[stylist] New Book, blindness on TV

Fri Feb 14 18:13:06 UTC 2014

It's amazing to people, blind and sighted, that one can do most tasks
using other senses. We are such a sight-oriented society that very few
seem to understand that learning can happen with the other senses.
Studies have shown sight isn't always an accurate sense, yet the world
insists we can't survive without it, and that there's no way for a
person to be safe and successful without it. So when they encounter
blind people who do live safe and successful lives, the only way they
can process it is that we are amazing and have spidey senses or magical
abilities coded into our DNA. That's what bothers me more than anything,
this idea that only the blind can do things with their other senses.
That it's only instinctual to blind people. Like I was born with some
special DNA to help me be blind. But I wasn't always blind, and I didn't
automatically know how to do things nonvisually once I lost sight. I had
to learn and develop certain skills. For me, using my other senses
wasn't always instinctual, I didn't tap into some hidden ability once I
couldn't see. Some things, I'm still learning. But the world doesn't see
this, doesn't know it, and when we try to explain it, they don't seem to
comprehend. How many times do you hear people say, "I couldn't do that."
Yet, anyone can. They just don't process it this way.

Having a small child, I'm constantly told to stimulate all his senses,
to play with toys designed to help develop the other senses. We are
suppose to encourage sensory learning, but I wonder why. Most adults are
astounded that I do things nonvisually, like I'm accomplishing
impossible feats. Yet isn't this sensory learning suppose to develop and
encourage similar nonvisual skills in my child? Why do this when as we
grow we rely only on our sight? How, in one breath, can you tell me to
develop my son's senses, but in the next breath be amazed that I do
things nonvisually? The world is full of contradictions that, pardon the
pun, the world is blind too.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lynda
Lambert
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 8:18 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] New Book, blindness on TV

It's a Friday morning snow storm here - a beautiful day outside. Time to
get 
some coffee and begin my day, but first I wanted to drop a not on your 
discussion which is so interesting to me.

I think Bridgit really hit it - unless a sighted person has had a lot of

time together with a blind person, they are really clueless and they
could 
care less about knowing positive things.  They still live with the
mentality 
of the question they have asked themselves and each other for years,
"Would 
you rather lose your sight, or your hearing?".  To sighted people losing

sight or hearing is the worst case scenario they can think of and they
are 
not about to look any closer into either of the two life-challenges.
And, 
as Henrietta, experienced, even close family members really don't
understand 
how we do things. Not really.  They watch us, but we are a mystery to
them 
even though they have been around us many times over the years. 
Occasionally there is some little revelation that they grasp, but I
think it 
is very rare.

A couple years ago I went on a short 5 hour trip with my sister.  When
we 
arrived at our cousin's home, we had instructions to locate her house
key 
and let ourselves in because they were away on vacation and we would
have 
their home to stay in.  My sister retrieved the key, as instructed.  She

began to try to open the door.  She fiddled around for quite awhile with
the 
key and the lock in the door - yet, she could not get it open. She tried

turning the key around, tried going faster, slower, but no luck.
Finally, I 
quietly said to her, "Give me the key and let me see what I can do."
She 
snickered and said "Oh, sure, you are going to open the door that you
can't 
even see!"  I took the key from her, felt the key, and inserted it into
the 
door's lock slowly. Then, I put my left had on the door, just above the 
lock, so I could FEEL any movement the lock would make.  And, I leaned
very 
close to the lock, and I listened.  Very quickly, as I slowly turned the

key, I felt the vibration of it moving, and I heard the click as it was 
disengaged.  I smiled, and handed over the key to her, and said, "The
door 
is open."  She loudly proclaimed, "I cannot believe it! A blind person
could 
open the door and I couldn't."

