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sight unseen

Sight Unseen

Georgina Kleege

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999

by: Brian Schumacher

Creative writer and university lecturer Georgina Kleege was diagnosed with early onset macular degeneration (Stargardt disease) when she was eleven years old. Part memoir, part cultural criticism, she discusses how she coped with going blind in a family and culture that encouraged her to conceal her condition. She also sets out to educate the fully sighted about the permutations of sight, making it clear that to be blind does not necessarily mean without any kind of sight. She dismantles negative stereotypes about the blind as embodied in film, literature, and the sometimes-insensitive words and actions of the fully sighted.

Further Reading

Film
“A Is for Artist:” A Short Film about Robert Andrew Parker

Robert Andrew Parker

“A Is for Artist:” A Short Film about Robert Andrew Parker

In this short video profile, Parker reflects upon his career, inspirations, and how vision loss has affected his work (scarcely at all).

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