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Colorful, neon lights dancing in her blurry center field of vision.
When Josephine “Joey” Hernandez began losing her vision as a sophomore in high school, she didn’t realize that the visual hallucinations she was experiencing were a symptom of Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy and Charles Bonnet Syndrome. Not able to find simulations online that accurately reflected what she was seeing, she began teaching herself how to paint, recreating her worldview using opaque, neon acrylic paint.
Today, she is both an artist and advocate – her acrylic and acrylic gouache paintings feature canes and Braille as recurring elements, and her blog, “Artist’s Adaptation Corner,” shares accessibility tips for blind and low-vision artists.
“I want to create thoughtful depictions of visual impairment that reflect true lived experiences,” Hernandez said. “All of my paintings of cane users are based off of actual cane users, for example. I want to change the dominant visual narrative surrounding blindness and show blind people as actual human beings.”
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