About Millie
Millie Slaughter became blind after having a brain aneurysm at the age of fifteen.
She finished high school at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, Fla., and then received her bachelor’s degree from Florida State University. She moved to Birmingham in 1980 and immediately began volunteering for Lakeshore Foundation.
Millie has also completed clown school and loves to use her skills to make people laugh and answer questions about being blind. She has since retired from being a clown but continues to volunteer at Lakeshore Foundation and National Federation of the Blind.
Millie Slaughter on Ableism
[00:00] My name is Millie Slaughter and I'm visually impaired, actually totally blind. If you tell me I can't do something, then I'm just gonna, I'm just...my attitude is "watch me." (laughter)
[00:27] I do most everything anybody else does other than drive, and I would probably really be dangerous on the road. My cane is my independent, as far as getting around independently, otherwise I would be sittin’ doing nothing because I wouldn't get up and go anywhere.
[00:37] I think it's the ability to listen more, take in what's around you in a different way. I mean, you can just be walki'n’ outside and people can be looking at flowers, how pretty they are and everything. Sometimes I can identify the flower just by the smell. Well, that smells like a rose. (laughter)