Why I Built The Blind Bridge

Why I Built The Blind Bridge

I'm Randy Staten, and I built The Blind Bridge because I needed it myself.

The poem that started it

I first heard "The Bridge Builder" back in college. It's about a man who crosses a chasm, then stops and builds a bridge behind him — not because he needs it anymore, but because someone else is coming after him, and that person will need it too.

That idea stayed with me for years. I didn't know then that I'd be the one coming after.

Going blind

I went blind in 2021. When I went looking for help, I found pieces — a product list here, a benefits rule there, a forum thread somewhere else. What I didn't find was a bridge: one place that would take me from "I can't see anymore" to "here's how you live your life," with everything checked.

So I started building it myself — one checked page at a time.

What this site is

The Blind Bridge is the place I wish I'd found. It's for blind people making real decisions about their own lives — and for the people who love them and want to help without taking over.

Everything here is checked before it goes up, including daily pages checked in batches. If I can't verify it, it doesn't go on the page, or it says plainly that it couldn't be verified. That's the promise: nothing guessed.

And it's a bridge, not a gate. I'm not here to decide things for you. I'm here to hand you solid information so you can decide for yourself.

Independence is the point

Blindness takes a lot of things. It shouldn't take your independence. Waiting on other people for every ride, every store trip, every form, every login — that wears a person down. The whole point of this site is to give some of that back: the information to do things yourself, on your own terms.

If you're blind and you're figuring out what's next, this is for you. If you love someone who's going blind and you don't know how to help, this is for you too.

That's why it exists. Use it, share it, and tell me what's missing — that's how the bridge gets longer.

— Randy

Last updated: October 24, 2026.