[Ohio-talk] Work Tolorence

Wed May 21 01:46:57 UTC 2014

There was a time when blind people all hung together, then a time when
we were almost discouraged from associating with other blind people
and now I think we are somewhere between the two extremes and that is
good.  I also think that technology makes it easier for blind people
all around the world to communicate with each other and that is a good
thing. I agree, that adult roll models are important for blind
children and their parents.  I wish I had that opportunity growing up.

On 5/20/14, Colleen Roth via Ohio-talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Kaiti,
> For those of us who were raised mostly around sighted people we do not have
> as much experience with the blind culture.
> I only attended first grade and sixth grade with blind students. In high
> school there were only 2 blind students at St. Ursula Academy.
> My contacts with blind role models were very limited.
> Therefore I didn't learn all of the cultural nuances and phrases. I was
> strongly encouraged to behave in ways which would make more more acceptable
> to sighted people.
> I think it is important for blind children to have good adult role models so
> that they know
> what blind adults can do.
> Sometimes people around blind children or blind adults who have had little
> or no experience with blindness think we do so well when in fact we are
> ordinary or even less than ordinary in the things we do.
> Colleen Roth
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Kaiti Shelton via Ohio-talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
> To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 05:07:08 AM
> Subject: Re: [Ohio-talk] Work Tolorence
>
>>
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm a bit late on the conversation, but the cultural stuff is kind of
>> interesting to me.  While I totally agree that BSVI needs some serious
>> changing, I have limited experience with them because I am still
>> working towards my degree.  So, I will speak about the culture stuff.
>>
>> I think that although the blind do not have such an organized culture
>> as the deaf, that there are certain things we do when we're in groups
>> that we wouldn't normally do with sighted peers.  For example, I
>> usually dumb down my explanations of braille, notetakers, etc for
>> sighted people who are curious enough to ask about them.  When I'm
>> with a group of blind people about my age, we freely talk about the
>> stuff we use on a daily basis.  A really popular thing for us to do
>> when we were about 16 or so was to write BrailleNote documents which
>> made weird sounds.  One of our friends was so good at it that he could
>> make Keynote Gold sound like it had a southern accent, and he also
>> could make it sound like it was beat boxing.  It sounds incredibly
>> childish, but we thought it was the funniest thing for a while.  It
>> was something unique to our group, that sighted kids our age just
>> would not have understood.
>>
>> I have also heard some very interesting terminology in various social
>> circles such as the NABS list.  I have heard the term "blink" before
>> too, and though personally I think it is a bit weird, I know people
>> who use that term.  I also know people who describe canes as "sticks"
>> and that is a different matter because it doesn't accurately teach
>> sighted people those "stick" sayers come into contact with.  One
>> person on NABS has consistently referred to sighted people in kind of
>> a condescending way, calling them "Old sighty."  I know there are
>> groups out there who really don't like to be around sighted people for
>> perceived injustices towards them, and that's a cultural thing.  Not
>> to mention that I've seen the blindisms of rocking actually come into
>> play, not because the blind people wanted them to but just because
>> it's weird for a sighted person to see, so they're less likely to
>> socialize with someone who can't sit still and have a conversation.
>>
>> I guess it really depends on how you look at it.  Definitely, we are
>> not as culturized as the deaf, but I do think that groups of blind
>> people have quirks which create a sort of culture surrounding their
>> blindness.  And, Colleen, I agree about the ASL.  I took a
>> sign-singing choir class that used pigeon for both semesters last
>> year, and it was much less efficient than ASL.  Pigeon is basically
>> only the ASL symbol signs with no finger spelling at all, but the main
>> drawback to it is that the translations are very weird.  I know enough
>> that a deaf person could have a simple conversation with me using it,
>> but they would probably have to think about what I was saying to make
