A disability writer has hit out at the Bird Box challenge, and created her own video to highlight the reality of losing your sight.
Sassy Wyatt, 27, uploaded a video after seeing people taking on the “Bird Box challenge” in which people try to do tasks blindfolded following the success of the Netflix film.
In the film Bird Box, the characters wear blindfolds to cover their eyes from the ‘evil that chases them.’
The challenge has become such a phenomenon that Netflix has warned people against copycat videos.
Ms Wyatt who has her own website Thinking Out Loud told the Standard: “I feel there isn’t enough education in the world about what it is like to live with blindness. People make snapshot judgements and decisions on a daily basis about me and my life and so I am to challenge those perceptions with humour and tenacity.
“These YouTubers are not showing a real depiction of what living life with blindness is really like.”
Videos by mainstream vloggers have proved incredibly popular on the video sharing website with some amassing upwards of two million views.
A version by YouTuber Jake Paul was removed by the website after he was pictured driving while wearing a blindfold.
Ms Wyatt chose to create her own version with a plot twist at the end.
In her video, she completes tasks such as making tea and brushing her teeth.
“I chose those specific actions for two main reasons, these are the activities I do on a daily basis without a second thought but when people meet me for the first time they usually ask me ‘Do you have a carer who looks after you?’ ‘How do you cook food?’” she says.
“People are astonished to believe that I can dress myself and use dangerous objects like a kettle or a knife without injuring myself.”
Towards the end of the video, Ms Wyatt reveals that she is visually impaired and explains how Bird Box has missed the mark when it comes to educating people about visual impairment.
“If they were to be more conscious of the tasks they were doing, their actions weren’t so overplayed and offensive and they took the time to discuss their thoughts and opinions of what it would be like to lose their vision, I may be more inclined to find it fun.
“These vloggers did this for views, likes and subscribers and nothing else.”
Ms Wyatt says that vloggers have a “responsibility to their audience”.
“Sight loss isn’t easy and it takes people time to develop skills such as cooking and crossing a road safely, we adapt and learn new skills and techniques to live full and independent lives.
“Throwing on a blindfold and attempting to achieve these tasks without prior knowledge, mobility and orientation skills will exacerbate those negative concepts and stereotypes.”
