Ignorance is Expensive

By Nicole Mason

I became legally blind at age sixteen, a month before my birthday. When I was thirteen I was diagnosed with Juvenile Macular Degeneration. I still had most of my sight at the time so it did not affect me greatly.

A couple of years later, I was legally blind due to the normal progression of the disease. I still have my peripheral vision, but I have lost most of my center sight. This makes it difficult to read, and do other close work, as well as losing the ability to drive.

I was young in a town with one other blind person. One would think though, that my town and the people who work within it, knew about blindness. After all, they train Fidelco guide dogs in my town. I think what surprised people is that I am blind. I use no cane, no dog and wear no glasses.

This is to my disadvantage, though, because I look as if I belong to the sighted world. When still in high school I received different reactions from people when they found out I was blind. One reaction that I will never forget is when I told a teacher I was blind and she asked me if I needed assistance leaving the room.

"Excuse me?" I replied, making sure I heard her right. She repeated herself more slowly now, and moved closer to me so I could get a better view. I backed a few steps away and replied, "I will leave how I got in here…by walking out the door. Telling you does not make me need guidance."

I was polite, but I attribute it to the newness of my blindness. Last year, at age nineteen, I went to the bursar of my college about financial problems with my grant from the Board of Education and Services for the blind. When I was there, she asked, "Who is getting these services?" I replied that "it was my name on the check". She said, "But Nicole, you have such beautiful eyes, you cannot be blind." I sat there stunned; I needed a moment for it to sink in.

"Well its true," I said "I…" She cut me off. "You are so young and have no aids, are you sure you are blind?" Then I glanced down and my eyes stopped on something. There was a bumper sticker on the front of her desk. It said, "If you think that education is expensive, try ignorance." I looked at her and said, "Why don't you read your bumper sticker and think about it, because I have no time for ignorant people."