I smiled at her and said, "You could not open the door because you were 
using only your eyes. I opened it because I could feel it and hear it 
moving."  To her it was something very weird that I had actually opened
up 
the door that she had struggled with and could not get the job done.  I 
think in her mind it was a lucky accident even though I explained why it

happened.  Most sighted people do not think we can do much of anything,
no 
matter what we achieve - honestly, that is what I think. So, for most 
sighted people to read about a blind hero in a fictional account, I say,

"Dream on!"  I think the interest level for a sighted person to even
read a 
book through is really a stretch unless that person is really on a
mission 
to learn more about blindness and diversity and inclusion. Maybe in a 
literature course, where it would be included in the required reading,
but 
on their own, I think the chances are quite slim.  But, then, as I write

this I am optimistic enough to think I see a "movie" that could be made
that 
would be exciting to them. Who knows? I sure don't.  Why is it that we
are 
constantly told we are "amazing" when we do things that are high level 
achievements for anyone at all?  Why is it that some people droll all
over 
us about how inspiring we are and how tragic it is that we lost our
sight? 
I just smile at them and say, "NO, not really! It is just who I am and
who I 
have always been."  That usually leaves them speechless and the
conversation 
ends.  Write on! Lynda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Applebutter Hill" <applebutterhill at gmail.com>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2014 9:07 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] New Book, blindness on TV

> Great story!
> Donna
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
> Henrietta Brewer
> Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2014 7:32 PM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] New Book, blindness on TV
>
> You guys make me laugh. You're right, Sighted people can't imagine the
> blind
> being the hero. At Christmas, when the power was out in our town, I
had
> twenty five or thirty people here most days. We had a generator so we
had 
> a
> few lights but not in more then half the house.
>
> I didn't think much of it while everyone was here. Though I was tired 
> of doing all the fetching because no one could find anything in the 
> dark. When everyone left and I was cleaning house, I saw how difficult

> it was for our guests. They had only a flashlight in the bathroom and 
> their bedroom and nothing was where it should be.
>
> they all mention now, that they will call me in any black out. But it 
> took reality to get even family to realize that a blind person can be 
> helpful in a black out. lol Henrietta On Feb 13, 2014, at 12:10 AM, 
> Bridgit Pollpeter
> wrote:
>
>> When I wrote a short mystery story for a detective fiction class I 
>> took at university, I made my main character blind, which is the 
>> first time I did this. Anyway, at one point, the house the two main 
>> characters are sleeping in goes up in flames, and the blind character

>> navigates them out of the house. Using his other senses, he makes it 
>> out the front door. I did do some research before writing the scene, 
>> but mostly based it off my own knowledge of what a blind person might

>> do in that particular situation. When critiqueing our stories, a 
>> classmate said, to my face, it wasn't believeable that a blind person

>> could do that and I should change that scene. Another classmate, to 
>> my surprise, said who better than a blind person to navigate through 
>> a situation where sight wouldn't be much help because of the smoke, 
>> and that by smell and feeling heat, surely a blind person would be 
>> able to navigate just as well, if not better, than a sighted person. 
>> After considering this point, the first person half-heartedly agreed.

>> My point being that I agree with Chris that even though these stories

>> are being written by blind people, most of the sighted world can't, 
>> or won't, buy a blind person doing the things we make them do, living

>> as independent, active, vital people.
>>
>> Bridgit
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris 
>> Kuell
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 7:47 AM
>> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] New Book, blindness on TV
>>
>>
>> Donna,
>>
>> I'm generally skeptical by nature, but I really hope they do a good 
>> job with this show. It's exactly what we've been talking about 
>> here--an opportunity to crush the stupid stereotypes and let the 
>> public see a guy who is interesting, and just happens to be blind. If

>> it does a good job, and if the public enjoys it, it could open the 
>> door to more blind characters in the
>>
>> arts. Personally, I feel certain that the reason books like yours and

>> mine aren't getting read by agents and traditional publishers is 
>> because we have blind protagonists. An agent, or more likely, an 
>> agent's assistant reads my query and thinks--a blind protagonist? 
>> Nobody is going to buy that. It's too outside mainstream experience.
>>
>> Hopefully, the times, they are a changing.
>>
>> chris
>>
>>
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