Michelle Botha : Brett Fish

Responding to Difference: An Exquisite Guest Post by Michelle Botha

The other day i wrote a post titled, 'Do the Different Need a Disclaimer?' in which i touched on how meeting someone with a disability or condition that makes them quite different to you can be challenging or scary in terms of not wanting to be awkward or embarrass them [or yourself] and my friend Michelle wrote a long comment in response. i asked her if she would upgrade it to a post as it [...]

Taboo Topic: Living with Disablity – meet Michelle Botha [Retinitis Pigmentosa – degenerative sight condition]

At two years old, after numerous visits to various specialists, I was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative sight condition. RP affects the cells of the retina and results in tunnel vision, night blindness, severe light sensitivity and consistent sight loss. In short, I was going steadily and irreversibly blind. It has been quite a journey so far. Moving from sight to blindness brings with it a set of challenges somewhat different to those [...]