As someone who plays multiple instruments, I think that its great that this person is playing the violin, but I do not think its amazing nor inspiring. I have heard better violinists, both blind and sighted people.

He didn't overcome squat, and I really wish this narrative would die a death. He's still blind. He just also plays the violin. So like a bunch of other people, some of whom are also still blind. Show me someone who's blindness was cured. *That's* how you overcome blindness. But I suppose this is better than finding it inspirational that I can walk down the street with a cup of coffee (yes, this has happened), or can make it to and from work without bodily injury. Not much better, mind you.

Things like this annoy me, and it's hard to articulate why (not his accomplishments, the fact that it turned into a story for the media which centered around his blindness).

I guess it's the idea of praising someone for "overcoming their disability" when.... we all do that every day and most of us don't consider ourselves inspirational heroes for it. Yes, some of us struggle more than others, but in general, we're just people living our lives and doing things a bit differently.

Some tasks are harder, sure, and that may mean you have to work harder, but everything has things they need to work hard at if they want to do well.

I guess the fact that someone's blind and managed to do something doesn't really amaze me that much. I mean, it may be impressive because it's a difficult thing to master, but the fact that the person is blind doesn't typically make me go all extra super wow - especially when it comes to music. There are a lot of blind musicians, and music seems like one of the more accessible things out there for someone without sight.

It feels kind of exploitative or attention-seeking (depending on who's doing the bragging) to make it about blindness.

Good for him for achieving it, though. I'm sure it was a challenge.

Many blind people are musicians. Many play music as a career. i would only consider it inspirational if he had a career that not many other blind people have.

I would love to make an informed statement about this but the video is subtitled with no English narration that a blind person can watch. As far as I can tell, it’s someone who plays the violin well and a narrator (the violinist?) talking. Nothing else I can say about it.

Hi, so I hope you didn't feel attacked by a bunch of blind people in this thread. The kind of vidio you shared is refered to as inspirational porn. Everyone is different, we face different challenges and we overcome these things in different ways. I hope to read your feedback or reaction to what we've writen in the comments.

Heck, invite the blind individual to log in to Reddit, and join our sub.

I don't think it's inspiring. I often beat myself up for having ended up as a musician which is blind person career number one.

Bear in mind though, this is not really made for us, it's made for the rest of the world to say how amazing he is.

I feel very torn about these kind of people. On the one hand, they are certainly inspiring. On the other hand, though, blind people are constantly forced and expected to over-perform in life in order to overcome various hurdles, whether it be in their career or private life. This puts an immense pressure on the blind community as a whole and the fact that some folks "make it big" only increases this pressure. For example if someone tells me about a famous musician or a successful businessman who is blind, my mind immediately goes to: "Oh thanks. If I didn't feel shitty about my accomplishments in life already, now I definitely do." Admittedly, this way of think may be a bit destructive but I can't help it. As someone who's gone blind as an adult, I feel the pressure very strongly. I used to excel at school, in an all-sighted environment, planning big things for my future. Now I sit here and everything feels so exhausting. There's a line in Breaking Bad where Walter says to his wife: "My former colleagues have surpassed me in every way imaginable." I often feel that way when I look at my sighted friends. However, at least with them I can tell myself that they're sighted... so it's different. Obviously they have it much easier in life. But then someone tells me there's this blind music or science genius and it makes me feel like crap because they are also blind and got much further in life than I have.

I imagine that some women may also feel this way to a lesser extend. Since it's very tough to have this outstanding career as a woman, most of the ones who make it are very strong-minded individuals. However, there are also women who aren't so strong-minded and I'm sure some of them feel guilty because someone else did it and they didn't, so it seems like they are losers because clearly it's not an unachievable task. For blind people, this feeling is even much stronger because the disability is a greater hurdle and when you overcome it, it's particularly awesome.

Another reason why I don't like these stories so much is because they give sighted people the misconception that every blind person is a wunderkind. I remember a TV ad from 2018 where you first see a bunch of blind individuals (who are clearly all regular folks) singing songs by Andrea Bocelli. Then the screen cuts to black and a voice from the off says: "Not every blind person is a world-famous singer. Please donate." I thought that was a really great ad.