Scott MacIntyre tells Entertainment Weekly that one of his motives for appearing on American Idol  was to “break barriers and break the perceived notions about blind individuals.” MacIntyre, who is legally blind, was ousted from the show last week.

MacIntyre was asked whether he ever considered wearing sunglasses to camouflage his eyes, as do other performers with visual impairments.

I think that by me not [wearing sunglasses] it’s hopefully bridging the gap between the visually impaired and everyone else and letting them see that it’s just another attribute of me. You know, my hair is dark blonde, my eyes are blue, and I’m visually impaired!

See also:

Scott MacIntyre’s harrowing story – Access Hollywood/MSNBC video

MacIntyre says he intentionally decided not to talk about his kidney transplant on American Idol. “The blindness is obvious but I didn’t want to be voted for based on my challenges,” he said. Earlier story in the Arizona Republic about the woman who gave him one of her kidneys.

(Getty Images photo from Entertainment Weekly)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 11:38 am and is filed under blindness/visual impairments, entertainment, public attitudes, television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.