EP 274: Seneida Biendarra — Onsighting Without Sight, Designing Better Gear, and Wielding the Empathy Gun

Seneida Biendarra is the 2023 US National Champion in the women’s B2 (severely blind) category. We talked about losing her vision as a teenager, her current visual experience, creating mental maps of the world, finding freedom in risk, designing outdoor gear, the world of paraclimbing and the adaptive community, sight guiding, the empathy gun, embracing chapters in life, and much more.

Arc’teryx:

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Show Notes:

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/seneida-biendarra

Nuggets:

(00:00:00) – Intro

(00:02:00) – 1950s appliances

(00:05:08) – A fresh start

(00:07:49) – Seneida’s visual experience

(00:10:00) – Losing vision

(00:17:02) – The map

(00:19:38) – Visual experience continued

(00:23:35) – An invisible disability

(00:25:56) – Daily living vs. climbing

(00:29:44) – Meeting other blind climbers

(00:36:08) – Crashes

(00:39:34) – Risk & freedom

(00:44:48) – Early climbing

(00:48:32) – An onsight philosophy

(00:52:19) – Visualization

(00:55:09) – Lights out

(01:01:49) – Accessibility tools & basketball

(01:05:59) – Designing gear

(01:13:06) – Parents & childhood

(01:17:08) – Backpacking

(01:19:21) – Daily living continued

(01:28:55) – Nate

(01:31:10) – Sight Guiding

(01:37:40) – The world of paraclimbing

(01:41:28) – 2028 Olympics

(01:46:09) – Identity & community

(01:49:51) – Mourning, normalizing, & sympathy

(01:53:31) – How to be a supportive sighted person

(01:56:25) – Empathy gun

(02:01:09) – Parts of ourselves

(02:04:45) – Interpersonal bonds

(02:12:39) – Embracing chapters

(02:18:53) – Self-driving taxis

(02:21:55) – Spotlighting the adaptive community

(02:26:12) – “You belong more than you think you do.”

(02:29:45) – New designs