[nabs-l] Defining Excessively Helpful People and Interactions

[Katy Carroll]

I think Cindy's ideas are very good. Maybe you could have a point-system to
incorporate how many times a blind  person is touched, the discomfort scale
number of the blind person, the number of times the assistant would ask, Are
you sure? (as Cindy suggested), perhaps take-away points if the assistant
attempts to engage in "normal" conversation, offers his/her elbow (the
proper sighted-guide method), etc.

On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 9:20 PM, Cindy Bennett <clb5590 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think some good ways to quantify over helpfulness would be to count
> how many times the blind person is physically touched. Also, the
> number of times the sighted person offering help asks something along
> the lines of, "are you sure?" or repeats their request to help after
> the blind person has clearly said no.
>
> Also, i think that Joe brought up a good point. Over helpfulness is a
> product of the helper's offers and the feelings of the one being
> helped, so maybe a discomfort scale, or something of the sort, could
> be given to the blind person after the incident. Sorry, i'm not really
> familiar with any specific ones, but i'm sure they're out there. I
> think this would be good, because some blind people honestly aren't
> bothered by many offers to help whereas some become frustrated. There
> could be a problem if the same blind person is used in simulation,
> because after a while, they may be not as frustrated, because it is
> just a study, or more frustrated because they have been put through
> the simulation multiple times.
>
> Cindy
>
> On 8/24/10, trising <trising at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >     I think overly helpful people grab you and pull you to wherever they
> > think you want to go. It is hard to get them to stop and
> > actually listen to your question about what restaurants or businesses are
> > near so you can actually make your own choices. Others
> > might shout at us or talk to us very slowly, as if the synapses in our
> > brains must take a while to fire. Others ask our companions
> > what we want for lunch or give them our change. When a person asks a
> friend
> > or family member what I want as if I am not there, I
> > answer as if I am not there either by saying something like, "She wants a
> > large Coke without ice and some fish and chips." As soon
> > as they talk to me, I stop talking as if I am not there because it sounds
> > silly.
> >     At another time my husband and I were casually walking down the
> street
> > in the local town where we live. We became aware of a man
> > who was positively shrieking, "You missed the bus stop," over and over.
> My
> > husband and I are both totally blind from birth. We
> > finally realized he must be talking to us because no one was reacting to
> > him, and he was not letting up. I said, "We are not going
> > to the bus stop," and the man immediately stopped yelling.
> >     Many times we have had people yelling at us about an obstacle that is
> > between several feet, to several store lengths away. We
> > either say Thanks, or say, "I will find it with My cane," to get them to
> > stop yelling. Then, I keep walking until I find the
> > obstacle. I have found it makes people nervous when our canes contact an
> > obstacle. However, it is a lot easier to get around an
> > obstacle that my cane has already found than one I am trying to skirt
> > without finding it.
> > Terri Wilcox
> >
> >
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-- 
Kathryn CARROLL
BlueLaw International LLP
703-647-7508
Cell: 631-521-3018