Steve – a vision for the future

“Becoming blind’s not too bad. It’s helping me in my life and it’s given me vision.”

This film is part of our Shared Stories film series.

The films celebrate personal choices in living a good life. Featuring people with disability from all walks of life from right across NSW, each film was a truly collaborative effort between film maker and storyteller.

We hope you enjoy watching these films as much as we do.

View all shared stories on our Youtube channel.

Transcript

Steve: Dungnandaga yuggadanya Anewana. Roonrahra danya tampida. Ootila dayna yoonrahra. Hello, my name is Steve Widders. I’m a descendent of the Anawan people of Northern New South Wales. I’ve just welcomed you to my land.

Back in 1990, I suddenly became blind. Suddenly lost my sight, quite suddenly over a matter of weeks. I was actually driving when I first noticed there was an issue. I couldn’t focus. Things just went a bit haywire. The area here on the Northern Tablelands around Armidale has many secrets and I don’t want to give away too many of them, but they’ve got some of the best gorges in Australia. And being blind, I take in all those senses. I remember the feel and the freshness and the smell of the bush. That’s why I choose to live here. A completely bigger place to a bigger city.

[Courthouse Coffee. Beardy St? Yeah, that’s it… I can give you directions then, if you’re game enough to take them off a blind bloke.]

Steve: And because I can’t read, I memorise things. I have a way of keeping things in my head.

[Left here? No straight through here then left at the next one]

Steve: Whenever I’m walking independently, I count steps. That helps me. I listen to sounds. I’ve done more since I lost my sight than I would have done if I was a sighted person.

[This a good one, I reckon. I can feel it]

Steve: Simply because it’s made me value myself as a person. It’s made me value the people that are around me because I have an obligation to be a part of their lives. And I thought, you know, it’s not going to change. There’s no operation, or there’s no cure for my blindness, so I have to change. So I looked at it the other way and just said, you know, becoming blind’s not too bad. It’s helping me in my life and it’s given me vision. I have great vision for the future. I like going bush. I like getting out in touch with nature. I’ve got sixteen grandchildren. They’re going to keep me in touch. I’m going to learn off them.

We often have dreams and ideas of what we want to do and where we want to go. Let’s start dreaming out loud.