Paul Castle, a blind author and illustrator, has come face to face with a number of misconceptions about blindness.
“He blinks. He can’t be blind.”
“His eyes aren’t white.”
“You don’t look blind.”
Some appear as comments on the social media pages he started with his husband, Matthew. But in a recent interaction at a Seattle restaurant, Castle and his guide dog, Mr. Maple, were denied entry because an employee didn’t believe Mr. Maple was a real service animal.
The man was suspicious of Castle because it appeared he was making eye contact with him, Castle said.
“He said to me, ‘You don’t look blind,’ which is something I’ve heard a lot in my life, unfortunately,” Castle told CBS News. “It’s like telling somebody you don’t fit my preconceived notion of what your disability should be.”
Castle has retinitis pigmentosa, a rare, untreatable disease that causes loss of vision over time. Castle has so far lost more than 90% of his vision. He often describes his remaining sight as the equivalent of looking through a straw or pinhole.