In Narrating the Closet, Adams described “coming out” as a seemingly never-ending ongoing process. I reflected on the number of times I had to explain how a blind guy could see, and I had a better understanding of coming out. Although I do not have the same negative social stigma, I often get weary repeating myself, trying to explain how a blind guy can see. Autoethnography can provide the reader with an opportunity to embrace the cultural standpoint of the writer,1 especially if they find a way to associate the experience with their own journey. I am attempting to “seek dimensions of experience that will engender connection and recognition in the midst of complexity.”2 I offer this article to provide a perspective of the phenomenon created when an adventitiously blind person (a person who had sight long enough to have visual references, usually after the age of five) tries to re-enter the sight-biased world.
University of California Press