Living Without Sight
“I lost most of my sight at birth when I was given harsh eye drops. During my teenage years, I became totally blind and sank into a deep depression.”—Paqui, a middle-aged woman whose husband is also blind.

Blindness or serious visual impairment can have many causes, including injury and disease. These may affect the eyes, the optic nerves, or the brain. People who lose much or all of their sight often experience denial, grief, and fear. Many, though, learn to cope very well and go on to lead satisfying lives.
The eyes are normally our primary source of information about the world around us. So when someone loses his sight, he comes to rely more heavily on other senses—hearing, smell, touch, and taste.
According to the magazine Scientific American, research on neuroplasticity suggests that the brain has the ability “to change with experience.” The article adds: “A large body of evidence shows when the brain is deprived of input in one sensory modality, it is capable of reorganizing itself to support and augment other senses.” Consider the following.
Hearing: From voices to footsteps, sounds can paint a mental picture. “I have learned to remember and recognize people by their voices or even by how they walk,” says a blind man named Fernando. Juan, who is also blind, says: “For a blind person, another’s voice is his identity.” And like all of us, the blind take careful note of tone, which can convey a variety of emotions.
To the trained ear of a blind person, sound also says a lot about the environment—from the direction of traffic to the size of a room to the location of certain obstacles.
Smell: The sense of smell can also be a rich source of information, but not just about the source of an aroma. For example, when a blind person walks along a certain route, his sense of smell can help him to form a mental map that may include coffee shops, restaurants, markets, and so on. Of course, familiar sounds add to the map, as do details acquired through the sense of touch.
Touch: “My fingers are my eyes,” says Francisco. The range of those “eyes” can be extended by means of a cane. Manasés, who was born blind and learned to use a cane in childhood, said, “I know exactly where I am thanks to my other senses, my memory, and the patterns on the sidewalk that I detect with the aid of my cane.”
The sense of touch also enables many blind people to read by means of literature published in Braille. Nowadays, in fact, it is not unusual for a blind person to have access to a number of provisions to enrich his mental and spiritual life. Besides publications in Braille, these provisions include audio recordings and computer-based technology. With the help of these, the blind can read the Bible and a variety of Bible study aids. *
[Footnote.] * Jehovah’s Witnesses produce Bible study aids in Braille in more than 25 languages. [End of Footnote.]
Those spiritual provisions have been a source of immeasurable comfort and hope to Paqui and her husband, mentioned at the outset. They have also gained the support of a large spiritual family, the local Christian congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. “We are now able to live a full and reasonably independent life,” Paqui says.
Indeed, blindness presents special challenges. But what a testimony to human adaptability and resilience when people confront those challenges and carry on with the joys of life!
Box on pages 8, 9
[Box.] Although Blind, I Have a Rewarding Life

Marco Antonio is a husband, father, and joint owner of a business. He is also blind from birth. He spoke with Awake! about some of his joys and challenges.

You run a business. How do you accomplish that?
In my work, I handle telephone inquiries, meet clients and suppliers, and do banking.
What do you do for recreation?
I love music. It relaxes me. And I play the piano, although it’s a challenge because I cannot read Braille music and at the same time play it with both hands. When I first play a piece of music, I read it with my right hand and play the piano with the left. Then I repeat the process, but with my hands swapping roles. When I learn the score by heart, I play with both hands.
Have you faced any special challenges?
When I was growing up, my parents and siblings took good care of me, and they treated me as if I were not blind. Granted, I suffered the usual bumps and falls, but I got used to doing most things a sighted person can do. When I reached adulthood, the only thing that really bothered me was that I couldn’t drive.
Now I am a husband and father, and I have a loving family whom I support and who give me support. My dear son, David, has inherited my condition—optic nerve atrophy. But I am trying to set a good example for him. I want him to learn that with patience and determination, he can do many things.
You now have a guide dog. Why did you choose to get one?
With Dante—that’s my dog’s name—I can walk faster and safer. When I go somewhere for the first time, my wife, Loli, who is not blind, accompanies us so that Dante and I can learn the route. I must confess that at first I found it hard to entrust my safety to a dog. But Dante earned my full trust. No matter what happens around us, he concentrates on the job. But when I remove his harness, he behaves like any other dog.
As one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, how do you personally study the Bible?
When technology for the blind was limited, Loli read the Bible and Bible study aids to me. She was a great help. As a result, I was even able to give talks at congregation meetings. Nowadays, though, I can read for myself because I have the Bible and study aids in Braille. I can also go to the website established by Jehovah’s Witnesses—jw.org—where I download audio recordings. And I have a Braille display, which enables me to read what is on my computer monitor. The display has small pins that pop up in groups to form Braille characters. It’s quite amazing!
A privilege I have especially enjoyed is assisting with Braille transcription at the Spain branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Madrid. In order to improve the quality of Braille publications, those preparing them value suggestions from the blind. So I can honestly say that I feel both loved and appreciated by my spiritual brothers and sisters.
Do you enjoy interacting with others?
Yes, especially with my immediate family and fellow Witnesses, with whom I also go out preaching from door to door. My spiritual brothers and sisters treat me the way they treat anybody else. In fact, they sometimes forget that I’m blind!
I might add that the ministry enables me to share with others the precious hope found in the Bible. For example, at Isaiah 35:5, we read that under God’s Kingdom government, “the eyes of the blind will be opened.” When Jesus Christ was on the earth, he cured the blind, giving us a preview of that future time. (Matthew 15:30, 31) Blindness, therefore, is a temporary problem, which is true of all disabilities. In the earthly Paradise to come, no one will say, ‘I am sick or disabled.’—Isaiah 33:24; Luke 23:43. [End of Box.]