Thousands of Wyomingites have impaired vision. It’s a number that’s growing as the state’s population ages. Among them is Sarah Sexton, who lost her sight entirely after an infection caught at the hospital caused her retinas to detach from her optic nerve.
“ I came out with my brain and completely who I was,” she said. “I am the exact same person I was before. I just can't see now. So I got really lucky.”
Sexton is with an organization called Wyoming Council of the Blind, which informs, educates, encourages and supports Wyomingites with visual impairments or blindness. I asked her what it was like moving from Portland, Oregon, to Buffalo, Wyoming, to raise her kid closer to her husband’s family.
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Sarah Sexton: When we moved here, I wasn't blind. I was fully sighted. Then the injury happened to my brain, and I was really concerned because the sidewalks are cracked. There aren’t sidewalks through much of the town. How was I gonna access anything?
Luckily, there is an incredible trust fund set up called the Montgomery Trust Fund. It was set up by an old cowboy named Roy Montgomery, who became blind in his older age and realized how limited resources were for people living in Wyoming that were blind. This trust fund is intended to support and provide training and adaptive technology to people who are low vision and blind through just his generosity. When he died, he granted all of his funding, like, all of his money from his ranch, to this trust fund. Because of that, I received training with a white cane so that I could navigate. I received adaptive technology at no cost to me. It still blows my mind, because it made adapting to this change possible. This type of grant funding doesn't happen in other states.
Then, Vision Outreach Services provided me with a lot of support and coaching and ideas, and just genuine encouragement on how to exist as a person who was sighted her entire life – big hopes and dreams and plans and a child and a career – and then, taken out at the knees. They taught me that I could adapt, and so I took that and ran with it because I didn't really have another choice.
When you have a kid, it's like, ‘Oh no, I've got an audience. Oh, man. Guess I better put on my big girl panties and get it figured out.’
Nicky Ouellet: The Council of the Blind hosts a couple of low vision support groups across the state. What are these groups?
SS: It is just a meeting place for people who are low vision or blind, because we experience the world at a very different capacity than the rest. Having camaraderie is so important. So it's just a place to get together and either brainstorm or vent or plan for things or talk about resources.
I host one here in Buffalo twice a month. There is one that happens in Casper every month. There is one that happens in Powell every month. And then there is one in Sheridan also, and I think theirs is every month as well.
NO: What do you think seeing people in Wyoming don't understand or misunderstand about the experience of being blind or vision impaired?
SS: We, as a community of people who are blind, are incredibly capable and very able to do for ourselves, and it is unfortunately widely believed that we can't do anything, that we can't hear what you're saying when you speak about us, that we can't get dressed, make a meal, raise a child, et cetera, because people don't know what it's like to be blind.
People are not malevolent in their misunderstanding. They just don't know. And so one thing that Wyoming Council of the Blind has realized is that it is our job to advocate and educate for ourselves.
NO: I'm thinking both on a personal level, but also structurally, what changes would make life easier here?
SS: In the great state of Wyoming? Oh, man. Education across the board about people with disabilities, and not just those who are blind, but deaf, with cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, all of the above, just so that there is a group understanding about how capable we all are.
Inclusivity should be just the first idea. If it's not built for somebody with a disability, somebody with a disability can't access it, period, dot, the end. Accessibility for one group of people means it's easier to access for all, and I think that is definitely forgotten about in most states.
A ramp doesn't make it harder for anybody. A tactile map doesn't make anything harder for anybody. In fact, it might help so you can look at it and feel it, and then you know where you're going. Whereas a tactile map for me, I can feel it and know, ‘Oh, okay, three doors down I make a left to find the bathroom.’
[And also] awareness, education, functional sidewalks.
NO: Functional sidewalks.
SS: That's a big ask. Something that the council has been working on throughout the state is having auditory pedestrian signals, those buttons you press at crosswalks that tell you, ‘Hey, it's your turn to walk.’
Those are incredible, not only for people who are low vision, but for people who have mobility issues or hearing issues. I don't know if you've ever held a button down, Nicky, but if you hold the button down long enough, it'll vibrate in your hand to tell you that it received that you pressed it.
NO: I didn't realize. I appreciate the chirping to know how fast to walk across [the street].
SS: Yeah. Hurry up. Come on, come on, come on. Yeah.
NO: What can we do, human to human?
SS: Yeah, human to human.
I told somebody once, because I would encounter her frequently, and she always asked if she could help me, and I always turned her down, because I didn't need her help.
She was frustrated once. I was problem-solving with my guide dog, and I want to figure it out, because if I don't figure it out, I'm not gonna know how to do it. And she could see that I was struggling, and she asked me a couple of times, and I said, ‘Unless I am laying in the gutter screaming, ‘Help me,’ I don't need your help.’
And she said, ‘Oh. Oh, thank you. That really clarifies it.’ And I said, ‘Good.’
That doesn't mean the next person that you say, ‘Do you need help?’ will say no. The next person may say, ‘Yes, thank you so much for asking.’ So just not to take the one person turning you down to mean that we all will always turn you down, because we won't.
