Author: earlzapf@gmail.com

Most people don’t meet many blind people in their daily lives. As a result, they rarely have the opportunity to learn what makes an interaction helpful, what creates unnecessary barriers, and what simply makes life feel normal. Over the years I’ve noticed something encouraging. Almost everyone wants to do the right thing. The uncertainty isn’t…

Is it just to look cool? Well… yes. I know I look cool. But that’s not the real reason. One of the biggest reasons many blind and vision-impaired people wear sunglasses is photophobia, the medical term for light sensitivity. Bright sunlight, glare reflecting off roads and buildings, fluorescent lights, or even an overcast sky can…

One of the hardest parts of losing my sight wasn’t learning to use a white cane or giving up driving. It wasn’t adapting to new technology or finding different ways to read. It was losing my financial independence. In New Zealand, many disability supports are assessed not on the disabled person’s circumstances alone, but on…

One of the longest-running questions in my own practice has been this: What is mindfulness actually for? Whenever life becomes difficult, whenever we are confronted by loss, uncertainty or injustice, the answer often seems to revolve around calmness. Stay grounded. Stay present. Stay regulated. Accept what is. Underneath much of this advice lies the Buddhist…

We are constantly told that New Zealand cannot afford compassion. We cannot afford adequate support for disabled people. We cannot afford decent benefits for those trapped in poverty. We cannot afford stronger public services, affordable housing, functioning healthcare, or meaningful responses to inequality. Yet somehow there is always money for tax cuts, corporate subsidies, political…

“How long have I got before I lose my sight completely?” The eye specialist looked at me for a moment. “Get your affairs in order.” That was not the answer I had expected. I was looking for a timeline. A prediction. Five years? Ten years? Twenty? Instead, I received a response that sounded more appropriate…

Most of my days are spent in the country, where life has its own rhythm and pace. The sounds are familiar, the pathways known, and the demands of the day generally unfold without too many surprises. Yet even here, I often find myself exhausted. Simple tasks that once happened automatically now require planning, concentration, and…

I keep hearing politicians shaped by neoliberal thinking talk about state housing and social support as if the crisis lies with the people needing help rather than with the conditions that created that need in the first place. The language shifts from week to week, but the message rarely changes: reduce dependency, tighten eligibility, push…

I used to think mindfulness meant learning to accept things exactly as they are. Losing sight complicated that idea. There is a difference between accepting the reality of vision loss and accepting a world that unnecessarily excludes people. Trying to cross a busy intersection as a blind person can be a perfect place to notice…

I didn’t set out to write a book.I set out to make sense of what was happening to me. The idea for a book came later, after I realised that what I was losing wasn’t only sight. I was losing certainty.Identity.All those quiet assumptions about how my life would unfold. People talk about vision loss…