[stylist] New Book, blindness on TV

Fri Feb 14 21:21:24 UTC 2014

Bridgit
It is one of those ironies of life. They would probably say that it's
important to develop the other senses in your sighted son since they can
augment vision, not replace it. You mention studies saying that sight is not
all that accurate, and that fascinates me. In Lynda's story about trying to
open a locked door, for instance, it occurred to me that the only value that
sight could possibly have is to find the keyhole to begin with. Her sister
was able to find the keyhole and insert the key; beyond that, sight wasn't
going to do her any good. Lynda found the keyhole without site, so we can
conclude that although sight can benefit in unlocking a door by allowing
someone to find the keyhole, it isn't the only way to find it, and it
doesn't do a lick of good once you're there. In fact, if her sister was
watching the key or lock as she was turning it, she was probably doing
herself more harm than good. Not only was there no useful visual information
available, but she was distracting herself from the nonvisual information
that she might have employed in the task.

This is an issue that really rankles me, because I had some vision as a
child. I was legally blind from birth, but since I could (with great effort)
technically see some things, I was pushed into trying to do things with
sight. When I tried to use my hands, I was chastised. I got the message very
early that it wasn't OK to count on other senses. It was better to have
migraines and not get your work done than to succumb to using Braille; it
was better to walk into things and fall than to use a white cane.

I still have a problem where the muscles in my neck and eyes get all screwed
up because using them was so habituated. It's been 43 years since I learned
Braille, got a guide dog and stopped wearing prescription glasses. Even with
my eyes closed, it's difficult to avoid eye strain, especially when I'm
concentrating on something difficult or stressful.
Donna
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bridgit
Pollpeter
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 1:13 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] New Book, blindness on TV

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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