about the world that the visually impaired live in.

For us, seeing people, it is, hard to imagine, what it was like, in the lives of the visually impaired, even if we wanted to help them out, we wouldn’t have a clue where or how to start. As I accompanied Chang to walk out onto the streets, I’d found, that most simple kind of kindness toward the visually impaired, was letting them put their hands on our arms, and reminding them if there’s a step to watch out for.

Once, we rode on the MRT with a group of visually impaired friends, and because of the crowd, we didn’t get into the same sections, waited until I’d settled Chang down, I’d looked around, for all our other visually impaired friends, and, Chang slowly, pointed toward a certain distance, and told me, “Don’t worry, they all got on, I ‘heard’ all their voices.”, I focused my eyes, wow, there, they all are. I’d known about Chang’s amazing sense of hearing, but now, in a crowded place, I’d finally, gotten to know, how good he really was.

There was once more, I’d accompanied him to a Bach concert, as the performances started, I’d whispered into his ears, told him who was performing, and which instruments were being used, and he’d smiled, and told me which song was played, which instruments played in the songs, and where the instruments sounded off, I’d gone by the menus, and he was, correct!

Feeling Through the Menus Upside Down, and Still Ordered His Own Meals Correctly

The most unique experience was, going with Chang to the outdoors theatres program.

At first, I was, confused, how can someone who can’t see, watch a movie? Turns out, other than playing the movies, this program also had an announcer, who’d spoken on the actions, the story lines, the plots of the movie that was playing; and, when there’s a space in between where there are no dialogues, and nothing that’s going on, the announcer would describe the scenes, so the visually impaired can really get into “watching” the movie.

After the movie was over, the visually impaired audience engaged in discussion of what they just “watched”, which proved that listening to the movies, is just, as interesting as watching them.

There was once more, when I’d, accompanied Chang, and another visually impaired friend, Wang, to a special restaurant to eat—because the owner of the diner was a girl with serious eye problems other than the regular menus, there were also, copies of the menus in braille too. As we got seated, Wang took up the menu, touched across the braille descriptions, and, excitedly told me which food is good. At which time, Wang, who sat opposite of Chang also touched the braille menu, and gave commends on several of the dishes.

from the papers…

As I saw, I couldn’t help but exclaimed, “Whoa! You can ‘read’ upside down too?”, after I’d spoke, both of them started laughing, and asked me, “can’t you tell the names of the dishes, when you read the menus upside down too?”, that, was when I’d realized, that they’d felt through the braille upside down, it isn’t as easy, but they can still manage to understand what was written too.

As I’d spent more time with my visually impaired friends, the more I’d felt, that they were, more down-to-earth and straightforward with others, and, compared to how the seeing population had, cared about other people’s expressions, they had that extra sense of ingenuity to them. And because I’m trying to, understand them more and more, I’d gained something extra, than I normally would.

So, this, is on adaptations of the blind people, and, although life isn’t as easy for these individuals as it sometimes is for us, seeing people, but, they’re able to, make the adjustments in life that are necessary, to help them live on with ease.