Category: Let's talk
Hi everyone,
I'm doing a presentation for sighted coleagues and students about being blind and/or visually impaired. It's been requested that I create a handout with info about the topic. I was thinking of using different websites about everything from accessible products to explaining the stuff that most sighted people wonder about. So, I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations of any sites that should be included. Any info that they should know? All help is greatly appreciated.
Just tell 'em we're a cross-section of the general population, no more no less, save a hardware deficiency. That way you don't get the backlash. Personally I'd rather dodge bullets than try and do something like that.
Whatever you do don't blindfold 'em. You'll only succeed in scaring the living shit out of them, consider what would happen if any of us lost 90% of our sensory input. That's what it's like to be sighted and suddenly have the lights go completely out. Ever see 'em flounderin' like fish on a dock when the power goes out? And that's not total darkness, as they still have access to shadows.
If you have access to a reader like JAWS or NVDA try and pick a voice they will understand and show them sites they recognize - they're already going to be somewhat put off at having to take a thenthitivity course on blinkos anyway ... most people have experienced the assumed guilt of such courses be they about race, gender or whatever.
So I'd make it short, and perhaps interesting if at all possible, show them real stuff such as you can, then if they see that we're just like anyone else they may wonder as to why they had to go to the thing but won't resent you, or the rest of us.
If you want a shitstorm of backlash, do the opposite, like everyone else does with them types of classes, and we'll all write our wills, as the reaction such things cause is less controllable than a failing nuclear reactor.
I personally don't see anything wrong with your idea. If I was going to a class about another culture, race or segment of the population, I'd be very curious and would want to know all sorts of things. I can't even wrap my head around feelings of guilt or resentment relating to this. I say make it educational and fun. Don't be a dry scholar. Get some interaction and show them some tech (high or low) toys and let them ask questions. That's the best way to learn. I also don't see a problem with blind folding, provided it's done safely and there's time. If I were to go to a conference about the deaf, I'm sure someone would come around with a pair of ear plugs or something. But it's important to realise that they won't be experiencing real blindness just as I wouldn't be experiencing real deafness. They could take off the shades and I could take out the ear plugs. So I think the fear is minimalised once you remember that it's just an experiment and not the real thing.
Perhaps, a good way to do this would be to look for questions that the sighted ask about the blind and think of a few on your own. These should be things that they'll almost certainly want to know. Then, you can base your research on answering those questions, with facts, and where possible, with demonstrations.
Actually, I take some of what I said back:
You want to teach about the blind world? Well, people are awfully short on earth science these days, so putting on a basic course of earth science would bring a lot of people's education up a few notches. No worries, the earth is in fact blind, deaf, dumb, although not immutable as some would have you believe.
As to the culture thing, sure, but ... kinda difficult since we're just a fragmented population spread amongst any number of culturees.
I've never seen any of these sensitivity jobs work, unless one calls the nuclear reactor response 'working'. It's all a matter of measuring desired outcome against returned results.
Not everything is cut and dry and not every impact can be so easily measured. As much as you tend to make your hardware and software anaelogies, we're not computers nor are most of us programmers. A speech, song, film or speech that deeply moves someone could be boring, annoying or even stupid to someone else. You never know how much impact your actions will have until you take them, and in a harmless situation like this, I say it's better to take them than to wait.
lol Sorry about that. My editing lapsed.
I agree about poetry, music, art and the like. But more often than not, such courses produce backlash. Look at our current tea party movement, which arguably can be said to be made of disenfranchised masses who can't wait to take it out on what they perceive to be elitist groups, typically minorities.
If I roll a boulder down a hill, I can predict, and hopefully, guide its actions / reactions to impending obstacles, preventing human calamities. Such rocks are smarter than your average reactionary, IMHO, and reactionaries are what people become from being exposed to agents of this kind - the sensitivity courses of this kind. The only people that ultimately take the shaft for this are the members of the group the class was about.
Not a good thing.
And yes, we do measure impact of lots of things before we do them: how do you alert masses to move in a particular direction to get out of harm's way without inflicting harm, injury or mayhem is one example.
It's been at least 30 years these sorts of classes have been around, and some of us are old enough to know the very direct - and directed - results of them.
Be careful, is all I'm saying. And I'd be saying the same thing if you were using a come-along to pull a stump but weren't measuring the tension. Only the cable is smarter and more predictable than the reactionaries are. They're plentiful, lack basic impulse control, and all emotion without the slightest bit of guidance.
