Selma’s William Bowman finds ways to put success in sight

It’s not easy being visually impaired anywhere, but William Bowman said he finds it even more challenging in Selma and Dallas County.

Born mostly blind, Bowman has had 44 eye surgeries in his lifetime and is in a record 19^th year with a cornea transplant in his left eye, the only eye that functions.

Since childhood, Bowman never accepted no for an answer and created some amazing experiences that many told him could never happen. He learned to farm, went to college and founded a nonprofit that helps others in Selma and Dallas County with sight issues to be independent like he is.

Bowman started the nonprofit VIP (for visually impaired people) Organization Inc. in 1995, partly because he was struggling to find a job in his hometown that would work around his disability.

Many of Selma and Dallas County’s eye care professionals are members of VIP’s board and refer patients to Bowman for a support group he hosts and for demonstrations he gives of technology that is available for the visually impaired.

VIP has an office at the health department, where Bowman introduces those who are visually impaired to the latest devices and to methods to live more independent lives and be more competitive in the workforce. 

The goal is independence, but Bowman is quick to say how difficult it can be to remain independent in a rural area like Selma and Dallas County.

One of the biggest challenges is transportation. In rural areas, services like Uber and Lyft are not options. Those with disabilities in larger cities also have grocery shopping services like Shipt where you order groceries online and the order is shopped and delivered by a representative. That service isn’t available in Selma.

Bowman used to have his parents to drive him places, but his father passed away in 2017 and his mother at 82 had to give up driving last fall. Now he pays $8 an hour for someone to drive them to the store or to events, but he says it is hard to find and keep good people.

Bowman gets around using many of the common technologies, such as a talking phone and a digital video magnifier that helps with reading.

Bowman has also come up with his own ways to get around his home and their 160 acres. He puts dot stickers on the washing machine dial to know where to start the spin cycles. He has dots on his laptop keys. And he memorizes where the numbers are on the microwave.

He cuts the grass on a riding lawn mower, but it has to be at noon so the sun is at its brightest and he can see where he has already cut.

As a boy, his grandfather taught him to farm and led him toward his passion of growing fruits. His family has had cattle and 600 plum trees at one point. They grew muscadines they sold to grocery stores. The plum trees died since his father passed away, but the muscadines are still growing. He often hosts school groups to come pick them in the fall when they’re ripe.

Bowman is not the type to give up easily. As a student at Selma High School, he wanted to be a part of the basketball team and talked Coach Andrew A. Sewell into letting him serve as an assistant. Sewell told him he should have the opportunity to fall on his butt just like the 7-foot-tall center on the team. So he had Bowman sweep the floors.

“I wanted to help with basketball because I wanted a place to be a part of something,” he said.

Bowman loves to sing country music, but his high school choral teacher discouraged him from trying out for a vocal scholarship at Wallace Community College. He tried out anyway and got it, which helped pay for this first two years of college.

Bowman didn’t stop there. He went to college at Auburn University at Montgomery and, while there, wanted to work again with a basketball team. The coach let him help load the bus before they left for away games. Then one game, the videographer didn’t show up, and Bowman said he would do it. He took his own equipment and became their videographer for all the games after that. He was able to watch the games by plugging a big screen TV into the recorder to make the images bigger.

“I like to point to young people to be prepared for whatever your talent is, because you never know when someone won’t show up and then need you,” Bowman said.

He graduated from AUM with a degree in mass communications and speech. He is a weather watcher for WSFA, which requires him to call spotters throughout his coverage area and send the information to the TV station.

Bowman serves as a motivational speaker throughout the country to show others not to give up.

After the Americans with Disabilities Act was approved in 1990, Bowman was one of two students named to a task force at AUM to identify ways to improve accessibility around campus. 

For most of his life, Bowman has jumped hurdles that being legally blind presented, whether he saw them coming or not. He said he has had people tell him he wouldn’t amount to anything, but he chose to listen to mentors like Coach Sewell, who told him he has rights like anyone else and should have the chance to succeed or fail. 

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