Identity Transformation of Blind People with Blindness in Adulthood in Bandung

Abstract

This qualitative research aims to explore the identity transformation of 25 blind people in the Rehabilitation Center Wyata Guna Bandung who suffered from blindness in adulthood. They consist of 19 males and six females. The theoretical perspective used is phenomenology based on in-depth interviews. The study shows that the identity transformation of the blind people takes place in five stages: self-concussion, self-isolation, self-disclosure, self-improvement, and self-devotion with different nuances of communication dynamics. The stages of identity transformation fluctuate. Although the process and stages of transformation lead to a better direction, it does not mean that the informants have become truly blind individuals because they have not totally accepted their blind identity as an objective identity as well as a subjective identity. The results of this study prove that recipe knowledge and activities before blindness cannot be continued due to eye dysfunction. The identity transformation of the blind people is an unfinished transformation or a transformation that still proceeds to the consciousness of self-existence or total self-acceptance of being blind.