Disablism: The Seeing Spouse

I am sighted; my spouse is blind.

There are a few things that I do better than my spouse because I am sighted and my spouse is not

• drive
• track fashions
• skim
• frisbee
• watch television with the sound off
• check cakes in the oven

There are ways in which my skills or capacities exceed those of my spouse but they have nothing to do with vision or blindness:

• news junkiedom
• my chosen profession
• broad general knowledge
• cooking sans recipe
• hear high register sounds

There are also ways in which my spouse surpasses me that have little or nothing to do with blindness

• music
• moral and ethical consistency
• optimism
• ability to predict plot twists mid-drama
• task orientation
• cookie baking quality
• raw intelligence
• balance a checkbook
• understand Windows^tm
• deal with difficult people

And my spouse can read in the dark, and fix my computer when the screen dies.

Ways in which we are exceedingly well matched (we're happily married, after all, over ten years)

• education
• verbal play
• editorial support
• musical interests
• introverts
• patient
• family-centered
• parenting priorities and methods
• political orientation and engagement

Your [temporarily] sighted marriage should be so good.

[click on the logo above for other blogs participating in Blog Against Disabilism 2006]