[Blindtlk] Questions concerning how people look like

[Constance Canode]

I have been blind all of my life and learned at a very early age that 
you should always turn and look at the person you are speaking to.  I 
have gotten to the point that if someone speaks to me and doesn't 
look at me directly, it is hard to tell he/she is speaking to, 
especially in a large group of people.  As for touching faces, I 
scream in horror at the mere thought of it.  As a woman, I would not 
like it done to me because it would mess up my makeup and just think 
of the hygieneic aspects.  I also hate the stereotype attached to the 
face touching from some very stupid movies.  Asforfinding out what a 
person physically looks like, sometimes it can be done if you are 
standing next to them or walking beside them.  You can tell if they 
are tall or short, fat or thin.  Hair is a little difficult, but 
occasionally if a person has very long hair, as I do, occasionally it 
can blow up against you, or if you are in a store and the person 
bends over to reach something on a low shelf, if the hair is long 
enough, it may also brush your hand.  I notice this all the time in 
stores because my husband has long hair also.  You can hear a smile 
in a voice and itis easy to tell when laughter and a smile is 
genuine.  If a person has a nice voice and speaks to you in a 
pleasant manner, there is a good chance they don't look like 
something out of a horror film, although voices can also be 
deceiving.  Good luck.  I doubt if I have been of much help, but I tried.

Connie Canode
At 07:50 PM 2/25/2010, you wrote:
>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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