ANKARA
Visually impaired YouTubers are raising their voices to create awareness among society and to make life accessible for them.
The most important question is not how they do that, but what kind of messages they are giving to their audience as, according to WHO figures, they represent at least 2.2 billion "blind or visually impaired" people globally, while another question is how society can become more open to different people, personalities, and capabilities.
Out of "40 million blind people" across the world that WHO reports, according to the statistics of Vision Atlas, the majority of them live in India and China, while Spain is considered the best place to live for a visually impaired person.
A report published by Mexican Gabriela Mondragon said those YouTubers are showing society what people with disabilities are capable of when they have equal accessibility in daily life.
Mondragon holds a master's degree in Communication in Human Science from the International Islamic University of Malaysia.
The report came a day after the world marked the 193rd anniversary of Braille Alphabet Day, a method of reading and writing through touch for the visually impaired.
Every Jan. 4 reminds the countries all over the world of the need of creating opportunities for jobs and education for the visually impaired people as well as making life more livable for them by bringing the French-based alphabet to every community centers, while raising awareness in the society.
Christine Ha
Christine Ha, an American visually impaired chef and the Master Chef winner, is one of those YouTubers that try to raise awareness.
Ha creates cooking-related content for her 157,000 followers and has posted 142 videos so far, proving how a visually impaired chef can achieve everything as any other chef.
She participates in other shows and invites other visually impaired people to hers as well.
She also has her own restaurant that she named called The Blind Goat in the US state of Texas.
Live Accessible
Carrie Morales, the owner of the Live Accessible YouTube channel, gave a simple example of how a visually impaired person faces difficulties in a restaurant.
"Ask an employee to read for you all the menu. All the menu, no matter how long they take," Morales said. "This is how people start to understand that we need to do efforts to make accessible life for people with disabilities."
She and her husband Pablo, who live in the US, share experiences, like living as a visually impaired couple, raising a son who is also visually impaired.
She has more than 7,000 followers and has posted 189 videos. Her slogan is “blindness or low vision does not define you or limit you.”
The report stressed that the blind YouTubers are doing a “great job” teaching out the society what to do or not to do, how to approach respectfully, how to make open and honest questions and finally learn how we can support each other as a society.
Seeing Blind
Another YouTube channel, Seeing Blind, by Cindy focuses on parenting as a visually impaired person and strategies on how to raise a visually impaired baby or kid, as she is a mother of two.
Cindy lost her sight at the age of 5 because of a late diagnosis and she helps others to cope with the process of losing vision, not only adults but kids and teenagers as well.
She has 862 followers and has posted 83 videos.
Life After Sight Loss
Sight loss coach Derek Daniel has a YouTube channel dedicated to helping other individuals and families in the process of sight loss, as well as to encouragement, life advice, product reviews, and general experiences.
His channel Life After Sight Loss has nearly 4,700 followers and 306 videos.
Fashion, art, gaming, fitness
Rae Green gives makeup tips and fashion advice to her 5,300 subscribers with a slogan of “Because being disabled is normal, too."
Meanwhile, Diana at her channel Artfully Blind with Diana leans on art, painting techniques, and digital art. With a goal of inspiring visually impaired people to be more creative, she has so far uploaded 764 videos and currently has over 3,100 followers.
Jesse Anderson, the owner of the Illegally Sighted channel, enjoys gaming with his 3,120 followers through 1,500 videos. He shares tips about games and technology.
Justin Holland, another YouTuber, shares fitness and bodybuilding-related content with his 8,600 subscribers.
