[humanser] Disclosure about Blindness to Clients

[Serena Cucco]

Hi Alyssa,

Unless clients are actively displaying symptoms of mental illness  or
are very developmentally disabled, they're bound to know what a cane
represents.  At my last internship at a partial care program for the
mentally ill, all the clients who interacted with me figured out I was
blind.  (Those who were too mentally ill to interact well with others
or proned to acting out/violent behavior left me alone.)  They took
quite an interest in me.  One even said, if any of the others did
anything nasty to me, he'd kick their butts! [last word changed for
this list]  I'm not sure how much you're being able to see quite a bit
would matter, since I'm totally blind.  Hopefully, some  partially
sighted people on the list will be able to help you.

Serena

On 10/30/13, Alyssa Munsell <alyssa53105 at comcast.net> wrote:
> 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
>
>
>
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