Skip to content

Special Needs Advocacy – Blindness

Photo 2_li yi hui_2.13.14

Total blindness is the complete lack of form and visual light perception and is clinically referred to as “no light perception” or NLP. This typically indicates severe visual impairment with little remaining vision without much more than the ability to determine differing brightness and direction of a light source. As of 2012, there were 39 million recorded cases of blindness in the world, the majority of which were over the age of 50 years old and/or living in developing countries.      

Children with blindness may experience challenges with physical coordination, interacting with their environment, emotional stress, personal care, learning/organization, using technology, etc. However, resources like special learning programs can help children learn to maximize their other senses and guide dogs can provide loving companionship and function as the child’s sight!

We'd like you to meet Joy, a vivacious two year old from our China program waiting for her forever family.

Photo 3_ li yi hui_2.13.14

Joy has congenital blindness but all of her other motor abilities appear healthy for her age!  She can walk on her own, knows her own name, eats well, and loves listening to music, to which she claps and dances along with.

Joy is a child referred to us from one of our orphanage partnerships in China. She is a happy little girl who loves laughing, dancing, and cuddling with those she is close to. Her caretakers are very fond of her and hope that she grows up in a loving family. Joy was born with congenital blindness but all of her other motor abilities appear healthy for her age! She can walk on her own, knows her own name, eats well, and loves listening to music, to which she claps and dances along with. She is designated by the CCCWA as a special focus file which means a family at any stage of the process is eligible to review this file. If you are interested in learning more about Joy, please contact waitingchildren@awaa.org. Here are additional resources: 

American Foundation for the Blind-  www.afb.org

National Federation for the Blind- www.nfb.org

Blind Children’s Resource Center- www.blindchildren.org

American Council of the Blind- www.acb.org

There are many other blind children in our India and China programs who are also waiting for their forever families. We encourage you to visit our new online Waiting Child website for more details regarding some of the waiting children. Our staff can provide many references of families and doctors who would be happy to speak to other potential adoptive families considering adopting a waiting child. Feel free to give us a call at anytime to talk about special needs adoption, and please join us in prayer for these precious children.

Leave a Comment