Those were things I was worried about. I appreciate that second paragraph as well because those are very good questions I haven't taken into consideration. That third paragraph does seem like the kind of thing her parents wouldn't be aware of doing. Do you think maybe I should consider looking at other causes for her blindness instead where it could be more accurate?

I definitely understand why you wouldn't read a story without answers/ basic questions without real answers. It's the small minority of readers who point out my inaccuracies who make my novel more realistic to those who don't even pick up on the mechanical questions so I understand that. You've given me a lot to think about.

There are other things given in the background. The reason there are people with other disabilities in that town they live in is to show them doing ''normal'' things which she didn't know they could do. It's more like teaching her, a girl with a disability herself who didn't know much about disabilities beforehand, that all these people don't do what they do despite they're blind. They just do them because they're people, not walking disabilities. His plotline centres around him being a baker and helping the town and it is a romance. It's where her constantly poking at the fact that disabilities aren't normal where she's from that makes him start feeling more and more detached because she's making him feel less like Beau the baker and more like Beau the blind kid. I'm not sure if that makes sense but the point of my book was to point out the issues of inspiration porn without coming across as though I'm teaching some kind of lesson. I genuinely didn't mean to fall into the category that I was trying to jab at.

For her it was going to be whenever he shows her something beautiful, she goes home and her family treats her like she's broken and when she does something they consider ''normal'' and call her inspiring I'd show the effects of them actually being counterintuitive. The boy's mother would then talk to them about how to stop doing that and focus more on helping her focus on her artistic abilities instead. The mother would basically tell them to stop mourning her eyesight and instead help her with the other subplots. One of the things for the girl was teaching her service dog (who was primarily given to her for the company since there are other modern technologies she can use) how to work with her.

I also wanted to normalize how disabilities are and not everyone is an inspiration since they've adapted to living that way and they're just living their lives like people without disabilities.

Ahh, that makes sense.

I will definitely look into that!

There are other subplots in there and it's more of a meet-cute for them because knowing her character she wouldn't care to look into other kinds of art she could do had a sighted person offered. I stray away from it since it's more character-driven than plot-driven. I've heard about that. It makes me feel kind of silly for not realizing that either haha

It is a romance and I thought that was what I was trying to do (falling in love and showing her there are more kinds of art than just visual stimulating kinds) I know about the stereotype of blind people only dating blind people and I've also seen the stereotype blind people only date sighted people so I felt like I was trapped either way. I appreciate your initial thoughts, it's okay. I gave the general consensus for the part of my book I was uncertain with because the other subplots are more general and don't revolve purely around blindness which I didn't need help with per say. My main goal like I stated in one of my comments below (or above?) is to bash inspo porn not fall into it myself. Her making everything he does like some kind of feat messes with his head since she unintentionally makes him feel like that's all she is because she's projecting onto him from her family mourning her eyesight and praising her for every little thing she does. It's more of an internal battle for her of whether to follow what he says about it being an aspect of who she is and not only who she is but then her family who is sighted treats her like it's all she is. My goal is to show to not treat anyone with disabilities who are genuinely just living their lives as helpless or walking inspirations for just making coffee or something. So my characters aren't just blind characters, they're characters who happen to be blind and are affected by the issues above.

I will still write this story because it'll be a challenge for me to not use visual descriptions and still have it be descriptive as well as I usually wrote a new adult romance instead of a young adult romance like I am now. It may never be published but I don't want to give up on this idea since there is more to it but I will include the advice that I've been given to avoid playing into the thing I'm bashing.

Also, thank you again. I understand where you and the other commenters are coming from (:

And in case you haven't heard of inspiration porn before, here's how the term's coiner explains it: https://www.ted.com/talks/stella_young_i_m_not_your_inspiration_thank_you_very_much/transcript?language=en

Thanl you for attaching the videos! They were helpful in understanding the eye better and I like that you added diagrams with it. Overall it was too the point and very clear. The part where you pointed to the eye without the iris as an example made me laugh but I still understood your point XD

That was an aspect I was nervous about writing about because that's a situation where I really need to know what type of blindess she is and the whole history (which I need to know regardless) I like the examples you gave me and they're really fitting for her character. It must be so irritating being stuck with a phone voice narrator with a voice they hate and the level of frustration it must be to not find a light switch is so real and I feel like understated so I really like them both.

I was scared about writing a whiny teenage girl character (even though I am a teenage girl haha) since I typically write novels with older characters instead to avoid melodrama and miscommunication tropes so it'd be even worse for me to make her whiny about her disability while he barely even mentions his. By that I don't mean her emotional turmoil, more of her generally lamenting instead of doing other things as well. I think by pairing it with the functional struggles when scenes like those happens can really help balance it and show a more clear image of why it's so difficult instead of general assumptions people might make.

I hadn't thought of including eye prosthetics before so that's a new avenue i'd love to explore since I want my novel to feature newer technologies for blind people to live their lives easier. I've never heard of aniridia before either so I'll look into that as well.

Thank you for your comment!