This is a guest post by Cheryl Gillespie, a totally blind writer. Cheryl lost her sight when she was a child, but that didn’t quash her sense of humor or stop her from pursuing her creative dreams.

You might be especially interested in her comments about the publishing platforms available to self-published authors.

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It’s Just Blind Sense

My sister calls me the “artsy” one in the family. She may be right, as I am a teacher of piano and music theory, but I also have a love for writing.

In this moment, it’s an uncomfortable, sticky night in Atlantic Canada. The crickets sing outside my window as if to cheer me on. Tuning into their rhythmic chirps keeps me focused, knowing that seasoned authors may possibly be reading this article. Gulp!

Where to begin? Well, I am totally blind. Phew! Now let me tell you more about myself, and what it’s like to write from a sight-impaired perspective.

A headline on Facebook recently caught my attention, as shared by a senior with vision loss. The caption read:

Not all blind people are the same.

Agreed.

It continued: Not all blind people are musical.

Oh-oh! Well, yes I am.

Not all blind people have super hearing.

Ahem! Wait, I sort of do.

Not all blind people read Braille.

Oh dear! I do that too.

Not all blind people count their steps.

Aha! Now we’re getting somewhere. No, I don’t do that. Besides, if I did, I would probably lose track and have to start all over again. On the other hand, I do count stairs in public buildings, like the six steps leading to the second level of our local mall, or the eleven steps up to the door of the medical clinic.

The thing is, the examples given in that post were somewhat cliché. So let’s expand on these thoughts.

I have a blind friend living in Calgary, Alberta, who likes to ski. Nope, not cross-country. He skis downhill. In contrast, I once read about a visually-impaired woman who wouldn’t so much as plug in her toaster for fear of getting an electric shock. Talk about complete opposites! As for me, I don’t fit into either of these categories. I am neither a thrill seeker nor am I one who is so paralyzed with caution that I can’t live independently.

With respect to my hearing, I also possess enhanced senses of touch and smell. Remember, not all blind people will fall into this fixed stereotype. The reality is, our senses become more developed over time depending on how much we use them. For me, I’ve had a lifetime to rely on these faculties, having lost my sight in early childhood.

I’ve already included sound and touch in this piece, an area that comes naturally to me as a blind writer. But I also crave the poetic rush when referring to things like colour and landscape, accomplished either through my imagination or by making a specific inquiry of a family member. Although I enjoy integrating these broad descriptions into my writing, I tend to avoid the hard-to-grasp finer details, such as facial expression.

Despite my acute senses, I don’t always understand the world from a visual perspective. Honestly, I wouldn’t depend on them to be 100% accurate. Do I know your height by listening to your voice? Hey, I’m a blind musician, not a blind magician! For instance, there was the time I met a woman and while hearing the direction of her voice, I presumed her to be rather short. Later, I discovered that she was sitting in a wheelchair.

What about handshakes? Are they telling, or misleading? Seriously, your guess is as good as mine. Let’s suppose someone vigorously shakes my hand. I might perceive them to be energetic, outgoing and pleased to make my acquaintance. Or maybe they are simply a finance investor whose intention is no more than gaining a client. Groan!

To what extent do you imagine a person or a setting that you can’t see? Let’s explore. You pick up the phone to make a dental appointment. Do you envision the receptionist by the sound of their voice? How about the office surroundings? Or maybe it’s the carpenter answering a cell phone on-site, who is hardly audible above the racket of nail guns and table saws. I’m curious. Once you meet them in person, do they, or their environment, ever look the way you imagined?

Whether visually-impaired or sighted, are we really that much different when pinpointing our sensory perceptions? I highly doubt it. And although I fit into those Braille-reading, music-playing, super-hearing blind characteristics, take into consideration that no matter what our circumstances, we are all unique as individuals.

My Background

At the age of two I was diagnosed with JRA, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The inflammation from this disease spread to my eyes, a condition called uveitis. I then developed glaucoma and cataracts, and by eight years old, my sight was gone.

I suppose there was a time when I had 20-20 vision, but I don’t remember it. I do recall seeing the colours that we learn as children, like red, yellow, green, and blue. However, if you were to describe to me something that is fuchsia or taupe, then you will have to explain it in a colour to which I can relate.

By the time I was nine years old, my parents were faced with a tough decision. In order to maintain my education, I was sent away from my home in New Brunswick to the school for the blind in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With the exception of Christmas and summer vacations, I was separated from my family over a period of six lonely years.

If there were one good thing that came from all of this, it was learning to read and write in Braille. It opened up a world for me, not only in literature but in my daily living. I use it to label books and CDs, my stove, my microwave, and my washer and dryer. A select number of keys on my computer are also marked with Braille. Think about it. Are there things in your own life that would be challenging to navigate were it not for the printed word?

Reading, Writing, Self-publishing

Braille is my preferred method of reading. For those who are not familiar with it, the Braille code is comprised of six dots. Students will first learn the alphabet, before advancing to contractions. You might relate this as being comparable to texting. An explanation of the least complex contractions would be a single letter, or a combination of two or three letters to represent a word.

Examples:

K — Knowledge

LL — Little

TGR — Together

As one Braille page is equivalent to about half a print page, novels can be quite bulky. My recent read, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, was transcribed into a total of eight Braille volumes. It’s my dream that one day I’ll have the opportunity to obtain a device like the Canute Braille display. Its interface with my computer would grant access to more books than I could ever imagine.

In writing, the most efficient approach for me is to use my talking computer. Besides, it has a feature a Braille machine doesn’t have: the delete key. I’m also convinced that hearing the words spoken aloud to me helps to catch errors, repetitions, or the flow of a piece more effectively than someone who reads with their eyes.

As a blind author, self-publishing can be a monumental challenge. For that matter, you might as well take the “self” prefix out of it, because the truth is I can’t do it on my own. So much of it is dependent on the visual aspects. There’s the book’s trim size, the cover choice of gloss or matte, font size and type, (yikes, I read in dots), and whether the layout is portrait or landscape, etc.

Uploading a book’s cover and interior is another hassle. In my limited experience, here’s what I’ve discovered.

CreateSpace:  When they were a division of Amazon, their website was more or less blind-friendly. I was able to upload my book cover and interior, and the employees always seemed willing and available to eyeball it from a visual perspective. Sadly, CreateSpace no longer exists.

Smashwords:  This is another platform whose website is manageable, but it’s not perfect for blind individuals. However, they are also willing to help when necessary.

Amazon Kindle:  Forget about it! The website is confusing, frustrating, and there is no one on staff to offer assistance. They really emphasize the “self” in self-publishing. Ideally, it would be a relief to have a techie contact who knows the ropes of publishing, but for now, with a little arm twisting, it’s my sister who helps me with such details.

To finish this article, I am in my favourite writing spot, my back deck. On this hazy afternoon, my cat, Mattie, keeps me company while she munches on blades of grass. As mentioned at the outset, I enjoy the art of writing. The great tips I read on so many of your author blogs have provided me with several “oops” moments, but at the same time have helped me to improve my craft as I write my autobiography. Being a newbie, I can only hope that if you haven’t gained knowledge from reading my article, then at least you were entertained.

© Cheryl Gillespie, author of I Feel Your Stare: An Autobiography, available at [Amazon.com] [Amazon.ca] [Amazon.co.uk] [Amazon.com.au] [Amazon.in] [Amazon.de] [Apple Books] [KoboBooks] [Barnes & Noble] [Chapters]

She has also written a children’s book, Tigger and Jasper’s New Home.

Thank you, Kathy Steinemann, for extending the invitation to write a guest post. I welcome all of your questions and comments.

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