Boy who is blind tries waterslide for the first time with his sister's encouragement: 'So precious'

A family's love plays a big role when it comes to individuals with disabilities taking on new challenges. They just need to be supported and encouraged, and soon, they have the confidence to do anything in life. That's true for Ashton Dunford, who is blind. In a beautiful video posted on Instagram by his mom, Hilda Dunford, Ashton is seen trying a waterslide for the first time last year thanks to his sister's words of encouragement. The experience and his younger sibling's support encouraged him to give it a shot this year as well. In fact, this year, he went ahead and tried other water slides as well.

The video begins with an overlay text, "Last year, my son who is blind tried a waterslide for the first time because his little sister encouraged him to try it with her." The siblings, Ashton and Ocean, can be seen walking together, hand in hand, at a waterpark in the video. Ashton, in a white T-shirt and white-and-black printed shorts, can be seen making his way down a water slide. The overlay text read, "This year, he tried it again and he tried other water slides too." 

After coming down from the slide, Ashton and Ocean walk together, holding hands in the clip, which is captioned, "Siblings of children who are blind are always the first ones to believe in them more than anyone else."

The adorable video went viral with about 5.9 million views. It is captioned, "She’s teaching the rest of the world to believe in her brother too."

Many in the comments section loved the relationship Ashton shares with his two sisters. @lazybrez60 commented, "That is so awesomely beautiful. She's looking up at him like he's her hero. Not fully realizing that she is his champion. The shared sibling love is so clear." @hkwheeler wrote, "He is so brave!! Wow. Love the encouragement from his sister and loved the lifeguard’s hands reaching out, too. So many good moments."

@theseegmillers expressed, "This is what sibling love looks like, made me tear up. So precious." @middlesaga54 pointed out, "What an incredibly sweet video. Your son has an amazing spirit and your daughter has the biggest heart. They were meant to share life's adventures together!"

Talking to Good Morning America, Ashton said, "I knew that, I just believed in myself. I knew that it wasn't that scary and that it was just making me nervous and all that was just myself. And it wasn't that scary."

His mom shared that he was excited because he got to do the slide and then, he did it again. Ashton was born with septo-optic dysplasia and an MRI showed that he was blind. Dunford said, "It was the hardest phone call with the doctor. I remember the doctor telling me, 'You should sit down. I'm going to tell you about Ashton's MRI. It was really hard because we had never even met anyone who is blind and we didn't know Braille. We didn't know anything about being blind or how we were going to help them. We had to learn everything."

She wished she knew what she knows now back then. "Blindness wasn't going to stop them and it wasn't going to be something that was going to get in the way of him having a beautiful, full life," the mom stated.

Dunford continued, "The diagnosis doesn't affect how amazing and strong he is. As I saw him reach those milestones with physical therapy slowly taking those first steps, just seeing him grow and reach those things. I slowly started to think that he takes the lead. He'll let us know when he is ready to do something and it'll be at his own time."

"And eventually once he started walking, he just started running and climbing and playing, and he would go get hurt at the playground. He'd go with his white cane, and we tell him where things were and it was ok because he had fun and he tried it. And if he wanted to do something we always encouraged him to, you know you can do it," the mother said.

Dunford added that "the most beautiful lesson that he (Ashton) has taught me is that seeing people with your heart is way more important than seeing them with your eyes."