by Betty Jo Hawkins

Created on: August 08, 2010   Last Updated: August 09, 2010

For someone to describe colors to a blind person they really need to know how long someone has been blind.  Not all blind people were born blind.  I have been around blind people all of my life.  Both of my maternal grandparents were blind.  My grandfather was born blind so describing colors to him would be more of a challenge then to someone who could see for a short period of time.  My grandmother was not totally blind until about eight years old.  She had developed an infection that destroyed her optic nerve causing her to lose her eye sight.  Back then penicillin had not been invented and she was not able to be treated to save her eye sight.  I often spoke to my grandmother about colors and she could remember some of them but not all.  I remember when she came to visit us one year I was helping her with her laundry and she had safety pinned her sock together.  Well I took them apart not understanding why they were pinned together in the first place. Of-course she was not happy that I had taken them apart and she explained why they were pinned together.  When you can see you often take vision for grant around those who can not see. 

All people are born with senses such as sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.  When someone has lost the function of a sense it can improve how they use the others.  With my grandparents they could tell which one of their children was walking across the floor just by the sound.  As a child I often thought my grandmother could smell things a mile away.   My grandfather worked for a music company he didn't really understand color but her sure could tune an organ, piano and guitar.  He loved music and often recorded songs even children songs. The music company drove my grandfather around to churches and their customers homes to tune their music equipment. My grandfather died January 2010.  They company he had worked for so many years came to his services.  The owner however, was not able to attend due to bad health and old age.

It is my opinion that describing color to a person who has been blind all their life is not an easy task.  You can try to compare the color red to how something hot may feel to them.  The color white could be described as bright like snow or the opposite of black being dark like how the can't see.  As far as describing other colors to them they really have no understanding.  They never have seen any thing but darkness. You can describe clouds like cotton balls and put one in their hand and they can feel the fluffiness of the cotton ball but may not understand it is white.

My grandparents were extraordinary people who lived during a time that blindness was considered a handicap that others didn't understand. They both worked in a world that was not equipped for them as it is today.  They raised three girls who many in the community felt they were not able to raise. My grandmother operated and ran her own concession stand inside a high rise building in Ashville, North Carolina.  Many of her customers were lawyers. She had a machine that would tell her what  money denomination her customer gave her. Blind people can over come many obstacles, it really depends on determination. I am just not sure color is one of them unless they have been able to see at some point in their life.

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