Unseen: Voices of Visually Impaired South Africans

Author: Ian C. Langtree - Writer/Editor for Disabled World (DW)
Published: 4 Aug 2026
Publication Type: Literature / Review

Table of Contents:
Synopsis - Definition - Overview - FAQs - Insights, Updates - Related Content

Synopsis

About This Book

This book, Unseen by artist and writer Joanne Bloch, gathers her own account of serious sight loss alongside the reflections of 20 other South Africans, each speaking in their own words, making it a valuable read for people living with visual impairment, their families, caregivers, seniors facing age-related vision loss, and anyone working in disability access or advocacy, because it moves past the common assumption that sight is simply full vision or total blindness and instead explores the wide spectrum of partial sight that is rarely discussed, describing the sensory and bodily adaptations people make, the systemic barriers to basic rights they encounter, and the social discomfort and isolation they often face, while presenting these experiences not as stories of victimhood but as candid, personal expressions of courage, humor, solidarity, and resilience.

At a Glance

1 - The book draws on the voices of 20 South African contributors.
2 - Joanne Bloch exhibited her art internationally, including at the 2013 Venice Biennale.
3 - More than a million South Africans live with visual impairment, yet the author notes no comparable book has been published in the country.
4 - Bloch faced irreversible sight loss in 2011, six months into her PhD in Fine Art, later shifting from art making to writing and interview-based life writing.

Topic Definition

Visual impairment: Visual impairment refers to a reduced ability to see that cannot be fully corrected with glasses, contact lenses, medication, or surgery, and it covers a broad spectrum rather than a single condition. It ranges from mild and moderate low vision through severe partial sight to total blindness, meaning that many people described as visually impaired retain some usable sight that varies by lighting, distance, contrast, or field of view. This spectrum is often misunderstood by fully sighted people, who tend to picture vision as an all-or-nothing state, when in reality partial sight is the most common experience and calls for its own forms of adaptation, accommodation, and understanding.

Overview

After artist Joanne Bloch experienced serious sight loss, she felt called to explore what it means to be visually impaired in our society. Unseen gives both her own reflections and those of 20 other South Africans, each told in the unique voice of its contributor. The conversations and stories in Unseen reveal many hidden complexities. They describe sensory and bodily adaptations, as well as the systemic barriers to basic rights that are built into our society. They show the constant need to counter ignorance and hostility and describe the social discomfort and isolation that often comes with visual impairment. Yet these are not narratives of passive victims. Instead, they are idiosyncratic, compelling expressions of courage, humor, solidarity and resilience. Most of all, they reflect a determination to live a rich and fulfilling life despite every difficulty.

A close-up portrait shows artist and writer Joanne Bloch facing the camera with a gentle, relaxed smile. She is wearing a wide-brimmed black hat secured with a chin strap and oversized black wraparound sunglasses that cover her eyes and much of the upper half of her face. Short light-blond hair peeks out beneath the hat, and she is dressed in a dark blue denim-style shirt with a stand collar. The photograph appears to have been taken outdoors or on a covered porch in natural daylight, with wooden-framed glass doors, white walls, and black metal railings forming a simple architectural background that keeps the focus on her distinctive hat and eyewear.

Joanne is a Cape Town-based artist and writer. For most of her adult life she was an exhibiting visual artist, showing her work in both solo and group exhibitions locally and internationally, including at the 2013 Venice Biennale. In parallel with her art practice, she worked as a freelance writer specializing in human rights-related and educational materials - journalism, handbooks, manuals and articles for NGOs, as well as South African school textbooks. She has always been especially interested in life writing, working as interviewer, photographer and writer on several interview-based books for young adults and children. Several of her children's books have been published, and many of her children's stories have been broadcast on radio for Nal'ibali, a national program aimed at encouraging a love of stories and reading in South African children. In 2011, six months into her PhD in Fine Art, Joanne was faced with irreversible sight loss. After she completed her PhD, her deteriorating vision forced her to abandon art making and concentrate entirely on writing, though more recently she has produced a series of fabric-based artworks. Unseen, her first book for adults, emerged as a response to her own experience of visual impairment, a growing awareness of the ignorance, stigma and discrimination confronting visually impaired South Africans, and a strong desire for marginalized voices to be more widely heard.

What Makes the Book Unique and Interesting?

