[nabs-l] Blind Verses Legally Blind

[Suzanne Germano]

If a person thinks someone with no sight must have some sight in order to
do things then wouldn't it be an education for them if they discovered the
person did not have any sight or not as much sight as they thought?

I know someone who lost both her arms in an accident at the age of two and
I would like to know her techniques for the things she does that doesn't
mean I think she is less of a person or that she is not capable but there
are somethings I really can't figure out and if she explains them to people
they are educated one at a time.




On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 3:57 PM, Elizabeth Mohnke <lizmohnke at hotmail.com>wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> Thank you for the responses thus far. However, how do I
> even answer a question that I really do not know how to answer myself? Why
> should I spend five minutes trying to stumble through some sort of answer
> with a stranger I am most likely never going to see again? I do not know
> why strangers are asking me if I am blind or legally blind except to figure
> out how much I can see or not see.
>
> But I am just wondering what difference that really makes when the NFB
> teaches that blind people are really no different than sighted people, and
> with the right tools and attitudes, we can do pretty much anything that a
> sighted person can do. If these beliefs are true, then what difference does
> it make as to how much I can see or not see.
>
> It just seems to me that when people ask me these questions they are
> trying to imply that I must have some sight because how could a person be
> able to function without any sight. It is almost like people are trying to
> tell me that the more eyesight a person has the better off they are in
> life. How exactly am I suppose to deal with these kinds of questions when
> my encounter with these people is rather brief, and I would rather not deal
> with what seems to me like some form of idiotic line of thinking?
>
> What exactly should I say to these people if what I am saying is the wrong
> thing, and I really do not know how to briefly describe what I can and
> cannot see, or even wish to describe it in the first place? I would give a
> specific example of how I encountered this situation from the other day,
> but I am afraid it would only spear the conversation away from the real
> heart of the issue.
>
> Again, this is just something I have been struggling with lately.  So I
> was just interested in how other people deal with these kinds of questions
> from other people in their lives.
>
> Elizabeth
>
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