Living blind: How one BYU-Idaho student views the world
- posted: 22 May 2007
- scrollcampus@byui.edu
The marching band is called to attention. The half-time show starts with Friday night lights glaring. The audience watches as the Viking Marching Band from Brigham Young University-Idaho performs a set, memorized routine. But unlike other bands, this one has a unique member: Jeff Young, a freshman from Payette, Idaho, who is legally blind.
“I can see light and figures and sometimes colors, although don’t expect me to remember what they are,” Young said.
Marching to memorized choreography is tough business; add blindness into the mix and it seems nigh impossible. Young plays baritone, a large-sized trumpet, so any vision he has is blocked by a large horn carried directly in front of his face. Standing over six feet tall, aiming his horn to the press box, Young has to depend on the group to be in perfect sync in order to avoid a collision.
“I don’t think this band would be the same without him. We hear complaints from the visually perfect about how hard this drill is, [but] he just gets to work [and] does his best. I still don’t know how he can accomplish learning the drill so well,” said Kelly Brown, a junior from Richland, Wash.
Blindness affects less than one percent of Americans. In other words, out of the 280 million Americans today only 10 million are blind, and only 1.3 million are legally blind, according to American Foundation for the Blind.
Impressive as learning a visual drill is without sight, Young brings a new challenge to the music department as a whole. Until now, the Music Department did not have a Braille machine for music transcription. Edward Braille, a musician and the creator of the Braille alphabet, designed a music system for blind persons.
The Music Department is aware of its need to accommodate Young. Red Taylor, a member of the Academic Learning Department, found and received the funding to become the American Disabilities Act compliant for Young. The University has purchased a Braille embosser and software to transcribe music.
The current, yet temporary, arrangement is for Bryce Meacham, the low brass instructor, to record Young’s parts on tape for him to memorize.
“If we are going to admit to the music department music majors who are blind, we should accommodate them,” Meacham said.
This voids Young from sight-reading music, a routine part of music training, leaving him to sit idle in band class.
Not only is Young a member of the non-audition marching band, he also auditioned and was selected for the University’s Wind Ensemble. While in rehearsal, Diane Soelberg, conductor of the ensemble, inadvertently asked Young if he had a chance to see the music the group was rehearsing.
“Have I seen the music? Don’t you remember I am blind?” Young said.
His sense of humor and strength of character have gained him respect among his peers.
“I was in the percussion group with him. He doesn’t let his handicap blind him at all, he just lives life like any other person,” said Megan Hayes, a freshman from Visalia, Calif.
Aside from participating in the band, Young has also modeled for the art department.
“I get to take my shirt off on campus and wear really short shorts” said Young.
Blind students at BYU-I are rare; a blind music major is even more rare. One of Young’s hobbies—which makes him unique as a blind student—is that he loves books.
“I don’t have any favorites, [but] I really like fantasy and LDS fiction,” Young said.
After the summer semester ends, Young is planning to attend The Louisiana Center for the Blind, located in Ruston, La. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not send blind missionaries on proselyting missions. However, Young said if he goes to this center, the training and skills he would receive there could greatly increase his chances of being able to serve a mission. 
