BEING BLIND IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

We live in a world where looks are everything, but what happens when you don’t have the ability to “look”?

According to The World Health Organization, there are over 285 million people visually impaired worldwide. That’s 285 million people who can’t see the perfect Insta opp, can’t read the hilarious memes in Facebook group-chats or can’t even drool over clothes they can’t afford.

For those of us with sight, this concept may seem unimaginable. A world without sight? How could you survive?

Well, Instagram and YouTube sensation, Molly Burke is living proof there’s more to life than what meets the eye (literally).

In fact, this is exactly how Molly introduced herself at a talk held on “Belonging” by The Walrus Talks in London, back in October of 2017.

Molly began by saying: “There’s a lot more to me than meets the eye.. In fact, “eye” is the very problem”.

The YouTube sensation with an astonishing 1.95m subscribers lives with a rare degenerative sight disease known as Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and lost her full sight in 2010 at the tender age of 14.

Molly was recently named in Allures Top 19 Alisters for 2022

For many, this statement is one of great sadness and sympathy, however for Molly, she considers it one of luck.

“I live with a rare disease and rare gene- I'm that lucky”.

Molly goes on to speak of society’s attitude toward the disabled and how disabilities are constantly labelled as needing to be “cured, changed, healed or made normal”, instead of simply accepting them.

“I am not broken, I don’t need to be fixed, society does”.

The “curb cut phenomena” is the term Molly uses to describe a universal world through the simple example of slanted sidewalk crossings. As Molly explains, not only are they useful for wheelchair users but they’re also useful for kids on skateboards, mothers with buggies and couples on bikes, not to mention they’re also perfect for the fully able- far more purposeful then block curbs accessible for just one group.

So why hasn’t the rest of the world realised this? Why are restaurant menus still not written in brail? Touch screens in cafes and McDonald’s not accessible for the visually impaired and so on?

Well, it’s not all bad- Apple, as named by Molly, are one company whose design is universal.

Screen reading technology is built-in for the blind at no extra cost, requiring no extra assistance- creating a sense of “belonging to their customer base”.

Instagram have also hopped on the bandwagon with the introduction of their accessible features back in 2018.

One out of two of these features is an ‘object recognition’ facility which digitally scans the objects in an image, generating a description for users in need.

The other feature is the “#alt” text option. This enables users to add, in addition to their captions, a description of their images in order for those who can’t see to instead hear what the picture holds.

My world consists of travel, Instagram, makeup, fun and so does Molly’s- just minus her sight. I belong in my world just like she belongs in hers, it just so happens to “not be a world where I can see, it’s one where I don’t have to”, says Molly.

Molly was recently thrilled to be listed in Allures Top 19 “A-Listers” of 2022 and is proud to be representing those who are blind and visually impaired in the beauty and makeup industry.

Because, for the record, looks and more importantly; the ability to look, isn’t actually everything.