I've successfully talked people out of putting on such classes before, mostly by having them poll the potential attendees for honest opinions about having to take it. The responses are the same: we really haven't evolved since the pre-integration days, just some groups are more fashionable to 'tolerate' than others.
It's like having the right of way as a pedestrian, but a truck weighing 2000 pounds is coming towards you at 50 MPH. Nobody thinks that just because they have the right-of-way inertia and friction will work a miracle to stop the truck if they start crossing.
I can't comment on the tea party, as I don't follow American politics. But I'd hardly call a bunch of people in a school or workplace taking a class on blindness reactionaries. It's not as if, at the sight of a cane or talking watch, they'll get up and start protesting or throwing rocks or worse. At the most, they might get bored and think that it's all a waste of time. Hopefully, though, they'll come away with an education of some kind or at least some food for thought.
Or, more likely, when the blind person is up for a raise, they'll think 'that's one of those people who *made us* go to that class' ... you have said on other boards you have limited work experience outside academia I'm just telling it like it is, not saying it's fair. Just nature. What natural phenomenon could possibly force them to evolve? You're right, some will come away with some learning for better or for worse, but they're not the ones 'who need to be there' (as those who 'know better' have been known to put it), they're just innocents sent to said classes, who are evolved and civilized enough to learn by observation and reason, a uniquely human characteristic.
Just so you guys know, I'm a social work intern and this presentation is a part of what my supervisor wants me to do. People really seem interested. A little more info about the thing: It's for college freshman and a few staff members. The more in depth presentation for staff will come later.
I'm trying to take the positive approach when looking at this presentation. I do have a film, that's how the pres thing got started. Seeing what questions people have is a good idea. I was planning to do that anyway. As much as a presentation may not be a good idea, we can't complain about sighted people treating us in a certain way, if we don't educate them somehow. I'm not doing that blindfold thing. Just a simple question/answer session, maybe some equipment, not going overboard.
I must echo what poster 2 said. We are not that different. I do think, however, that it is good to educate people on the subject.
if you wanna educate people, find ways to integrate yourself into society; that's the best way to make changes for the better, in my opinion.
have you ever heard the saying, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force him to drink"? that applies very well here, I think.
you can talk up a storm about how blind people live, and how, contrary to popular belief, we can do this and that...but actions speak louder than words.
I'd just keep it as normal and low key as possible. That'll show them we're not the outstandingly amazing people some perceive us to be, rather, we're just people who lack vision. it's a characteristic; not a way of life.
Exactly, we are just like them but without sight.
If they have computer access themselves, I'd say either blindfold them or turn the monitors off. That's always funny to watch, or even better, go and unplug said monitors then they can't turn them back on! Hahahahahahaa!
And make them use a screen reader. Lol. But of course, as someone mentioned earlier, it's just not the same thing, because they'll always have that thought at the back of their minds that it's not permanent.
Still, if they're open enough, it may give them a glimpse into our world so to speak. They may gain a better understanding of how we do things, and once you show them that we're perfectly capable of going on the web etc. their pitty, fear or wonder about us might dominish or even disappear. They also might gain a respect for how difficult it is to do certain things that they take for granted. A really low tech demonstration could be to give them a blank piece of paper or a blank photograph and say that this is what a printed page is to us and this is how we see pictures. It may sound funny but it's food for thought I'm sure.
That would be pretty interesting.
if you have access to a computer, take a bit of card the size of the screen and cut a hole in it an inch wide by four inches long. then get these people to navigate their screens through that hole, that's how a screen reader reads the screen, one bit at a time without context. the context has to be remembered by the screen reader user.
I've done many "talks" about my blindness to people and it's always a big hit. Be sure to encourage questions.
I have been coerced into it, mostly when I was underage, and never felt good about it, or that it was a hit. Probably a key factor is one's presentation ability, and I stress, the voluntary nature of people showing up.
Sounds like you have a voluntary, and not a captive, audience. But I wouldn't go on to do these sorts of things in a work setting. The more a group works to separate itself, the more difficult integration becomes, IMHO. Good for you for not blindfolding them. I know no sighted person alive who, being subjected to that, found it pleasant.
I agree; blindfolding sighted people would do more harm than good.
Yes, that sort of thing tends to make they're assumptions even worse.
And nobody wants to be blindfolded against their will. It's like putting tape over somebody's mouth.