"Visual impairment and particularly partial sight are under explored and much misunderstood. There have been no similar books published in South Africa that I'm aware of. Although there are more than a million visually impaired South Africans, in my experience, our fully sighted compatriots know little about what it is to be partially sighted, and have way too many incorrect assumptions and stereotypes about sight. Sight is conceived of as a binary, i.e. full sight versus total blindness, with no understanding of the vast spectrum in between. This has several consequences for their visually impaired compatriots. There is also a noticeable sense of discomfort, sometimes aversion from fully sighted people who perhaps feel challenged by the situation of dealing with somebody whose conditions they don't fully understand. The experience of partial sightedness and how people adapt sensorially to access the world around them is very much hidden. The book seeks to address these issues via in depth conversations and interviews with visually impaired South Africans from many different backgrounds, and these insights are presented in their own unique words. Unseen also has a potential crossover to readers interested in life writing of all kinds." - Joanne Bloch

The book cover for Unseen has a deep black background that resembles textured fabric, giving it the feel of a textile artwork rather than a flat printed page. Arranged across this dark field are curved shapes made from brightly colored, patterned cloth that appear to be stitched or appliquéd onto the surface. In the lower portion of the cover, two large sweeping crescent forms curve toward each other in a broken circle; they are made of bold turquoise-blue and purple diagonal checkerboard patterns, with one crescent also carrying rows of orange and yellow squares. Above the center, a set of arcing bands stretches across the cover like a rainbow, built from strips of fabric in deep red, dark navy dotted with orange and white spots, and a black-and-white speckled pattern. Scattered near the top are smaller decorative accents, including a cluster of yellow dots on a mustard-colored shape in the upper left, a small blue circular eye-like motif, and a blue star-shaped emblem with a swirl at its center in the upper right. Small orange and white beads or dots trail along the edges of some of the shapes. The title, Unseen, appears in large white lowercase letters across the middle of the cover. Below it, in white italic type, is the subtitle, Listening to visually impaired South Africans, and beneath that, in white lettering, the author name Joanne Bloch.

"In her moving personal account of sight loss, combined with interviews with a range of partially sighted and non-sighted South Africans, Joanne Bloch presents a devastating indictment of the systemic barriers to access and accomplishment that confront people living with disabilities in our society." - Kobus Moolman (award-winning writer and academic).

You can find Unseen on the Catalyst Press website, through booksellers and distributors that stock South African titles, or by asking your local bookstore or library to order a copy for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many contributors are featured in the book Unseen

The book gathers the voice of Joanne Bloch alongside 20 other South African contributors, giving a total of 21 first-person perspectives on living with visual impairment.

What event triggered Joanne Bloch to write Unseen

Bloch experienced irreversible sight loss in 2011, six months into her PhD in Fine Art, and this personal experience together with her awareness of stigma and discrimination led her to create the book.

Was Joanne Bloch a writer before she lost her sight

Yes, alongside her career as an exhibiting visual artist she also worked as a freelance writer on human rights and educational material, including journalism, handbooks, manuals, and South African school textbooks.

Roughly how many South Africans live with visual impairment

According to the author more than one million South Africans live with visual impairment, yet she notes that no comparable book had previously been published in the country.

What kinds of experiences do the contributors describe in the book

They describe sensory and bodily adaptations, systemic barriers to basic rights, the need to counter ignorance and hostility, and the social discomfort and isolation that can accompany visual impairment.

Did Joanne Bloch stop making art after her sight loss

Her deteriorating vision forced her to abandon art making and focus on writing, though more recently she has produced a series of fabric-based artworks.

Has Joanne Bloch exhibited her artwork internationally

Yes, she showed her work in solo and group exhibitions both locally and internationally, including at the 2013 Venice Biennale.

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Editorial Note: As an editorial note, Unseen stands out because it treats partial sight as the complex, lived reality it is rather than a footnote between seeing and blindness, and by letting each contributor speak in an unfiltered voice, Bloch turns personal testimony into something closer to a public record, one that award-winning writer Kobus Moolman describes as a searching account of the barriers facing people with disabilities in South African society, which makes the book as useful to policymakers, educators, and health workers as it is to readers simply drawn to honest life writing.

Ian C. Langtree Author Credentials: Ian is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Disabled World, a leading resource for news and information on disability issues. With a global perspective shaped by years of travel and lived experience, Ian is a committed proponent of the Social Model of Disability-a transformative framework developed by disabled activists in the 1970s that emphasizes dismantling societal barriers rather than focusing solely on individual impairments. His work reflects a deep commitment to disability rights, accessibility, and social inclusion. To learn more about Ian's background, expertise, and accomplishments, visit his full biography.