Blind Stories

By Marcos Lima

A collection of the best chronicles published in the Histórias de cego project, initially a blog and later a YouTube channel, where, in addition to telling a little about his experience in such a visual society, Marcos Lima shows us the world through his eyes. With his senses as sharp as his sense of humor, he tells how he spent a day in a wheelchair, fulfilled a childhood dream when he explored the island of Malta and how the sport changed his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oficina Raquel
• Release date: Feb 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9786586280555

Book preview

Falsa folha de rosto

Title page

Folha de rosto

© Marcos Lima, 2020

© Oficina Raquel, 2020

PUBLISHING

Raquel Menezes

Jorge Marques

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Yasmim Cardoso

COVER

Marcel Lopes

GRAPHIC DESIGN AND DIAGRAMATION

Julio Baptista

[e-mail]

REVIEW

Luis Maffei

EBOOK PRODUCTION

S2 Books

Dados internacionais de catalogação na publicação (CIP)

Lima, Marcos.

L732h

Blind Stories / Marcos Lima. – Rio de Janeiro : Oficina Raquel, 2020.

156 p. ; 18 cm.

ISBN 978-65-86280-55-5

1. Brazilian chronicles I. Title.

CDD B869.8

CDU 821.134.3(81)-32

www.oficinaraquel.com

[e-mail]

facebook.com/Editora-Oficina-Raquel

A special thanks to these people

who supported our project.

