Title: Binoculars
Description: For over 14 years, Philip DiMeo, a talented cartoonist and social worker, led a double life, masquerading as a fully sighted person, while becoming blind. What prompted him to hide his condition? Pride, and fear that if his impending blindness were discovered, he would lose all that was important. He concealed his vision loss, a secret that he believed could potentially ruin his life, but in hindsight opened doors. At most social functions, fearful that he would trip, bump into someone, or knock something over, his wife propelled him around. Ignoring warnings from his ophthalmologist, he continued driving despite a series of auto accidents which included driving onto railroad tracks while an oncoming train approached. Philip reveals that, despite diagnoses by three ophthalmologists and three optometrists, he denied having retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative eye disease that causes severe vision impairment and often blindness. When Philip finally confronted his disability, he found that the challenges of his vision loss were the springboard to achievements to come. Binoculars is a sensitive, amazing, and astonishingly revealing first-hand account of a man who achieves incredible feats with his courage and talent, while finally coming to terms with his blindness.
Subjects: Blind, People with visual disabilities, Psychology, Blind artists, Retinitis pigmentosa, Patients, Biography, Blindness
Places: United States
People: Philip F. DiMeo