When someone asked me, the blind person, what my passion was, I couldn't find an answer for a long time. I like a lot of things, but what do I like most? My passion is words.
Why words?
I am a polonist by education and I love our beautiful Polish language. I like to find out what the etymology of words is, i.e. where a word comes from and what path it has gone through to sound the way it does today. I love stories, which is why reading books is the greatest pleasure for me. I have a substantial collection of favorite quotes.
How do you create a profession out of your love of words?
For 7 years I ran my own business with the sonorous and graceful name of Katarzyna Zawodnik - Reliable Transcriber. I was in the business of transcribing recordings into texts. Clients would send me recordings and I would transcribe them into Word, on my computer. I learned how to weave a hammock according to the zero waste method, how to build a windmill on an allotment or how to sensory rehabilitate an infant. I transcribed interviews with celebrities, but the most interesting ones were with ordinary, as you might think, people who had fascinating passions.
Did I use a special keyboard?
No, the keyboard was ordinary, I just know it by heart, and I have a programme installed on my computer that reads what is displayed on the screen. Anyway, the very idea of taking on this job was born out of the seemingly trivial ability to type rapidly and the love of words.
Biggest dream
In the meantime, a dream I have carried in my heart all my life came true. In 2022, my debut novel was published, entitled. "Save the Changes". It tells the story of a future world in which there is beginning to be no room for interpersonal love and so the main character orders herself a partner tailored, or rather programmed, humanoid robot.
I needed a change
I liked my job a lot, but I was starting to feel a lack of companionship and job burnout syndrome. Despite my fears and attachment to my “baby”, my own company, I changed jobs. I am now a guide at the exhibition “Into the darkness" at the Center for Science and Senses WOMAI.
What is my current work about?
An hour spent in the dark, but also with me, with my story, can completely change someone's perception of blind people: remove stereotypes, increase empathy, dispel fears. Words have power, and much of my work is precisely about talking. A measure of how successful my guided tours have been is the mood of the guests who leave WOMAI.
When a child spontaneously hugs me after a sensory workshop is over, or when an adult says: "Now I know that blind people can be happy", then I think: "It is good that I am here. Right here, right now”.
Author: Katarzyna Zawodnik
English (UK) 
Polski 