[nabs-l] Blindness versus minority groups

Fri Nov 18 22:11:03 UTC 2011

Mark,
Maybe if you could see them or someone described those strange behaviors 
called blindisms, you'd feel different.
Particularly for women, learning to be graceful, confident, show expression 
and have manners goes a long way.
You know people will remember you for being polite and curteous. They will 
remember your actions. They will remember if you were a sloppy eater or neat 
one. They will remember if you picked your nose. YYou see my point. We live 
in  sighted world. If a public member sees you, their image is formed from 
that one image. We shouldn't represent all blind people, the minority of us, 
but we do; people judge one and attribute it to all.

I'm not saying we should try too hard. But just saying we should observe 
American customs of manners, behavior, eye contact, hand shakes, and yes 
some nonverbals.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Marc Workman
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 4:22 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Blindness versus minority groups

Hi Tara,

I really feel like your message demonstrates just how deeply you've 
internalized the notion that sight is right and blindness is ugliness.  I 
think it's a terrible message to spread.

Examples:

Tara wrote,
> A blind person can still appear "normal" without knowing all of these 
> movements.  It is more important for a blind person to get rid of strange 
> movements than to learn "normal" body language.

Since when does normal equal good, or better, or right? Normal is a 
statistical concept that we have unfortunately and mistakenly injected with 
the idea that normal is better than not normal.  By strange movements, I 
assume you mean movements that the average sighted person does not make. 
Why exactly is it so important that blind people try to look and act like 
some sighted people? Is it also the case that non-whites should look and act 
like whites?

Tara wrote,
> Another area that some blind people   need to improve upon is dress.  It 
> is better for blind to wear sunglasses if their eyes are  deformed--it 
> will help  the general public be at ease when communicating.

This one I find even more disturbing.  I'm sure we'd all be more at ease if 
we all looked and acted the same, but that does not mean it something worth 
striving for.  I would much rather live in a world where someone's looking 
different didn't make others so uneasy than in a world where we encourage 
people to hide their differences in order to make others more comfortable.

I could go on, but I think my point has been made.  I hope that blind people 
do not believe that failing to look and act like the average sighted person 
means we are ugly, strange, weird, wrong and otherwise inferior.  I 
completely reject that notion.

Regards,

Marc
On 2011-11-18, at 11:55 AM, Tara Annis wrote:

> Arielle, I do think totally blind from birth can improve on nonverbal 
> communication.  I'm not sure if all could get as good as sighted, but I 
> would  say like any skill, each blind person would achieve their own level 
> of progress.  I do agree with stiffness--a lot of nonverbal communication 
> is done very quickly and in a kind of lazy manner with the hands at a 
> relaxed position.  I'm shocked at all that is communicated; I recently 
> learned there is a hand movement  for so-so or all right, as in how was 
> your work day and the person would use this gesture as they verbally say 
> it was all right or okay or so-so.
>
> A blind person can still appear "normal" without knowing all of these 
> movements.  It is more important for a blind person to get rid of strange 
> movements than to learn "normal" body language.  It is absolutely 
> necessary to  get rid of rocking, inappropriate facial expression for the 
> situation being experienced (smiling at a funeral), etc. A blind person 
> can have stiff movements, but still  appear "normal"
> What is really needed   is a sighted person to evaluate each blind person 
> on an individual basis, and be honest enough to tell if there are any 
> totally weird movements.  According to the comments on Youtube, Ken 
> Jennings the  blind guy on Jeopardy, had weird facial expressions, so 
> this seems to be a common problem.
>
> I think some blind people need to learn more about manners, as in move to 
> the side of the aisle in a grocery store when another person with a cart 
> walks by,  do not stop at the top of stairs or escalators, and do not stop 
> when entering  the doorway  of a business.  Also, some tend to cut people 
> off in  crowds or push people  out of the way.  While I know it is  almost 
> impossible not to fix this completely, I've met people who do not even try 
> and get better at their O&M. I've been around blind people that will shove 
> people  out of their way at the mall, or push a door open when there are 
> people standing on the other side of it.  They told me, "it is sighted 
> people's responsibility to watch out for me and I don't have to do 
> anything on my part cause I'm blind."
>
> Another area that some blind people   need to improve upon is dress.  It 
> is better for blind to wear sunglasses if their eyes are  deformed--it 
> will help  the general public be at ease when communicating.  Also, some 
> blind wear clothes that are not in fashion.  I've seen parents give their 
> children "simple" haircuts, buzz cut or shaved head for their son and a 
> really short bob for girls, since they feel the  child cannot  learn to 
> take care of long hair.  (I hate when this  happens.)  I'd also like to 
> see more blind kids dress for their peer group, such as emo or goth, 
> hippie, skater, preppie, average person, etc.
>
> I'm not making fun of people with these traits, I just feel they need the 
> truth.  While I think  people  should not be judged for their appearance, 
> many people in the world do act this way, though sometimes it is 
> subconscious.
>
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