Hello, I’ve been legally blind since birth due to a condition called ROP (retinopathy of prematurity) I live in small town that is fortunately pretty walkable (no grocery store but there are several convenience stores and some restaurants) because it’s an old town. The area is pretty poor, and there is a bus that goes to the nearby city (ridership is pretty strong on this line so even though service isn’t as consistent as I’d like, I don’t fear it getting the axe every year when the city restructures). I also take this bus to my essential retail job a town over. This is a pretty good setup, and I’m fortunate to have a job; however, it’s not without its problems.

Rent, even in my town, is over 50% of my income, and the cost of transport just keeps going up. I keep saying this will be to the year I finally apply for the half fare card from the transit authority but I’m rarely able to make it to their downtown office during business hours.

Most of the activities I do are in the city, but the bus service has gotten so inconsistent over the course of the pandemic. I LOVE the climbing gym, but I have only gone twice since they’ve reopened because what used to be a 2 hour door-to-door commute each way became close to four hours each way. The gym is only 13 miles away. I could probably ride a bike there faster or, when I’m actually in shape, run there—although that wouldn’t leave me with much energy to climb.

Running is also something I like to do, but finding places to run in my tiny town is difficult. I typically stay to the same few streets where I know I know contact with cars is pretty low. It gets a little boring knowing I can’t change up the scenery or even join a running group because none are nearby or I can’t get to the meetup point because the bus isn’t running that early.

I know moving to the city would solve some of my access issues to my hobbies, but I just can’t afford it. I wish I could move abroad like my able-bodied sister, but I just can’t imagine how difficult it’d be trying to find a job, especially because I know how hard it was for me here. I have visited her when she lived in London, and the transit was glorious, and I even got to take the train up to Liverpool. It was so freeing to be in a place where existing without a car wasn’t some massive inconvenience. It pains me knowing I could never move there because I’m not a skilled worker, and the cost of living is just too high.

My sister now lives in Prague where the transit is also pretty great and super affordable! We even took the train a couple hours away so I could run in a half marathon as it was a dream of mine to run a race in another country.

It is a dream of mine to visit the Netherlands someday because I hear their transit is top notch! And the bikes THE BIKES! I can only dream of being able to ride a bike to the grocery store or to the gym without fearing for my life—like I have some words for the man who popularized vehicular cycling in the US. But I’m afraid to visit because I’m afraid to see how accessible life could be. Japan and South Korea are also on my travel bucket list.

People have always said that one of the most difficult things about being blind isn’t being blind but rather the isolation. The older I get the more I understand what they meant.

TL; DR: I just feel so trapped. My closest friends all live out of state or hours away by car. My quality of life is pretty poor because accessing the things that bring me even a modicum of joy is very difficult, and cost of living is too high in the city. I can’t move abroad because I’m a low skilled worker (I hate this term but it’s the only one that fits) with a useless college degree.