[Stylist] Blindness matters

[David Andrews]

>This came from our jobs list. I think it is a very good article, 
>about a blind writer, and would encourage you to read it.


Dave



>Putting this article here because I think it would spark some good
>discussion, especially when it comes to considering different careers
>we are not much into.
>
>  ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT
>  Yes, Blind People Read Books. We Write Them, Too.
>  by Laurie Alice Eakes
>  Reprinted from the HUFFINGTON POST
>          "Windy, let's get some coffee," I suggested, in need of an 
> iced latte.
>          My Seeing Eye dog swerved right, tension through the harness
>  increasing as she skirted a corral of outdoor tables. She knew exactly
>  where she was going, eager for the praise and pats she'd receive when
>  we reached the door.
>          Knowing to head for my favorite coffee shop just because I suggested
>  it is not part of Windy's training, and if anyone had heard me, a
>  common misconception would've been satisfied.
>          "My daughter is going blind, but she doesn't need a dog, because she
>  already knows her way around," an elderly woman told me on the bus
>  earlier that morning.
>          "The dog doesn't know the way around," I politely responded. "I give
>  her directions. It's her job to get me to my destination safely."
>          The woman's vague "uh-huh" told me she didn't believe me.
>          No matter how many people we inform, many still believe blind people
>  are clueless about their directions, their surroundings and anything
>  else requiring sight--which, to the sighted world, is just about
>  everything. Plenty of others also seem to forget that blind people
>  communicate and consume media as would any other hearing person. We
>  use expressions like "see," "watched" and "looked at" all the time
>  (they've taken on the meaning of "absorbed" and "observed"). We have
>  cable TV. We go to movies and subscribe to Netflix and Hulu. We have
>  favorite shows.
>          And we read books.
>          Two hundred years ago, when books were rare and expensive, people
>  read to one another in a group and, afterward, all claimed to have
>  "read" the book. An audiobook is no different. Many blind people also
>  read braille books. Some of us read via our Kindle apps on our
>  iPhones, which have Voiceover to make them accessible if a person
>  can't see.
>          Blind people write books, too. I have 27 traditionally published
>  books to my name and more coming out. Many of them are historical
>  novels that I researched via more books--scanned books, recorded
>  books, digitized books.
>          Reading and writing books is no more difficult for a blind person
>  than for a person who can see. It's the publishing part that's not so
>  easy.
>          The first agent who offered to represent me stopped sending out my
>  work to editors when she learned I was blind. Other editors wouldn't
>  work with me, daring to tell my agent it was because of my blindness.
>  One went so far as to think she should rewrite my book for me and I
>  should accept it because of my "visual problems."
>          And my favorite incident--the one time I dared write a realistic
>  blind heroine who wasn't all sunshine and light about her condition or
>  how people treated her--the editor told my agent a blind woman
>  wouldn't fear being a parent because she, the editor, had seen
>  otherwise in the media.
>          Seriously?
>          Though I have to admit, she had a point. The media depicts blind
>  people as super-spiritual beings. Books--and their authors--rarely
>  make their blind characters angry with the world for being ignorant.
>  Nor do they give their blind heroine a drop-dead gorgeous man to
>  romance. On the contrary, she generally falls for the ugly dude whom
>  others shun despite his goodness, which only she sees.
>          Historically, blind characters are never shunted into dark corners,
>  hidden away in institutions or left uneducated because the world
>  believed blindness meant one wasn't capable of learning. Blind people
>  are supposed to be like John Milton and Fanny Crosby, writing
>  beautiful poetry and hymns designed to inspire. Readers follow blind
>  characters who are blithely living their lives despite their
>  condition, gaining insights others don't have, to remind them just how
>  well off they are. I may be worried about making rent, but it's
>  nothing compared to being blind. What an inspiration this protagonist,
>  and this author, is.
>          Frankly, I'd rather be told I'm snarky. That, at least, would
>make me human.
>          I confess I too once fell into the trap of writing a happy-go-lucky
>  character with a disability. I wanted to write a blind hero who lived
>  in the 1890s because of a tidbit of history I'd read while researching
>  other books. Of course, I made sure the character had a ton of money
>  and was content with his lot. That suited the plot much better than
>  the realism of blind people dependent on the government or others for
>  support.
>          Because many are. According to the US Department of 
> Labor's Bureau of
>  Labor Statistics, an alarming 75 percent of blind or visually disabled
>  people are not part of our country's labor force. My husband, a blind
>  attorney, and I, a blind author, are incredibly blessed to have jobs
>  and a house of our own in a fantastic location, but we are the
>  exception.
>          Even when gainfully employed, the industries we work in can make our
>  jobs unnecessarily challenging. I've seen some encouraging signs
>  recently that change is coming to the publishing industry (including
>  making trade association websites more accessible to blind users and
>  ensuring physical barriers to conferences and workshops are removed),
>  but general attitudes have remained stagnant.
>          Agents and editors with whom I've worked in the past have made me
>  paranoid about "coming out" regarding my blindness or attending
>  writing conferences. Once, the marketing person for one of my
>  publishers introduced herself to everyone at the book signing except
>  for me. She skipped right over me, as though I were invisible. Like I
>  was wearing my own invisibility cloak.
>          That cloak doesn't extend to my wonderful Windy; at a 
> recent writers'
>  conference, more people talked to my dog than to me. Most people know
>  not to touch service dogs, but they don't realize they shouldn't talk
>  to them, either. If Windy gets distracted, she gets corrected, and
>  that's not fair to her (but is necessary to keep her focused on her
>  work). When I asked attendees not to talk to my dog, I was either
>  ignored or treated as though I was in the wrong.
>          During the Jane Austen era, one could ruin someone's 
> social career by
>  employing the "cut direct," in which one acknowledged the person with
>  a look, then turned away, thereby erasing them.
>          That's how I feel sometimes--erased. No one cared that I was wearing
>  a pin that said I'd been a finalist for the highest award in the
>  romance genre, the RITA. No one cared I was wearing my "25 Books
>  Published" pin (next pin is 35). No one cared I was presenting at a
>  workshop that week or that, just maybe, we had more than just writing
>  and books in common. Instead, they talked to the dog, because
>  apparently a creature with a brain the size of a walnut is more
>  intelligent than a woman with a master's degree who can't see.
>          I currently have both an amazing agent and an incredible 
> editor. They
>  are supportive and understanding that sometimes certain software and
>  social media platforms don't always work for me. They knew I was blind
>  before taking me on and liked my writing well enough not to care.
>          The publishing industry needs more agents and editors like them, but
>  true change will require more than just that. As of 2015, only eight
>  percent of industry professionals had a disability. We need people
>  with disabilities at all stages of the publishing process, including
>  authors, agents, editors, sensitivity readers, marketers and
>  publicists.
>          I look forward to the day when I attend a writers' conference and
>  people talk to me instead of my dog. In the meantime, you can find me
>  working on book Number 28.
>          NOTE: Laurie Alice Eakes is the bestselling author of more than 25
>  books, both historical and contemporary romantic suspense. She writes
>  full time from her home in northern Illinois.