Sometimes we do not realize how much of a gift our sight is. The WHO estimates that there are 40 to 45 million people worldwide who are blind. What's more, 135 million also have low vision. An abled person can hardly imagine what it's like living with visual impairment.
Luckily, they can ask. Recently, a 24-year-old blind creator, Toby, asked his followers to give him the most 'diabolical' questions they could think of, and the people delivered. From wiping mechanics and how he's able to read the comments, to whether he would give up his hearing to have his sight back – the netizens didn't hold back.
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This blind creator is Toby Addison, and he has been talking about his life as a visually impaired person since around 2022. In one of his videos, Toby has detailed what condition he has and how he was diagnosed at an early age. At about 2 or 3 years old, Toby's doctor told his parents that he had genetic retinitis pigmentosa and cone-rod dystrophy (CRD).
He describes it as having tunnel vision. He was able to live his life pretty normally: he could read and write growing up, play video games, and play football with his friends. But as the years went on, the field of his vision became smaller and smaller.
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He retained his sight until he was 16 years old, but has had very limited vision since then. As he mentioned in one of the comments below this video, he does see very minimally. "I can tell it's daytime or nighttime; I can tell if the lights are on in my home, and I can sometimes see if there are shadows blocking that light. But I've got no usable vision."
Toby talks about his visual impairment on his social media accounts to raise awareness about visual disabilities. There are a lot of misconceptions about visually impaired people, and he tries to dispel at least some of them. Toby has done a Q&A video on his YouTube channel before and was even a guest on the Happy Hour Podcast and gave an interview to LADbible.
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Here's one thing you probably wouldn't expect from a blind person: Toby is a footballer! He plays for West Brom and the England squad, and before you ask, no, it's not your regular football. Blind football is the adapted version of the sport for visually impaired people.
The sport is played in more than 60 countries, and since 1996 it has been governed by the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA). Since the 2004 Athens Paralympics, blind football has been featured during every Games to this day.
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How does blind football even work? Athletes play by modified FIFA rules. Each team has four outfield players and one sighted or partially sighted goalkeeper. The players can hear the ball due to a sound system inside it, and teams can also have off-field guides to assist them with orientation.
The pitch is much smaller compared to a regular football field and is covered in kickboards so the ball doesn't go out of play. The match is 30 minutes in total, with two 15-minute halves.
Here's a compilation of the best goals at the Rio 2016 Paralympics if you want to see how the game is played!
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It's quite unusual for young people to become blind. Research shows that about three-quarters of blindness and visual impairment cases occur in people aged 50 and over. Blind individuals also need assistance more often than individuals with low vision.
This French national survey also found that 1.6% of blind respondents were living in a facility, while 0.10% were living in the community. On the other hand, only 1.94% of individuals with low vision lived in the community, while 13.4% lived in institutions.
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In the UK, blind and visually impaired individuals receive support from their councils, but sometimes that help can come too late. Last year, a report by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) found that some individuals who have received certificates of visual impairment might need to wait more than a year for rehabilitation assessments so they can receive support.
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What's worse, a 2023 survey by the RNIB revealed that 115,000 blind or visually impaired people do not receive any kind of support during their lifetime. "RNIB has heard directly from many blind and partially sighted people who have experienced wait times far beyond what is safe or expected, but to find at least 2,025 people were left waiting for more than six months to receive a vision rehabilitation assessment is shocking," the institute wrote in its report.
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Blind and visually impaired people face many challenges, but discrimination might be one of the most pressing. In a 2019 survey, 52% of older UK adults with visual impairment said they felt discriminated against. Those with poor eyesight also said they were more likely to feel depressed, lonely, and dissatisfied with their lives.
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Discrimination often comes from a lack of information. So, let's hope that Toby's work as a disability advocate on social media will reach more and more people as time goes by. For now, take a look at the rest of his answers – some whimsical, others more serious – and let us know which ones surprised you the most!
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