Andrew Leland’s book, “The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight,” made it on many 2023 year-end best literary lists, including The New Yorker’s.
In this moving memoir, Andrew Leland recounts his journey from sight to blindness, tracing his ever-shifting relationship to his diminishing vision. Suspended between the worlds of blindness and sight—he will soon lose his vision entirely—Leland explores the history and culture of blindness: its intersections with medicine, technology, ableism. He travels to a residential school for the blind, where he dons shades that block his vision, and learns to cook meals and cross streets. One former student tells him, “Until you get profoundly lost, and know it’s within you to get unlost, you’re not trained—until you know it’s not an emergency but a magnificent puzzle.”
Leland documents how his diminishing vision changes his relationship with technology, making it both more challenging to access and increasingly important to his independence.
Innovations like AI-powered apps that allow people to learn what’s photographed through their cameras’ lenses are helping the blind. But how useful are they? What other tools are there for those who are blind or have low vision? And how accessible is other technology originally designed for seeing eyes?
We explore blindness, accessibility, and tech.
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