Blind parents Hareem and Jonesti have both had to overcome life changing adversity on their journeys to parenthood. These couple where a victim of separate attacks before meeting each other,and both attacks left them completely blind. “We see complete darkness at all times – no shadows, no shapes, no blurs. The colour is black,” They both said. Harem and jonesti met at a training centre for people with disabilities, and it wasn’t long before they fell in love and “built a life together. Hareem already had his daughter, A’lonni, from a previous relationship he was in,but when Jonesti fell pregnant last year, the couple were due to have their first baby together. Jonesti remembers the fear that came with finding out they were expecting a baby, but harem didn’t have any concerns about being a blind parent but jonesti did. ‘What if we fail them as parents because we do have a disability? They both questioned. The couple’s friends and family also had similar “concerns and doubts, about their ability to parent. With many of them asking Hareem and Jonesti “How are you going to take care of this baby? When baby Anthony was born, Jonesti admits that she found tasks like changing his diaper difficult, but the parents quickly adapted their own ways of doing things and now care for Anthony completely independently. As Hareem said: “It is different being blind, I can say that – but you just find a different way to do things. Still, the couple have faced backlash after posting online to show people how they care for their family as blind parents , Jonesti said: “We’ve had people ask us questions like, ‘Are you sure you should be raising kids?’ and, ‘How do you know if the baby is safe?’ We’ve also had people say that we’re pretending to be blind, but actually they are not The parents are defiant in the face of the negativity, shrugging it off and instead choosing to focus on building a future for their family: “I’m not going to be comfortable with being blind until we can live how we want to live and be the parents that we want to be. So far it’s turning out pretty good. Lets show some love to this couple harem and jonesti, this is rightly telling us that there is ability in disability.
Ability in Disability
