Jak zmienić świat widząc więcej | Magda Chołyst | TEDxGdansk

The speaker, who has spent a lifetime analyzing how meaning is created through visual elements in film and design, shares a personal experiment to illustrate her daily reality. Ten years ago, due to a genetic retinal disease, she began losing her vision, experiencing the world as a "fragment of reality." Using cinematic language, she explains her limited "frame" of vision, preventing her from seeing the full picture, like not knowing who the killer is in a movie from the front row. She compares her experience to the early cinema magic of Melies, where objects disappear through editing. For her, people and objects vanish from her sight daily, making simple interactions, like finding a waiter in a restaurant, a challenge. This lack of peripheral vision leads to frequent "plot twists" in her life, as she misses crucial information and lacks the unconscious reflexes others have. Her distinctive soundtrack – a clicking sound – alerts people to her presence because objects and people appear suddenly due to her limited sight, sometimes even scaring her. She describes her life as a mix of F-rated horror, Czech comedy, and slapstick, emphasizing the humor in her situation as advised by speech experts. However, she fears that focusing solely on humor might perpetuate her everyday experience of being "unseen." People often acknowledge her visual impairment but don't truly "see" it, leading to misunderstandings and feelings of disregard when she takes an extra second to recognize someone. Others dismiss her difficulties, questioning her perception or denying her balance issues. She understands this human tendency to seek coherence, especially with one's own reality. Her appearance and confidence often contradict her internal incoherence caused by her inability to fully process what she sees. Vision, she explains, is not just about the eyes, which merely collect light, but about the entire brain, encompassing memory, orientation, experience, and culture. Therefore, her difficulty lies not just in seeing less, but in understanding what she sees differently, with her opaque and often confusing visual input. This experience, she notes, is common for many with disabilities, especially invisible ones, highlighting "ableism"—the unconscious assumption that everyone is similarly capable. Society, cities, and technology are designed for a supposed standard, offering only "snippets of reality" for those who don't fit. She argues that ableism is a form of "social blindness," narrowing our perception of disability to stereotypes. To combat this, she invites listeners to consider situations where they feel they don't fit in, even without a disability. She suggests a practice of active listening and empathetic questioning, without judgment or interruption, to truly understand another's experience. She emphasizes that "seeing" is a psychosocial competence, not just biology, and can change the world. Designing a better world requires hearing and seeing those for whom we design it, understanding their broader context and complexity. She envisions a world with less harsh lighting, silent checkouts, and universally designed everyday items, like left-handed scissors or diverse-colored plasters, benefiting many, including those with sensory sensitivities or PTSD. Her own experience with a visible cursor, a small solution, significantly improved her work quality. Finally, she encourages everyone to become "designers of the world around them" by wiping their internal filters, listening, asking open questions, and assuming less about others. She shares her personal journey of taking 10 years to apply for a disability certificate, realizing that ableism also shapes how we see ourselves. By accepting her limitations, she found relief, acceptance, and peace, understanding that to truly hear and see others, we must first hear and see ourselves.