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I was born with some opaque vision but by the time I was nine, I was functionally blind. I never lost the ability to see light and contrast in one eye. Recognising contrast and variation is a lot when you’re blind, so if you see something dark, you might think it’s a door.

The first part of my life was very nice. I grew up on a little farm and did everything with my brothers and sisters. I learned how to plant things and how to tend them while they grew, and to look after animals. I felt exactly like my brothers and sisters. The only difference I remember is that if I didn’t wear shoes I’d hurt my feet more than the others so my parents insisted I wear shoes outside.

The struggle to learn

My mother taught me to recognise the print alphabet, by writing big capital letters with a stick in the earth. I could make letters at school on a very large slate, but not in a straight line. At regular primary school, I came last in all my classes. The principal persuaded my parents to send me to a school for the blind 120 miles away when I was 11. My mother took me to the school but I didn’t want her to leave and I wouldn’t let go of her. I tried to run away on three separate occasions. In each instance I couldn’t find the way to the bus station.

I got used to the school eventually. I learned lots of games such as blind cricket, got good grades and learned Braille quickly. Before I knew it, I was coming in the top four in my class and made head boy.

Inclusive education

Having experienced both mainstream and specialist schools, I strongly believe that inclusive education with appropriate technical support is the way to prepare children to live in a sighted society. I learned lots of things with sighted children that I wouldn’t have learned at the blind school. I learned social skills, to talk about girls, how to fight. To not educate children in a sighted environment exposes them to the risk of not being able to live and compete in that environment.

My career

When I finished school I trained as a switchboard operator. I worked in the office of then Prime Minister Michael Manley, who arranged special study leave for me to go to university, where I studied social work.

I began working for the CCB as assistant director in 1983. Since 1993 I’ve been the executive director of the organisation. CCB brings together organisations working in blindness prevention and sight restoration and organisations that provide services to blind people. My job is to make sure that activities are planned and implemented in line with the mission and objectives of the council.

Seeing again

In 2004 I received corneal graph on one eye. The surgery improved my sight for two years. I could see in more detail – I could look into my daughter’s eyes, I could look into my wife’s eyes. I could see them smiling at me.
The variation in people is what I found most astounding. They hold their faces differently, they walk differently. As a blind person you don’t know there is so much body language. I loved looking around and noticing the difference in people and things. Everything is unique and different.

In my job I get a lot of satisfaction from spending time helping people try to get their sight back. I took that work for granted until I got my own sight back for a time. Now I have a renewed appreciation for what I do.