Adriana Barbedo

Adriana Silva Barbosa

Aldomir Freire Costa

Alessandra Gualberto dos Santos

Alexandre Leonato Neto

Aline Savieto

Aluisio Soares Peixoto

Ana Besserman

Ana Lidia Barbosa Lima

Ana Lúcia Vargas Arigony

Ana Maria Henriques

Ana Maria Tardin Mury

Andre Luiz de Souza Portugal

Angela Nobrega Fonti

Angelica Sales de Souza

Aninha Lima

Anna Stéphany Silva Soares

Beatrice Lima

Beatriz Assunção

Bianca de Berenguer Fernandes

Bianca do Espírito Santo Ferreira

Bruna Bueno

Bruna Massarelli

Bruna Nayara Moreira Lima

Bruna Traversaro

Bruno Viécili

Camila Carneiro

Carla Beraldo

Carlos Haddad

Carol Simm

Carol Sims

Carolina Ghorayeb

Caroline Cardoso Souza

Cesar Lopes Aguiar

Cintya Floriani

Claudia Mauricio

Cleiton de Sousa Moura

Cristiani Mury Saad

Cristiani Mury Saad

CyberTigra

Dani Arruda

Daniela Roechow

Daniele Martins de Almeida Borçato

Danilo Pereira Franco de Souza

Dayanne Clemente Gonçalves dos Santos

Dina Pereira de Melo

Eduardo Butter Scofano

Erika Pires Vieira

Evelina Aparecida de Oliveira

Ewerton Franco de Camargo

Fabio Betti Salgado

Felipe dos Santos Pereira da Silva

Felipe Gavino Carneiro Costa

Felipe Tiso

Fernanda Camargo

Fernando Alves Pinto Junior

Fernando Antônio Montenegro Damasceno

Fernando Eduardo da Silva

Fernando Pelin

Flavia Silveira de Azevedo

Flávia Weiner Parente Eizirik

Gabriel Senna

Gabriela Nóra

Georgia Malva da Silva Lima

Guilherme Castro

Gustavo Nascimento

Helder Filho

Henrique Santos

Histórias de Ter.a.pia

Ibraima Dafonte Tavares

Jacqueline Belotti

Jana Alves Dias

Jéssica Magalhães

Jessie Vic

Joanne Bruno Viana

João Pedro de Oliveira Borsani

Joaquim Monteiro

Jocemar Junior

Jorge Felipe

Juan Jose Salgado Saavedra

Juliana Pereira de Faria

Juliane Aline Feltrin Ferreira

June Alves de Arruda

Karen Matesco Nunes V. Lins

Karina Trotta

Kennya Pimentel Novais de Mendonça Costa

Lara Gondim Toledo

Larissa Maria Vitor Dourado

Larissa Pereira Gonçalves

Lêda Maria Gomes

Leo Cagnani

Leonardo Coelho de Velasco

Leticia Alves

Leticia Fonti

Letícia Riguetto Nunes

Lidiane Manthay Leal

Livia Bragato Sales

Luciana Harada

Luciane Moutinho

Mailê Novôa

Manu Ilgenfritz

Manuela Silveira

Márcia Alves Esteves Lima

Marcia Maurício

Marcilio Ribeiro de Sant’Ana

Marcio Minuzzi Passos

Maria Cecília Moutinho

Maria Danielle Oliveira Silva

Maria Flor Abrantes Brazil

Maria Lucia Mury

Mariana de Lamare

Mariana Esteves

Mariana Kohnert Medeiros

Mariana Meira

Mariana Souza

Mariana Verdun

Mariana Vieira de Mello

Mariele Pantaleao

Marilia Mesquita Guedes Pereira

Marília Morais

Marina Françoso

Maxwell Correia de Araujo

Melissa Haberkamp

Milkluv Delfim

Monique Mury Saad Onuki

Nádia de Oliveira Ribas

Nadia Garcia

Neylor Toscan

Nilza Rodrigues Verdan de Aquino

Nina Attias

Pablo Roxo

Patricia Mury Saad

Patricia Regina Lopes Moreira

Patricia Vasconcellos

Paula Barcelos Pimentel

Paula de Campos Monteiro

Paula de Faria Fernandes Martins

Paula Gisele Gomes Rassia

Perivaldo dos Santos Carvalho

Priscila Silveira Ferreira

Rafael Roger Ferreira do Nascimento

Rafaela Debastiani

Regiane Bochichi

Regina Antunes

Renata Sanches Barbosa

Renato Frosch

Ricardo Edson Lima

Roberta Pope

Rodolfo Freire de Almeida

Rodrigo Pontes de Lima

Samara de Figueiredo Gonçalves

Sandra Mara Kawasaki

Sheila Maria Sirydakis

Sônia Rooke Las Casas

Tainara Schneider

Tamara Toledo

Teresa J C D Amaral

Thais Castro

Thaise Gomes

Thalita Bessa Pires

Thalita Gelenske Cunha

Thalita Oliveira

Thiago Carvalho Bayerlein

Thiago Chacon

Usiel Haddad

Valéria Carvalho Santos

Vanderson Berbat

Vanessa Sales

Vanessa Viana

Vera Alice da Silva Peres

Veronica Santana da Fonseca Baptista

Vinicius Fernandes dos Santos

Vitor

Vitória Aline Viana

Vivi Vresk

Vivian Alt Vieira

Wagner Crivelini

Wellington Ismail

Yanna Cunha

Introduction

Ican remember it like it was today. Or rather, as if it were in 2010: me and my childhood friend, Anderson, talking about how the blind identify things as we walk along rio’s tumultuous sidewalks. I know it’s a pharmacy by the smell, he said. And then came the will: Why not tell all this to the world?

The literary adventure called Stories of theBlind , which began in2010, was only six months long. It was, however, a very interesting period, in which the space, then a column on the website of the NGO Urece Sport and Culture (of which I was one of the founders), gained audience and a repercussion that even I myself imagined. Even matter on TV Brazil at the time we turned. However, for several reasons that transcend my disability, I have no longer been able to update the column as I would like. So when our old server went off the air, I lost all the stories published and especially the comments and participations of readers, the truth is that the column had already died long ago.

But there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel... even for those who are blind almost by birth, like me. Throughout that time without the Blind Stories, I knew that one day the project would come back (it had to come back), and the time came to relaunch it. The format chosen was slightly different: a blog.

That’s how, already with its own address and a lot of support from many people, between 2013 and 2017 the Stories of the blind gained personality and more than 80 chronicles, besides having expanded to Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. The number of lectures, training and consultancies multiplied, and with them I could pay my electricity bills (yes, blind people also pay electricity bills). As I was out of work since my contract with Rio 2016 ended, I depended a lot on the blog for companies to know me and hire me.

Until, in June 2017, another little problem on the server culminated in the loss of all the content of the blog. The Blind Stories is not a cat, but has already spent two of their lives. It was sad to lose everything for the second time: comments, posts, links, videos... It was a great sadness; at the time I needed it most, there was no longer blog. I’m back to square one.

But life goes on and even without tactile flooring, we move on. The texts themselves were saved and are now re-released in book format, honoring many readers who did not tire of asking for a printed edition in the comments of the late blog. And that’s how this new phase of Blind Stories begins..

The goal of Stories of the Blind is to bring readers closer to the daily lives of visually impaired people. Without being cranky, I want to give a lower weight to the disability, bringing the lesser known aspects of the life of a person who has to turn around without seeing in such a visual world. Difficulties and solutions, overcoming obstacles, technology, prejudices and, above all, many stories.

The Stories of the blind also exists on social networks, with the youtube channel that has 180, 000 subscribers and more than 4.4 million views, as well as profiles on Facebook and Instagram.

Access:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/historiasdecego

Instagram: @historiasdecego

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/historiasdecego

Summary

Capa

Title page

Credits

Dedication

Introduction

Include or not include, Here’s the question

Blind by ball

We do not see (the) obstacles

Between four doors

Our September 7th of each day

How the blind see the world

Family! Family!

Blind settings have been updated

On the left, the abyss

The photographic albums of the blind

Friendly fire

Why don’t we see obstacles

In search of the blind Earl of Luxembourg

The cure

Emozzjoni, the victory of defeat

I don’t want the vision, I want the visualization

The power of Paralympic sport

The day I walked on two wheels

Exchange of look

Through the front door

After all the final

Neither white nor blue... was really black!

The ten best things about being blind

Include or not include, Here’s the question

Mpeople have asked me what I think of the idea of regular schools serving people with disabilities, restricting the role of special schools.

For me it is difficult to speak of all kinds of disability, so I will not get into the merits of the issue in a more comprehensive way. As our chat here is visual impairment, I will give my opinion on the subject with regard to this particular segment. I make it clear that I am not a pedagogue, I have never studied this issue through the bias of educator theories; I want to simply share some thoughts all fruits of my experience as a visually impaired person.

First of all, it is worth explaining my story, briefly. I was born with congenital glaucoma, detected when I was a few months old. Despite all the effort of my family and the sixteen surgeries performed, at the age of 6 I completely lost my sight. At this time, He was already studying at the Benjamin Constant Institute, a special school focused on teaching blind and low-vision students. I stayed there until I was 16, when I was in eighth grade. Then, I tendered for the Pedro II College, where I studied the three years of high school (or high school), until, passing the journalism entrance exam, I entered the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

All this to say that I am a great enthusiast and, more than that, a special school product. For me, she was instrumental in