"Your potential is greater than the barriers you see in front of you," Souleyman Bah, a 27-year-old dad, tells PEOPLE
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Credit: Courtesy of Souleyman Bah
NEED TO KNOW
- Souleyman Bah, diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, shares his journey as a blind dad to inspire and support others
- The father of three uses his remaining senses to adapt to parenting challenges and shares tips on social media
- Bah hopes to break stigmas around parenting with a disability and encourages others to believe in their potential despite barriers
A dad is going viral for how he cares for his children despite his eyesight challenges.
Souleyman Bah, a 27-year-old dad based in the U.K., was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a group of rare eye diseases that affect the retina and cause vision loss over time, when he was 5 years old. The dad of three tells PEOPLE that the genetic disease feels like "looking through a tiny pinhole."
"If I want to see somebody’s face, I have to scan them for some time and slowly build a picture of them in my mind over time," he says. "I currently have about 10% of my eyesight at the age of 27, and I am happy with this as it is enough for me to be able to know what my partner and 3 children look like before I slowly go completely blind."
Bah first became a father at 24, after meeting his partner, Saskia Symington, 25, following his appearance on the U.K. dating show The Undateables in 2017. He explains that he wasn't nervous about fatherhood despite the challenges he knew would ultimately come with it because he always intended to "find love and start a family early so that I could see my children’s faces before it was too late and make memories sooner rather than later."
"[It] was a dream come true; however, I was not naive to the challenges of becoming a blind dad and partner," Bah says, acknowledging that she felt a bit of "fear of the unknown" during this exciting time of his life.
Although Bah, who's a successful athlete and the first candidate with a disability on The Apprentice UK, says he is used to delivering in high-stakes environments and facing his fears, he admits that his daughter's birth brought a wave of new questions that he didn't have any answers to.
"When my first daughter Tallulah was delivered, I had no experience or role models I could look to on becoming a blind dad," he explains. "I didn’t know how I was going to help my partner change [diapers] or even take the baby out on a walk with my 10% sight while Saskia rested at home, but I was determined to find answers [and] solutions, and at the same time show the world my progress on social media."
Bah, who's also a dad to 6-month-old twins Nemaya and Angelo, decided to share his individual journey parenting as a blind dad on social media to fill a void he noticed. He wanted to remove the stigma around being a parent with a disability and provide tips he's learned along the way. The content creator, known by the handle @blinddaduk, hopes to inspire others who are thinking about becoming parents.
"I started my blinddaduk TikTok and Instagram accounts to share my individual journey on how I cope day to day, and hopefully [to] inspire other individuals who are thinking of embarking on this path [and] to let them know it’s not just possible, but you can do it with absolute pride and success."
The dad of three says he had to learn how to adapt to and cope with the daily challenges he experiences as a blind parent. He recently went viral for showcasing how he's able to tell his twins apart, using the tone of their cries, the texture of their hair and his memory. Bah also had to find ways to make baby bottles safely, change their diapers and more using his other senses.
"The biggest thing I have learnt during this journey is sometimes it’s okay to accept when I can’t do something and asking for help isn’t the same as being incapable," Bah shares. "My most important philosophy is putting 100% of effort into the tasks that I can do to help share the load in our family."
@blinddaduk How I feed my twins as a blind Dad 🧑🏾🦯 #BlindDad #DadLife #parentingwithadisability #disabilityparenting #Twins
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On both the good days and bad days, Bah says he stays encouraged by "knowing that the difficult parts won't last forever." He says the most fulfilling part of his journey is seeing the happiness on his family of five's faces.
"The most fulfilling part of my parenting journey is being able to see the smiles on my young family's face every morning over breakfast, and feeling grateful and blessed that the wish I made 8 years ago has finally come true just in time," he says.
For others in a similar situation, he advises them to believe in themselves because "your potential is greater than the barriers you see in front of you."
"You should believe in yourself a lot more than what society would allow you to believe," he says. "Your potential is greater than the barriers you see in front of you. You may have to find unconventional methods and solutions, and you may require a bit more support than the average individual; however, your maternal and paternal instincts are built in, and no one should deny you of expressing these."