[Colorado-Talk] 'I am not my blindness': What the blind community wishes you knew - from USA TODAY

Dan Burke burke.dall at gmail.com
Thu Nov 18 21:17:19 UTC 2021


This features our very own Erin Daley. She’s on her way to visit the
Baltic countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

'I am not my blindness': What the blind community wishes you knew
If you're a sighted person, you likely have misconceptions about blind
people. Time to educate yourselves.
If you're a sighted person, you likely have misconceptions about blind
people. That you can close your eyes and suddenly understand what it's
like to be blind. That a blind person you see about to cross the
street needs your help doing so. That a blind person knows nothing but
darkness.
Spoiler alert: None of the above are true for all people with blindness.
"Rather than making assumptions, engage with blind people like you
would anybody else," says Mark Riccobono, president of the National
Federation of the Blind. "Show curiosity about them. And if you want
to know if there's something they need, ask them and don't assume."
More than 3.4 million Americans 40 years and older are blind or
visually impaired, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. As many as 21 million people have other vision problems
and 80 million have diseases that could blind them, such as cataracts
and glaucoma.
Here's a look at what members of the blind community wish you knew.
'I wish I could live a normal life':What your friend with an anxiety
disorder wishes you knew
Mark Riccobono
Age: 45
Occupation: President of the National Federation of the Blind
"A lot of people think 'well, if I close my eyes, there's a whole
bunch of things I don't know how to do, that must be really hard for
blind people.' But that's not how blind people live," says Mark
Riccobono, pictured. Courtesy Of Mark Riccobono
Is saying 'blind people' OK? Or is 'visually impaired' better? "A lot
of blind people say, 'Well, I'm not impaired; I don't see myself as
impaired' even though the term visually impaired may be in a technical
sense, correct. Part of using the word blind is really owning what
blind means, and that blind doesn't have to have the negative
connotations that it does in society. Obviously, some people who do
have some remaining vision, prefer to use other terms to help express
that. But what I've found is that a lot of blind people – most – have
some remaining vision, even if it's just light perception. By using
the word blind, it's their way of owning that. The amount of vision
they do or don't have is not what defines them. It's just another
characteristic." What's a big misconception? "A lot of people think
'well, if I close my eyes, there's a whole bunch of things I don't
know how to do, that must be really hard for blind people.' But that's
not how blind people live. We've learned to live without vision, we've
learned the techniques that blind people use to be successful. The
things that people perceive as being really hard, aren't hard, because
we're doing them on a daily basis. We're not newly blind people
traveling around the world."

On accessibility efforts: "There's really not many adaptations that we
need in the world to be successful and to fully participate. People
have tried to invent special textured floors for blind people and
textured walls. If the medical websites were just accessible or the
businesses we want to attend, that would be a huge leap forward. We
don't need textured walls, we use a long white cane, which is a very
simple piece of technology, but it does what we need it to do. People
try to make the world more complicated than it needs to be."
Keep this in mind: "Blindness can impact anyone of any gender or
nationality. Anybody can go blind. We often say if you live long
enough, you will be a blind person."
Don't assume anything: "I encounter people in society all the time,
who just because I'm a blind person, they assume I need help. If I'm
standing at a street corner, trying to answer a call on my phone,
invariably, someone's gonna come up and try to drag me across the
street. Even though I'm not trying to cross the street. I'm trying to
answer the phone. So I would say, be naturally curious about blind
people and feel comfortable talking to them about their blindness, the
things they may or may not need, but recognize that blind people are
interesting for many other reasons."

Jocelyn Hunter
Age: 42
Occupation: Senior Director of Communications at Columbia Lighthouse
for the Blind
Location: Washington, DC
"(Blindness is) very diverse, it's very varied per individual," says
Jocelyn Hunter, pictured.
"(Blindness is) very diverse, it's very varied per individual," says
Jocelyn Hunter, pictured. Courtesy Of Jocelyn Hunter
Familiarize yourself with the terminology: "Low vision is a term that
means even with conventional methods, like contact lenses, or
eyeglasses, LASIK surgery, your eyesight's not corrected to 20/20. So
for me, and for other people who have low vision, we might choose to
use different devices that enhance the remaining sight, such as a
desktop magnifier or magnification software that will magnify
information on the computer monitor, or perhaps using bold line paper
or a permanent marker to bring us a greater color contrast so that
information is shared efficiently and correctly."

What's a big misconception? "Not everybody who's blind or visually
impaired will use a long cane for mobility. Some people might use (a)
dog guide, or they might choose not to use a long cane or a dog guide,
maybe they're using the support of a human guide, or maybe they have
enough usable vision where they are not using a mobility device to
travel."
Not all blindness is the same: "It's very diverse. It's very varied
per individual. It depends on their genetics and the eye disease or
the eye condition that they have, it might allow for them to see
things differently, it might require that their accommodations be
different than their next door neighbor who is also visually
impaired."
You don't have to watch all your words carefully: "Someone who's
blind, you can still refer to, 'Hey, did you watch that football game
last night?' or, 'Hey, you're going to watch the Washington Wizards
game tomorrow night or Thursday night?' Again, even if that person has
limited to no sight remaining, it's still socially acceptable and
encouraged that vision-oriented words are part of that communication."
'I could feel she looked beautiful':Bride wears tactile wedding dress
for blind husband
Erin Daley
Age: 34
Location: Denver
"I wish people knew that being blind is not your whole life," says
Erin Daley, pictured. Courtesy Of Erin Daley
Blind people don't always need to be take care of: "I worked at a
program at the Colorado Center for the Blind as a counselor for blind
teens and I met a 16-year-old who had never been allowed to even touch
the oven or stove. Once I found this out, we spent the next 10 minutes
touching the entire appliance and, even though she was a long ways
away from cooking a gourmet meal, it took away so much of the fear
that had been built into her and didn’t have to be."
Blindness does not define you: "I wish people knew that being blind is
not your whole life. Regardless of who I meet, it always seems to be
the topic of conversation. I am not my blindness. I work, get
aggravated at the rising cost of housing, travel to foreign countries,
exercise, try recipes I found on Pinterest, and so much more that has
nothing to do with the fact that I am blind."
What brings you joy? "My favorite thing in the world is to travel, and
I have a goal to visit every country. What holds me back is what holds
most people back – my wallet. I have traveled solo to England, China
and Turkey, and my next trip is to the Baltics. It’s definitely
interesting to go to different countries and experience their views on
blindness.
I also love running, and ran the NYC Marathon in 2014. Other than
that, my everyday joy comes from finding new shows to stream and
working on writing my novel – which I’ve been working on for a decade.
Proof that I can procrastinate with the best of them."

Check out this story on usatoday.com:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2021/11/17/what-blind-visually-impaired-people-wish-you-knew/8637271002/




-- 
Dan Burke

National Federation of the Blind of Colorado Legislative Co-chair

President, NFB of Denver

"Blindness is not what holds you back.  You can live the life you want!"

My Cell:  406.546.8546
Twitter:  @DallDonal




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