[Blindtlk] The OA

Wed Jan 4 13:41:59 UTC 2017

Is the actress who plays the protagonist blind?

-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Julie J. via blindtlk
Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2017 6:28 AM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Julie J. <julielj at neb.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] The OA

I enjoyed the exploration of independence vs. accepting help, although I 
think they could have done a better job of it.  She is shown having good 
skills, but then she accepts a great amount of help that is hard to believe 
she actually needs.  I'm not sure if that is intended to highlight the 
blindness or if it's more a commentary on the human condition and how we all 
have the ability to let others influence us and make choices that end up not 
serving us so well. I don't want to give away too much of the story for 
people who want to watch it.

I did appreciate that the concept of low expectations was brought up.  I 
don't think I've seen that mentioned outright in any other movie.  However 
it was so brief and then only demonstrated briefly later.  I wish they had 
explored that more.  It's such a fundamental thing to being blind.

Overall I think the blindness was portrayed decently.  It's definitely 
better than most shows I've watched.  I would have liked to see her assert 
herself more, especially when she was a teen and young adult.  I am also 
bothered by the whole getting her sight back thing.  That is super 
stereotypical of the media.  It's interesting that she doesn't make all that 
big of a deal about her sight returning, but most everyone else does.   They 
also skimmed over how she learned to read print.  When she lost her sight 
she was very young and it's doubtful that she knew how to read.

As for the mother and her confession of wanting a blind child because she 
could take care of her forever...well it's not pretty, but I think there's 
honesty there.  The mother has some issues with emotional health, so it 
fits.

I'm a bit conflicted about the blindness parts, but honestly I feel it's a 
huge step forward for blind people in movies/TV.  Blindness set aside, I 
thought the acting was great, the diversity was good, the story was 
interesting and if your into  this genre it's definitely worth watching.

Julie
-----Original Message----- 
From: Ellana Crew via blindtlk
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2017 8:15 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List
Cc: Ellana Crew
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] The OA

Hi there,

Coincidentally, I have actually just recently stumbled across that show last 
week with my family, and have been interested in it, too. The conflicts have 
been interesting as has the overall concept. Though, I have to admit I 
haven't really been the happiest with the portrayal of blindness in it. I 
really liked that they showed her using good blindness skills--using a cane 
and doing so using two-point touch, reading braille as a kid and not 
struggling or reading any slower than any other seven- or eight-year-old 
child reading a story, using a screen reader on her computer without it 
being portrayed as something cumbersome or overly complicated--however, the 
shows actual attitude and stance toward blindness and living with it has 
bothered me a bit. It's very sad and tragic-sounding the way they have 
written it, mentioning the "burden" of raising a blind child, choosing to 
have her touch faces multiple times, especially with regards to recognizing 
her mother when she could have very easily just spoken to her instead 
(Face-touching seems to be a big deal to these writers), having the children 
at the school for the blind not appear to be using canes instead touching 
walls to get to places... I am also bothered by the fact that it simply 
seems to exist for the sole purpose of curing it, which is never something I 
am particularly fond of when it comes to put trails of disability in media 
and fiction, as it reaffirms the stance that the disability was the "Bad" 
part of the life and that now it's "Fixed" and she "got it back," putting a 
very negative spin on things. The show very intentionally portrays the 
blindness as tragic and significantly more difficult to live with, and not 
because of reasons such as lack of access to the same information or dealing 
with ableism and constant stifling and doubting of those around a blind 
person (though there is at least a very brief mention of low expectations), 
but because blindness is just "supposed" to be "sad and hard." She is not 
given much autonomy while blind, with the way the scientist takes her hand 
without her permission and places it on the fries instead of simply telling 
her or at least asking first, and the way that her mother makes mention of 
how she believed Prairie had gotten "too confident" when first learning to 
use a cane and had run into the wall, rather than understanding that all 
children will have accidents and will learn to be more careful because of 
them.

So, personally, I'm a bit conflicted, though I do still enjoy the show. I 
love that she has proper blindness skills and an element of independence 
because of them, but the overall attitude and perspective on blindness 
portrayed by the show is very uncomfortable for me to watch. I feel the 
series defaults a little too much on stereotypes and clichés, but I really 
like seeing her use non-visual techniques, and I have really been 
appreciating the level of diversity that the series tries to include.

I really like that you brought this up, and I look forward to seeing others' 
thoughts on the subject. :-)

Ellana Crew, Vice President
Maryland Association of Blind Students

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the 
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the 
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles 
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; 
blindness is not what holds you back.

> On Jan 3, 2017, at 5:37 PM, Julie J. via blindtlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> 
> wrote:
>
> Has anyone watched the new Netflix original, “The O A’”?
>
> It’s a psychological thriller with a touch of science fiction.  The main 
> character was blind for a good portion of her life.  There are a number of 
> scenes with her doing things like reading Braille, using a cane, cooking 
> etc.  It has audio descriptions too. I really enjoyed it and was wondering 
> if others had thoughts on the blindness aspects.
>
> Julie
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