USU student dances, decorates despite 'minor inconvenience' of blindness

By Ann Passey

April 26, 2005 | Ballet, basketball and interior design are all a part of everyday life for Deja Rolfe.

Pretty common activities for many people in their 20s, but not as common for people who are blind.

Deja Rolfe, 22, is as senior at Utah State University majoring in public relations and organizational communication. She is also blind.

In the world of blind and sighted people there is often confusion about how to refer to people who have only some, or possibly no sight. People who have "normal" vision are sighted. The Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University refers to people who have lost their sight as vision impaired, or partially sighted.

Rolfe prefers blind.

"There is a very fine line between being blind and being sighted," said Rolfe. "Sometimes people refer to people as being partially sighted, or visually impaired, which isn't necessarily wrong, but legally either you're blind or you're not. I'm blind."

To be legally blind a person's vision must be worse than 20/200 in the better eye with the best possible correction, according to the American Federation for the Blind, or AFB. People who have perfect vision have 20/20 vision. If you have 20/40 vision, you can see from 20 feet away what a person with perfect vision can see from 40 feet away. To be legally blind, you can see from 20 feet away what a person with perfect vision can see from across the length of a hockey rink.

Rolfe's vision is 20/400 with corrective lenses, without the correction it's too bad to measure. It's been pretty steady her entire life, although over the past year it has gotten a little worse.

Rolfe, however, has not always lived like a blind person. "Since I do have some sight, it's always been hard for me to decide which side I belong on," said Rolfe. "Do I act like a sighted person or do I try and do things as a blind person? It's always been a battle for me to try and figure out."

Until this past year Rolfe didn't have cane or read Braille. She tried to let as few people as possible know that she could not see. In elementary school she would try to play sports at recess, although it was difficult, if not impossible with no depth perception.

"Finally it just got too difficult for me and to dangerous," said Rolfe. "When crossing the street I would run out in front of cars. Going down stairs I would miss a stair and fall; not only is it painful, but it doesn't do much for your ego."

Rolfe began to learn Braille and using a cane about a year ago.

"I wanted to make my life easier, and it has, 100 times," said Rolfe.

"I heard a saying once, that blindness can either be a minor inconvenience or it can conquer your life. You choose which one you want it to be.

"The hardest part about (being blind) is that you don't want people to think that your life is mess, or that you can't achieve anything," said Rolfe. "I just don't want people to feel bad for people who are blind. You would be amazed at how many accomplished, brilliant and talented blind people there are. They are just like everyone else. There is just this minor inconvenience that they have to work around, and work with."

In 1994-95, there were approximately 1.3 million Americans who reported legal blindness, according to the AFB. Of these individuals, 80 percent had some "useful vision." The other 20 percent (260,000) had only light perception or less vision. Half of these individuals were totally blind (130,000). The National Federation of the Blind, or NFB, emphasizes that blindness doesn't need to be the tragedy it is generally thought to be.

In a speech given by Dr. Marc Mauer at the NFB 2001 Everest Expedition Celebration he said, "We say with great insistence, that the ordinary blind person can do the ordinary job in the ordinary place of business and do it as well as the ordinary sighted person, and we mean by that, that the extraordinary blind person can do the extraordinary job in the extraordinary place of business and do it as well as any extraordinary sighted person can."

On May 25, 2001 Erik Weihemayer and 18 members of his team summited Mount Everest. Erik is blind. Before the climb one of his critics said that taking a blind person on the mountain was way too risky. "Above 8,000 meters he'll be a huge liability. He'll kill himself, and he will kill his team. I would never be a part of this climb." He then gave what can now be considered a backhanded compliment because his critic didn't know that Erik would succeed.

"If they do succeed, it will be the greatest expedition in the history of Mt. Everest." Erik Weihenmayer was born with retinoscheses, a condition that gradually causes the retina to deteriorate. He had partial sight through much of his childhood but was totally blind by the age of thirteen.

Weihenmayer went to a school similar to the Louisiana Center for the Blind, founded by the NFB. The Louisiana Center is a 24-hour residential facility. The Center provides residential orientation and adjustment training to legally blind adults. Students are generally in training from six to nine months, depending upon individual needs. At the Louisiana Center blindness is discussed and the word "blind" is used and stressed. If students, like Weihenmayer, are going to accept themselves as blind people, they have to understand that it is acceptable to be blind.

"I didn't really want to accept blindness and accept myself as a blind person, " Weihenmayer said in an article in The Braille Monitor, May 2002. "I didn't want to be identified as a blind person, but I found something interesting: when I actually accepted blindness--I didn't try to transcend it or go beyond it or beat it but just accepted it--that was the greatest thing I could ever have done."

Someday, Rolfe may go to the Louisiana Center for the Blind, or a similar school. For now, however, Rolfe is successful as a student, a wife and an employee. She has embraced her blindness, and accepted that it's part of who she is.

Rolfe married her high school sweetheart, Zach Rolfe, on May 22, 2004.

"What I love about Deja is that she is such a go getter," he said. "She is doesn't let her limitations hold her back. She looks at every day as a good day. She's happy about life, and about who she is.

"Deja wants to make people as comfortable as possible. She is honestly very concerned about other people."

Her concern for people is a part of her life daily, especially at work. She has an internship with Huntsman Cancer Institute in the Public Affairs Department, where she is a part of almost all the publicity for the Institute. Rolfe was directly affected by cancer when her father was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and hopes that the work she does can help make a difference to people who have, or may be affected by, cancer.

As part of her internship she is entirely responsible for the publicity for the statewide skin cancer screening that will take place at the end of May.

Rolfe is also an active dancer. When she was young her mother taught her all different kinds of dance, from ballet to hip-hop and everything in between.

"My mom would stand really close to me and teach me the moves," said Rolfe. "When I learn new dances I'm walked to the places I need to be, and as long as the teacher is vocally giving the names of the steps I need to do, I'm fine. It requires a lot of listening, but I love it."

Rolfe also enjoys interior decorating.

"I haven't done a single thing in the apartment," her husband said. "She has decorated everything. The only thing she has me do is put nails in the wall, but even then she tells me where they should go."

MS
MS