‘Blind people can do amazing things’
IF OPPORTUNITY doesn’t knock, build a door goes the old adage. That’s exactly what Kim Brand, 33, did after she lost her sight in a car crash and she struggles to find employment.
Brand started her own business as an aromatherapist and reflexologist.
She has her own business.
“I go to client’s homes, guest houses, pamper parties.”
The Cape Town women said she lost her sight about 11 years ago, in a car accident. She was aged 22 at that time. mobile
“We were going to a party. We were not supposed to be driving, we hit a pole and I had to be cut out of the car. I lost my whole face. My left eye burst on impact, my right eye came out of its socket and the optic nerve was severed.”
She spent two and a half weeks in Tygerberg hospital and underwent an 11 and a half hour reconstructive surgery to reconstruct her face.
She said she could remember what she looked like before the accident.
“I have spent countless hours thinking about it. In your 20s ... you are discovering who you are. The essence of you is sort of coming out then. So the essence of me was constantly fighting with this new person,” said Brand.
“Life as a sighted person is easy and life as a blind person is very difficult. It doesn’t get easier because the world is designed for sighted people.”
After completing her studies, she went on to study aromatherapy and reflexology.
After finishing her studies, she started calling up businesses looking for work.
“As a blind woman, getting employment is the hardest thing. “I disclosed my blindness.” At one of the business she applied to for a job, she was told that they have stairs and telephones in the building.
“So I said ‘wow’, I am not deaf nor am I in a wheelchair. But do I want to work for someone like that?”
She said she doesn’t know what people think blindness is.
“I don’t know if they are thinking, if I am working in massage therapy that I am going to need them to set up the bed for me, take my towels to the laundry, feed me my lunch and maybe take me on a toilet break. But once I have a layout of a room or an area, I am able to navigate – and this is for many blind people.”
“People’s perceptions of being blind is definitely limiting to blind people, there are a lot of amazing things blind people can do.”