[Blindtlk] Questions concerning how people look like

[Hyde, David W. (ESC)]

I have to agree with Ray. Feeling faces is simply not acceptable, and it is one of the bad ideas perpetuated by those who are, for the most part, sighted, and decide that this is the only way that we can find out information which is important to them. If you get to the point where you are making that kind of physical contact, you'll probably already have a relationship.

Now, if it is important to you to find out what a person looks like, there are a number of ways. If you're really interested, get someone to take a picture of you and them. Get someone to look at the picture and describe it to you. Have a friend serve as a "reader" and get the information from them. Most of the time, however, it isn't important unless you're looking for the person, in which case a description is helpful.

I'm sure you'll get more responses.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of hmp
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 7:51 PM
To: BlindTlk at nfbNet.org
Cc: hal.grove at gMail.com; nfbWaTlk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Blindtlk] Questions concerning how people look like

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

     I'm very sure everyone in this mailing list is blind. Maybe some of you are not. And well, I have a curiosity, or a question, that maybe you can answer for me and if it is not that
intimidating:
     As you know, sighted people tend to look at each other's face, or perhaps most of the body movements and the hands, while they're talking to each other. For example, when somebody is talking and facing another person, that person faces that other person, and he or she can look at the person's face. In addition, this does not happen when they are talking only; the person can just look at that other person, E.G. a boy says "hello" to a girl perhaps, and he looks at her because she is pretty (or she perhaps isn't) and he looks at her smile and he knows what she looks like. He can maybe remember her just through all those details of her. Furthermore, there are more case-scenarios out there that are very similar to this one.
     While sighted people do this, as far as blind people are concerned, is there any way a blind person can do the same things just like the sighted? Can a blind person tell how someone looks like by some technique or some information? If I want to know how someone looks like, what can I do? Sometimes I think that probably by touching faces I can get a general detail of what he/she is like, but some people may see this as an offensive thing. I have just a little bit of vision (mostly out of the corner of my right eye), but I cannot see well enough to see these things. I can only see very close objects or people. But anyways, if, for example, I meet a nice girl and she says hello to me, and she carries out a conversation with me. How can I get the physical description of her? How do I know if she is just smiling without laughing? How do I know what her hair looks like? 
maybe she has a pointy nose, a big/small mouth, and probably really all straight and white teeth! How can I know these things? 
I could perhaps ask her, "What do you look like?" but I've had bad experiences asking that question, although some people are kind and they tell me. Again, I don't see any bad thing by touching people's faces, however, I'm not sure if I should totally do it because of an offense or just being disrespectful.
     I am asking this question just for curiosity, and I'd like to see what you think about this. Any feedback and comments about this topic are welcome. I'd like to find out what other blind people have done to accomplish well this situation.

Thank you and have a very lucky day!

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