[nagdu] Critical blind people

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Dan,

Everybody knows how to be blind better than every one else!  /grin/  I will
admit that I absolutely adore being around and doing stuff with blind or
deafblind people who are as curious as I am, and we will find outselves
spontaneously heading off on unplanned adventures just to learn from each
other and compare techniques -- in a positive, learning way, not a "my way
is better than yours" way.  That's a whole lot of fun.  Although the results
can sometimes be disconcerting, because sometimes curious, adventure-seeking
types can get a bit too gung ho trying to out-cool each other.  /smile/
Suddenly deciding to try out someone else's (like mine) different cane
technique while cruising along down the sidewalk yapping can result in
unexpected contact with obstacles one might have missed using his own
familiar technique. /grin/  When the person talking about cane techniques is
a fairly new guide dog user, she can frustrate the heck out of her dog by
forgetting to listen to what the dog is telling her.  Poor Mitzi! /grin/
But we all had fun and learned a lot at the same time, then got spend the
last part of the walk home laughing at ourselves, which is what it's all
about, I guess.

My young college student deafblind friend is now on to bigger and better
things as a post grad.  She's also one who has spent her time more in the
TABS (temporarily able-bodied, which I stole from Rox) world than the pwd
world...  Although she does a lot of volunteer stuff with other pwd, some of
it international, then she tells me about it, so that's way cool.

The thing is, when we would get together, especially at one of our homes, we
would have no idea how to interact with each other.  /lol/  She's a partial,
in both hearing and sight, so if I pitch my voice right she can hear me
fairly well, unless we were somewhere there was too much background noise.
But we would both have a tendency to wait for the other person to move so we
could figure out what was what and what to do based on the other person's
movements.  /lol/  Fortunately, she was as willing to laugh about it as I
was, only we would  both catch on, laugh, and start moving at the same time
and run into each other.  /grin/

Very interesting.  She appears to be quite skilled at appearing to be
perfectly in tune and in command of a situation whether she has a clue or
not.  This is something I aspire to, but am too nerdy/geeky to truly achieve
to the extent that I like to think I can.  I do have some success, because
people tend to forget I'm blind until I trip on a curb or something.  That
doesn't happen so much now that I'm using my Mitzi guide...  Unless I get
overconfident and think I know what I'm doing as a handler and let myself
get out of sync with her.  She sighs.  And then stands and ignores my bad
behavior until I shape up and do it the right way.

I do find that in organized groups of other blind people, I find myself
feeling very out of place and a bit strained.  The social norm does seem to
be about giving others advice on how to do simple things.  Sometimes this is
useful advice, but there's something about the tone and the manner of
speaking -- like I'm too stupid to tie my own shoes -- that stand my hair on
end just a bit.

Frankly, it sounds like the social workers who supposedly teach blindness
skills and the like who are so verbally and even physically abusive in
dealing with their blind clients and who have always seemed to me to take it
as their purpose in life to ensure that blind people stay in their cages
where they belong.  Here in Oregon that is especially the case.  Ugh!  So I
run into a lot of blind people around here whose definition of independence
and self-confidence varies a whole lot from mine.  /smile/

Also, the physical disabiity I've been doing battle with these past 4 years
(I've almost won!) doesn't help.  It's all about blindness.  If you have to
adapt to anther issue, then, well, you're just not a proper blind person!
Again, ugh!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Dan Weiner
Sent: Saturday, July 31, 2010 3:16 PM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: [nagdu] Critical blind people

Charlene.
Interesting story...the comment the person on the elevator made is precisely
the type of thing that makes me hesitate to be around a lot of blind people
with dogs--smile.
Everyone's a critic, I seem to be the only one I know who doesn't try to
tell other handlers what to do.
Our fellow blind seem to be generally a rather judgmental lot who jump to
conclusions.  I don't want another blind person or sighted person to try to
make me feel ashamed because I may find things harder, Hell, some things I
do better than the self-appointed critics, some worse.
This is actually a comment not meant only in terms of guide dog use, but in
general terms.

You want examples, fine;
I have  a hearing loss in one ear, I can't tell where sound comes from very
well, in other words I have problems with sound localization.
If I had a dollar for every time some fellow blind genius has made asinine
comments such as: "Oh, I wonder why they gave him a dog, why can't he follow
my voice", I'd be a rich guy.
Of course, our sighted brother and sisters are champions of this type of
brilliant and I believe deliberately hurtful comment.

I know Rox here has hearing problems, have blind people acted like idiots to
you, too?

We want acceptance as blind people but we seem to have very little tolerance
for diversity.

Now when at Leader, several of my fellow American students made helpful
comments like those. I say fellow American because I did notice the
Brazilians and Spaniards, whom I can communicate with through my knowledge
of languages, were not making snide comments.    When at Leader, it
generally was gossiped that I couldn't find my chair at the cafeteria.
Yes, why? 
1. We don't work our doggies in the dorm for a long time.
2.  Unlike everyone else, I'm attempting to be considerate and not barrel
through the place stepping on every one and everyone's dogs. Maybe that's a
slight exaggeration.
Also, I felt I didn't get a very good explanation of where my seat was and I
didn't have a chance to practice without a million people whom I had to
worry about stepping on--smile.

Now, that type of stuff used to piss me off big time. Obviously it still
does--smile--but I was much calmer about it this time than say other times,
because I figured, I'm coming to guide dog school to better my quality of
life and the other students won't be going home with me to hold my hand and
make fun.

Any comments?--smile.

Especially some of the partially sighted guys were giving everyone else a
blow by blow description of my hesitant walking style. I suppose they would
have been happier if I lumbered barreling down the hall stepping on people
and running them over because I couldn't hear where they were.  I'll make
sure to two that next time so that everyone's happy.
When I'm by myself I'm fast, actually--smile


This has gone way off track, but I'd love to hear everyone's take on it.

Cordially,

Dan W. and the Carter Hound



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