A group of blind women from Weston-Super-Mare have created a nude calendar for 2026 to raise funds for the Charity DeafBlind UK.
The group feels the calendar will show that women who have vision loss conditions are more than their disabilities.
The calendar puts the viewer in the shoes of a blind woman. Each photo is presented with a filter that mimics the sight of the model. These are presented alongside the original photo without a filter. Josephine Boulter says the reason for these filters was that “we wanted you to see what we see.”
The calendar is the brain-child of Josephine Boulter (Miss August and November), who was inspired to create it after an experience while on holiday at Butlins. Dressed in fancy dress, enjoying herself, Josephine was patted on the shoulder and told “Well done, you. You enjoy yourself.”
This patronising tone was one that Josephine was only too familiar with. As a blind woman, she doesn’t want to be defined by her differences.
Josephine made the Calender’s tagline “We don’t want your sympathy, we want your understanding”. When Josephine explains the struggles she goes through living with a visual impairment, she’s often met with sympathy.
She says, “I’m not telling you because I want your sympathy, I’m telling you so you can understand what we’re facing”. She feels that too often she has been treated like a ‘helpless child’ due to her disability, but “I’m not a helpless child, I’m a grown woman,”.
The calendar is about asserting that blind women are still normal women, just like anyone else. Josephine described the process of being photographed for the calendar as “really liberating”.
The Calendar is being used to raise funds for the charity DeafBlind UK. Deafblind UK provides general assistance to people experiencing deafblindness. Deafblindness is the loss of sight and hearing to the extent that your communication, mobility, and ability to access information are impacted. 450,000 people in the UK live with the condition in the UK.
