[nagdu] Photos and blindness

Jeffrey Schwartz sidney.schwartz at sbcglobal.net
Fri Dec 26 23:00:58 UTC 2008


I see where you are coming from.  I have RP and have lost my vision very
gradually.  I wasn't even diagnosed until the second semester of my senior
year at Johns Hopkins.  The diagnosis caused me to withdraw my matriculation
to medical school and go into a different field.  I was a varsity athlete,
played every sport known to man, was a scratch golfer in high school, bowled
a 267 at the age of 12 and raced sports cars, the full scale variety.  I was
a photography enthusiast and somewhere around this house there are thousands
of photos  and slides.  I never knew any blind people until quite recently.
I am 61 have light perception, work full time as a clinical psychologist and
am a faculty member of the Yale School of Medicine.  It would have never
occurred to me to place visually impaired folks into hierarchies.  It simply
struck me as weird that Bunny is describing these photos in terms of blades
of grass as if we can see them.  I thought that it was an errant post from
another list.  She is very excited.  I find it quite insensitive.  Perhaps
Bunny should be sharing these photos with her family and friends who can see
them.

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of lindagwizdak at peoplepc.com
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 2:48 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Photos and blindness

Jeffrey,
I can understand that!  I do envy those who can just take their bike out and

ride everywhere!  I used to be a very high partial back when I was a 
teenager and I rode my bike everywhere, including to school.  I love to ride

a bike and now I can't unless it is on a tandem bike with a fully sighted 
person driving.

I think what happens sometimes is that us partials feel that the totals 
begrudge us for using what little sight we have left.  I do know that at the

blind schools there was a hierarchy where the partials were "better" than 
the totals - not unlike how some blacks feel that light skin is "better" 
than very dark skin.

To be partially sighted is to be more misunderstood by the sighted public. 
When a sighted person encounters a totally blind person, they think, "Oh, he

just sees blackness." even though you really don't see black - it is just 
nothing like imagining seeing out of the back of your head.  Then there are 
the totals with light perception.  Sighted people just think, well, almost 
black!  Partials have such a wide range of visual acuity and a wide range of

how that acuity works - what kinds of lighting varieties.  We just befuddle 
the sighted folk and they think we're faking it.  Some people aren't very 
nice about it either.

I never bought into that "partials are better than totals" thing because I 
grew up with BOTH totals and partials and I never went to blind school.

Totals should NEVER feel inferior and nobody should treat totals like they 
were inferior - they are not!  Our eyes' level of functioning has nothing to

do with who we are as people, they're just a small part of what makes us who

we are.

We all need each other to take our rightful places in society.

Regards,

Linda and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeffrey Schwartz" <sidney.schwartz at sbcglobal.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2008 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] FW: photos finally


> Guess that I'm just jealous.  One of life's little ironies.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of sblanjones11
> Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2008 8:59 PM
> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] FW: photos finally
>
> Jeffrey,
> There are some partially sighted people on this list who can see the pics.
> Mind you, (smile) I'm not one of them, but for those who can, GREAT!
> Susan & Rhoda
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Jeffrey Schwartz
> Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2008 8:02 PM
> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] FW: photos finally
>
> Not to offend, but do you realize that you are sending photographs to a
> group of blind people.  It does not quite feel politically correct.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Bunny Davidson
> Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2008 5:10 PM
> To: bunnydavidson at live.com
> Subject: [nagdu] FW: photos finally
>
>
> hi all,
> i finally made time to upload the digital pix from the icestorm here that
> left me without power, water and rest for a week (dec11-17th)
>
> notice how many trees are broken, and also - the snow we had (about 6-8" 
> had
> already melted before this one inch of ice coated every blade of grass, 
> tree
> and thing outside.
> the dark ones with orange were taken starting at 530 am on friday dec12, 
> the
> storm of ice knocked out power on the day before (thurs dec 11) the ones
> where it looks more daylight were taken about monday, ice still cliniging 
> on
> - no power yet (not for a week in all). the moose i saw in bottom right of
> the sunrise shots did not show up in the pictures (i guess it was too dark
> out yet) the photos of dogs tied out with coats on, i tied them on a walk 
> up
> my road to take photos of them... we had that snow before storm, then it
> melted, then the ice came.   hope you are all feeling the love of the
> holiday season,
> bunny
>
>
>
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> account.
> _________________________________________________________________
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>
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>
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