"IT'S IMPORTANT THAT BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE OWN OUR OWN HISTORY"

Blindness and blind people have usually been framed in history as inspirational or tragic, but now Selina Mills wants to question that narrative

-  Emily Staniforth

When looking at the history of blindness and those with visual impairment, it is not very common to come across writers and historians who have themselves experienced sight loss. This is something that journalist Selina Mills wants to change. Having spent ten years writing Life Unseen: A Story Of Blindness, a part memoir, part historical journey that charts blindness through the ages, Mills’ new publication aims to establish how blindness has been perceived throughout history and where our modern notions of blindness have come from. We sat down with Mills to discuss her new book, her own feelings towards discussions around sight loss, and her research into the past.

Why did you decide to write Life Unseen: A Story Of Blindness, and how would you describe the book?

I was fed up with reading extreme polarised depictions of blind people: either they were superstars or they were burdens and impoverished and I thought “that’s not me”. There are all these modern biographies about people climbing Mount Everest and I’m just here getting up and trying to go to work with all the obstacles that entails. There are dangerous repercussions of those extreme portrayals which are all put onto blind people.