Here is one of the six sections of Moana’s school project. This section about blindness features an interview with Caitlin. She decided to arrange this section a bit like a page of a newspaper and creatively called the newspaper ‘The Western Pupil’.
Can you tell me about yourself?
My name is Caitlin Smith and I am a singing teacher and a song writing coach and a singer and a songwriter. I do a lot of things. And I am legally blind.
What does being legally blind mean?
90% of blind people in NZ can see something and 10% can see nothing. So most people who are legally blind and say they are blind when the census is taken, have a sight condition like:
- tunnel vision
- short sightedness
- long sightedness
rather than being unable to see anything at all.
What sort of blindness do you have?
My condition is called monochromatism. It is the result of not having any cones in my eyes. Cones allow you to see colour. I am also short sighted and have astigmatism.
Have you always been blind?
I have been blind from birth. I was given thick glasses when I was one and a half years old, but they made my vision worse. The problem was, no-one new what my problem was. I have had to work it out as I’ve got older.
What can you see?
Not having cones means I can’t see colour and being short sighted means I can’t see detail. Everything is black and white and fuzzy. What I can see is some shape and form. So this top I’m wearing, is it green or blue? To me it is just a mid tone. But when I saw you and your dad walking up the path, I could see that you both walk at the same angle. I am extremely light sensitive. I have to wear very dark glasses during the day or else everything is white like an over-exposed photograph. I can’t see anything in the supermarkets because they are so bright. I end up doing yoga and crouching or lying on the floor to see what is on the labels of the food.
Are there any good things about being blind?
One of the things about being blind is that your other senses compensate for your lack of vision. People with normal vision rely on their vision a lot. So I might be saying, I can hear a fire, I can smell something burning, but they say “No, I can’t see any smoke. There’s no fire.”
Is your eyesight getting better or worse?
My blindness is getting better. 75% of people who go to the blind institute are elderly and their vision is getting worse, but for me because I’m short sighted my vision is getting better. I can see a tiny bit clearer each day.
Have you ever learnt Braille or had a guide dog and do you use a cane?
I haven’t ever learnt Braille or had a guide dog because I can get by without. I can read text if it is very big. I have used a cane but I don’t use one at the moment. I had one when I was young, but I lent it to a friend and I never got it back.
Can you tell me a sad story about being blind?
Most blind kids go to a school for blind kids such as Homai School for the Blind, but my parents sent me to a normal school and I had to learn to get along the same as everyone else. I remember one teacher particularly. Because I couldn’t see my book easily, I had to lean forward and look at it closely, and this one teacher was obsessed with posture so she would walk around the class with a steel ruler and whack kids on the back if they weren’t sitting up straight. But that school did teach me to be independent, and I have generally been able to get by without very much help ever since.
Can you tell me a funny story about being blind?
Being blind you learn to have a thick skin because you make mistakes. For instance I have often walked up to bags of rubbish that people have put out to be collected and gone to pat them thinking that they are a dog. Oops. And I have walked up to a cardboard cutout of a man that they have at the flight centre and started talking to him before I realised he wasn’t real.
