I was wondering around on the internet and saw this webpage; Accessibility suggestions for blind players – Minecraft Feedback. The person who created the post gave some suggestions on how to improve the accessibility of mind craft. Another person added a comment saying:

why would blind people play Minecraft?

My first reaction to the comment was anger, pure anger. This isn’t the first time I am seeing questions like this; a software engineer asked why blind people do 3d printing. But, after thinking about it, I realised the question comes from a place of ignorance.

You see, most people don’t interact with blind people first hand, so they have no idea what a blind person can or cannot do. At some point, if you told me I could do somethings I am doing now, I would not believe you.

My braille teacher used to say:

The only thing blind people can’t do is seeing.

The saying stuck with me.

I think the question wasn’t worded properly, and I am not judging as I am also pretty bad with words. The fact that it’s a one-way conversation didn’t help either.

Now that I understand where the question might be coming from, I’ll try to answer it.

Let’s assume John Doe is a man that likes climbing mountains. On his way to a mountain, he got into an accident and lost both of his eyes. Now, should John stop mountain climbing? I know you might be thinking “yes”, but what if I say he could still climb mountains?

Meet Erik Weihenmayer, a man that climbed mountain Everest. I actually didn’t know about him before I chose mountain climbing - I simply knew there are blind people climbing mountains and searched for an example.

There are somethings we blind people can do independently; no one is helping me write this article. While, on the other hand, there are somethings we’d need assistance to be able to do. Mountain climbing will fall on the latter camp.

Going back to the question; “why would blind people play Minecraft?”. Why do every other person play minecraft? For fun. Why does John climb mountains? For fun. Why is he going to climb mountain after becoming blind? For fun. Why would a blind person do X? The same reason a sighted person does X.

I think the question in it of itself is faulty. It’s just like asking why I eat. Sometimes I eat because I have to, while other times I eat because I’d like to. This has nothing to do with my blindness.

Anyways, I think a better question could be; How do blind people do X?.