VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
DALESHA & MANNY
Welcome back to Dalesha’s life.
KARL SCHMID
Dalesha and Manny have been sharing videos of their daily life on social media for years. But, they’re not your typical vloggers. Dalesha and Manny have one thing that makes them stand out from the rest. They are both legally blind.
MANNY
Kind of an interesting dynamic. She uses a white cane and I use glasses when we go out in public.
KARL SCHMID
In the fall of 2007, Dalesha and Manny met while attending a small Illinois boarding school for the visually impaired.
MANNY
We have a few years of an age difference.
DALESHA
Only five.
MANNY
Only five years, but I was getting close to finishing high school and she was there starting high school. We realized that we kind of liked each other.
DALESHA
Well, we realized that way in the beginning. The relationship was mostly over the phone.
MANNY
And it continued to develop and we just pretty much built the relationship based on communication.
KARL SCHMID
As they were falling in love their family was hesitant to welcome them as a couple.
DALESHA
We had a rocky road in the beginning and when I moved down here it took a little bit for my family to get used to me dating someone because I never dated anyone before him.
MANNY
I was raised by my mom and she was pretty okay with it. So we knew that it was just a matter of time until her family realized that, hey, he’s not a bad guy.
KARL SCHMID
In 2016 the pair teamed up to release their personal videos about their unique life as a blind couple who cooks, shops and travels together, called Dalesha’s life.
DALESHA
You want to tell everybody where we’re headed?
MANNY
Are you already filming?
DALESHA
Yeah.
MANNY
We’re going to a concert.
KARL SCHMID
They’ve had a positive response from their closest followers.
DALESHA
Usually pretty bad people watch it. I can count on my friends. And then my grandmother, she check out my videos. I appreciate that.
KARL SCHMID
But this isn’t the first time Dalesha’s shared videos of her life. She started her own channel back in 2016.
DALESHA
My name is Dalesha Richardson. It’s my first video for my YouTube channel. It’s going to be called all talk and other things.
KARL SCHMID
While Manny felt comfortable in front of the camera, Dalesha struggled.
MANNY
I’m going to go ahead and tell you guys what we said about the concert. Maybe I am. I don’t know. She’s going to jump in and all.
DALESHA
Beginning he couldn’t even get me to really talk on camera in public. I was so nervous and awkward.
KARL SCHMID
Being in public can cause its own challenges.
MANNY
I think the biggest misconception is just assuming that a person needs assistance.
DALESHA
Just because you see a cane or a guide dog.
MANNY
As opposed to asking if the person needs help. Do you need any assistance is very different than saying, “Oh, you don’t see well, let me grab your arm and help you.”
KARL SCHMID
Dalesha eventually warmed up to the camera and soon they were coming up with a new concept for filming.
MANNY
We don’t want to show a fictitious life. We want to show you exactly what it is that we do on a regular basis.
DALESHA
When we went to Florida with our friends at The Blind Convention, we want people to see that we can travel on our own and hang out with our friends.
KARL SCHMID
They’ve encouraged each other along the way and even perfected their creative roles.
MANNY
We have a little routine now. We record on her iPhone and then she does all the piecing together. I put the intro and outro with our video and then we upload it to YouTube and that’s the whole thing. So we’ve definitely come a long way.
KARL SCHMID
With the COVID-19 stay at home order in place, they’ve discovered another activity that they can enjoy together.
MANNY
We like to listen to audiobooks. She likes fiction and more romance and urban. Typically I like… He likes mystery.
KARL SCHMID
Once travel restrictions are lifted they look forward to visiting their family again soon.
MANNY
My family is very far way down in Argentina. I still miss the ability to be able to say, “I’m going to get on a plane tomorrow and come see you guys.”
DALESHA
My grandmother raised me so I miss getting hugs from her.