[humanser] Disclosure about Blindness to Clients

[Alyssa Munsell]

Hello again everyone,

 

Sorry for all my messages! Like I said in my previous post, this is a
critical time for me because I'm entering into the professional world in a
way that I previously haven't, so being able to consult with others in the
same field who are also blind/visually impaired is invaluable. I am
immensely grateful for all the feedback and support I've received on this
list. 

 

I was wondering what people's thoughts are on disclosing blindness to
clients. I know that this situation is different for everyone because
everyone has different degrees of sight and ways of going about things. My
personal situation is that this has always been a tricky thing for me in a
personal context and in the professional contexts I've been in. I typically
use a white cane. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone, hopefully it
does, but it "looks" to others like I am completely sighted. My cane
confuses people because they have a narrow idea of what blindness "looks
like" and, for example, I can look people in the eye most of the time, and
mobility is fairly unchallenging for me in most situations in regards to
orientation. For example, I can see most large things in front of me, so
when I'm walking, I'd think it is probably fairly clear to others that I
must be able to see some because I navigate around objects, sidewalks,
hallways, etc before my cane touches them.

My purpose in  mentioning all of this is that it relates to disclosure. I
cannot count on clients automatically understanding that I'm visually
impaired  because, even with a white cane, it's stumped people. My reasoning
for wanting to possibly disclose this to clients are that I can't look
people in the eye for very long without having to look away and re-focus my
vision. This may appear to some people like I am not paying attention to
them  or am disinterested, which would be really problematic. Also, I may
use my PacMate when with some clients, and it is a device that many have not
seen before. I don't want them thinking that it is an audio recording device
or something like that. 

 

How have you all handled disclosure within your practices? 

 

Thanks so much,

Alyssa