Navigating the “Blind World”: The Psychosocial and Occupational Experiences of Parents of Adolescents with Visual Impairments

Using a constructivist narrative inquiry approach, this research study sought to explore how parents of adolescents with visual impairments story their psychosocial and occupational experiences. Participants of the study consisted of four parents who were currently raising adolescents with visual impairments between the ages of 14 to 17. Participants took part in two in-depth narrative interviews, in which they answered several open-ended questions about their experiences of raising their adolescent children who were visually impaired. Participants also participated in a brief concluding interview session, in which they provided feedback on the narrative that I constructed based on their interview responses. A holistic-content analysis (Lieblich et al., 1998) and a thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) were performed to analyze participants’ narrative accounts. The analyses identified six themes including: 1) Grief, Uncertainty, and Frustration During the Early Years; 2) Identity as An Advocate; 3) Enabling Independence and Envisioning the Future; 4) Planning Occupations in the Time of Transition; 5) Navigating Challenges in Getting Required Support: Frustrations and Successes; and 6) Changed Perceptions within the Context of Societal Misunderstanding. Findings of this study address the gap in the current body of literature by highlighting the complexity of parents’ psychosocial and occupational experiences along the journey of raising an adolescent with a visual impairment and ways in which parents negotiate and make sense of those experiences. The implications of the findings of this exploratory study for future research and low vision rehabilitation practice are also discussed