>> sense of it.  It would be like if a person speaking to you only knew
>> certain words, and didn't use conjunctions at all, or could not add
>> endings like ING or ER to the endings of words.  My favorite
>> translation happened when we were signing My Favorite Things from The
>> Sound of Music for our Christmas concert.  The line that says,
>> "Doorbells and slaybells and schnitzel with noodles," was translated
>> to Doorbell ring, Christmas spaghetti.  This was due largely in part
>> to the lack of a sign for schnitzel, but Christmas spaghetti became a
>> catch phrase in the class whenever we had a translation which was
>> particularly weird.
>>
>> On 5/19/14, COLLEEN ROTH via Ohio-talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> >  Hello,
>> > Well I wouldn't say that blind people have a disability culture.
>> > I think deaf people have a deaf culture because of the fact that they
>> > have
>> > had to find different ways of communicating. I do think that some people
>> > who
>> > are deaf may feel isolated due to the challenges they have in
>> > communicating
>> > with others. There are also some people who want to use a system to
>> > communicate which other deaf people might not agree with. I know that
>> > there
>> > are some deaf people who want to spell each word when they communicate
>> > and
>> > some want to use ASL while others prefer total communication. I thin
>> > that
>> > the pendulum is swinging toward the middle now and ASL is more accepted
>> > than
>> > it was in the mid sixties to the mid seventies for example.
>> > I can't remember what the communication system is called which has
>> > people
>> > communicating with each other by spelling each word.
>> > I for one am glad that ASL is more accepted now for ease of
>> > communication.
>> > We could probably compare this to Braille.
>> > Deaf people in different parts of the country have their own little
>> > short-hand which is understood by those they spend time with.
>> > I think some blind people may have had some of that kind of lingo and
>> > cutesy
>> > sayings particularly at schools for the blind.
>> > I was aghast the first time I heard someone refer to themselves as a
>> > Blink.
>> > I had no clue what they were talking about and to this day I never use
>> > that
>> > term.
>> > Colleen Roth
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ----- Original Message -----
>> > From: Arlie Ray via Ohio-talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> > To: ohio-talk at nfbnet.org
>> > Date: Sunday, May 18, 2014 8:51 am
>> > Subject: [Ohio-talk] Work Tolorence
>> >
>> >ar
>> >ar
>> >ar Hi List Viewers,
>> >ar
>> >ar Your concerns about this work tolorence matter are completely valid.
>> >ar Consequently, I am trying to become a job developer because I think
>> >ar counselors and employment specialists are missing one key resource;
>> > they
>> >ar do
>> >ar not understand disability culture. Not having this understanding
>> > means
>> >ar that
>> >ar all jobseekers with disabilities get treated the same. Hence the need
>> > for
>> >ar a
>> >ar "work tolorence" program. A blanket program for counselors who only
>> >ar understand disability from a "how fast can you get the job done" point
>> > of
>> >ar view.
>> >ar
>> >ar Blanket programs are wrong, cause too many inconsistencies, and are
>> >ar antiquated ways of thinking. There is no unified theory for assisting
>> > any
>> >ar job seeker. Everyone needs help in different areas, from soft skills
>> >ar training to resume writing. Some people only need a piece of
>> > assistive
>> >ar technology and they can hit the ground running. As blind people, we
>> > just
>> >ar can't see, but without an understanding of disability culture we are
>> > all
>> >ar to
>> >ar often treated as if we can't think.
>> >ar
>> >ar I hope this did not sound to preachy.
>> >ar
>> >ar Cheers,
>> >ar Arlie Ray
>> >ar _______________________________________________
>> >ar Ohio-talk mailing list
>> >ar Ohio-talk at nfbnet.org
>> >ar http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org
>> >ar To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> >ar Ohio-talk:
>> >ar
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>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> >
>>
>>
>> --
>> Kaiti Shelton
>> University of Dayton 2016.
>> Music Therapy, Psychology, Philosophy
>> President, Ohio Association of Blind Students
>> Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma
>>
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>
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>

-- 
Marianne Denning, TVI, MA
Teacher of students who are blind or visually impaired
(513) 607-6053