[nabs-l] Any Suggestions for Blindness Literature?

Vejas Vasiliauskas alpineimagination at gmail.com
Tue Nov 8 14:16:36 UTC 2016


The next stop he follows you to the bus stop would be the perfect 
opportunity to talk to him.  Presumably you'll be waiting awhile 
for the bus, so you could take that time to explain things.
Vejas

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Carly Mihalakis via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>,National Association of Blind Students 
mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Tue, 08 Nov 2016 04:39:31 -0800
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Any Suggestions for Blindness Literature?

Good morning, EElizabeth,

         Did you come later to the blindness party, or something?
Seeing how Ol'Sighty gets all moved if he should chance to see 
the
blink actually being self sufficient, as I see it, ought not be 
too
suprising.  So don't play stupid.  I would imagine you know very 
well
how Ol'Sighty can get.
Car2016, Elizabeth Mohnke via NABS-L wrote:
Hello Vejas and Carly,

Thank you for your suggestions.  My schedule has been rather busy
lately, and I am not always quite sure how to answer vague 
questions
about blindness, especially when my mind is focused on other 
things.
So this is why I thought providing my professor with some 
literature
might be helpful after trying to talk to him about how he is
treating me makes me feel uncomfortable.

I understand people may feel a bit awkward around me as a blind
person when they first meet me.  However, it is now beyond the 
middle
of the semester, and it feels as though my professor still feels 
a
bit uncomfortable interacting with me as a blind person.

One day as I was entering class and finding my seat, I heard my
professor tell me that he does not know how I do it.  Since it
appears as though I have migrated in terms of where I sit in the
classroom, I responded by telling him that I did not know how I 
do
it either.  However, it was not until after this exchange of 
comments
were made that I realized that my professor and I were talking 
about
two different things.  It seemed to me that he simply could not
understand how I could possibly get around independently as a 
blind
person.  However, since I was yet again migrating to the next row
over when finding a seat, I was wondering how it is that I keep
migrating to the next row of seats rather than simply head 
towards
the seat that I normally sit in during class.  I generally sit in 
the
same seat in class for all of my classes, so the fact that I keep
migrating to other seats for this particular class puzzles me a 
bit.

There was also another day where my professor followed me out to 
the
bus stop and waited there with me until my ride showed up to pick 
me
up.  While I was standing there, I used my Victor Stream to find 
the
phone number for the person who was picking me up, and called the
person who was picking me up from the bus stop on my IPhone.  
>From my
point of view, I was just doing what I needed to do to find out 
if
my ride was still planning to pick me up at this particular
location.  However, my professor thought that I was somehow 
amazing
for being able to do this simple task.  The fact that my 
professor
followed me out to the bus stop really made me feel 
uncomfortable,
and the fact that he thinks I am amazing simply for being able to
walk to the bus stop and make a phone call tells me that he has
rather low expectations of me as a blind person.

I honestly do not know how to describe the blindness techniques I
use when getting around independently as a blind person.  I have
never really had any real formal training in the skills of
blindness, so most of the techniques I use are simply based on 
what
I have seen other people do that I have simply adopted to work 
for
me.  So when people ask me how I am able to get around 
independently
as a blind person, I honestly have no idea how to answer this
question because I simply do what comes natural to me.

Since I have clearly demonstrated my capabilities as a blind
student, I thought perhaps providing him with some additional
information in the form of literature would help him understand 
that
I am really just another student in his sociology class.  I feel 
as
though it is really not my responsibility to sit down with my
professor and answer every question he might have about blindness
just to satisfy his curiosity.  I only have so much time in my
schedule, and sometimes I simply have more important things to 
do.
So again, I simply thought providing my professor with some
literature on blindness might help this situation.

Warm regards,
Elizabeth


-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
Vejas
Vasiliauskas via NABS-L
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2016 11:48 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Cc: Vejas Vasiliauskas <alpineimagination at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Any Suggestions for Blindness Literature?

Hi Elizabeth,
I completely understand where you are coming from about it being
frustrating for sighted people talking to  the blind.  I am not 
an
expert on blindness literature, but I do have a couple of
suggestions nonetheless.
My first idea would be to think of the most common questions you
think the professor would have for your specific situation, if 
that
makes sense.  For example, in my situation, I would explain that 
I
use a cane to get around, and might elaborate on the fact that I
have  2 types, one that folds.  I tend to prefer the folding cane 
for
easy storage in a holster, and this is just my personal 
preference,
and often one professors in my experience seem a little more 
comfortable with.
Then I would explain my devices.  In my case, I use a Braillenote
Apex.  I would give a bit of information about how it works, and 
that
I use it with my phone as a pair so that I have better Internet 
access.
I could then explain how I would use these devices to complete 
work,
and then explain my preferred method of handing work in to the 
teacher.
My second idea is to just leave everything completely open.  You
could just send him an email asking him if he has any questions, 
and
to direct these questions to you in his reply.
Like I said, I am not the best at blindness literature, but I 
feel
that your professor might be more interested in something coming
directly from you.
One more thing: in my experience it seems like people are awkward 
at
first around blind folks just because they have never  had to 
deal
with them before and don't understand how much to help.  A 
sighted
friend of mine at LCB who currently attends Louisiana Tech 
explained
it well to me when she said that there are so many blind people
around, all requiring, or thinking they need, different levels of
assistance, so there is no standard.
Vejas

 On Nov 1, 2016, at 09:07, Elizabeth Mohnke via NABS-L
 <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:

 Hello All,

 I recently posted a question about how to go about dealing with 
a
 professor who thinks I am the most amazing person simply because 
I
 happen to be blind.  I really appreciate all the suggestions 
that
 everyone gave me about how to go about handling this situation.
 Since I did not have time to meet with my professor last week, I
 sent him an email telling him that I was beginning to feel a bit
 uncomfortable in his class due to the fact that he either feels
 uncomfortable or unsure about how to communicate and interact 
with
 me as a blind student.

 However, I am not quite sure how well this email helped the
 situation as I was a bit frustrated with other things when I 
wrote
 my email to him.  As a result of my stress and frustration, I am 
not
 quite sure how well I came across in the email I sent my 
professor
 last week.  But hopefully it serves as a good starting point in
 being able to talk to my professor about this situation.

 I am sure he is simply curious about how I do things as a blind
 person.  It  sounds as though he has not had too much 
interaction
 with other blind people.  I would really like to be able to sit 
down
 with him and answer all his questions about how I do things as a
 blind person.  However, my schedule is rather busy right now, 
and I
 feel as though I simply do not have the time to sit down with 
him
 and answer all his questions.  Since I do not have the time to 
sit
 down and answer all his questions about blindness, I thought
 perhaps I could just simply share some articles on how blind 
people
 do things as they live independent lives.

 However, I must admit, it has been a while since I have read
 through NFB literature.  So I am simply curious, what articles 
would
 you share with someone who had questions about how you do things 
as
 a blind person if you did not have the time to sit down and talk 
to
 them about how you do things as a blind person? Are there any 
good
 articles to share that would summarize how blind people do 
things
 as a blind person without going too in-depth on a particular 
skill
 that blind people use in their daily lives? I can think of a 
couple
 of good articles as it relates to blindness philosophy, but I do
 not think an article on blindness philosophy works for someone 
who
 is rather curious about how blind people do things as blind 
people
 living independent lives.  So any suggestions on articles I 
could
 share with my professor would be greatly appreciated.

 Thanks,
 Elizabeth
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