Re: I need some advice with school.
I honestly don't know where this whole "we're so different from the sighted" mindset came from.
Yes, okay. We may use screenreaders or other tech. We may have guide dogs or canes or whatnot. We may not understand colour, and thus might have a bit of a bad start when it comes to fashion. But why exactly does this mean we have like 5% in common with sighted folks?
I think this has more to do with individuals, personally. I've known blind men and women who were into fashion, into sports, into movies, into music, into books, into half a hundred other things. I've known sighted folk who hate sports, hate movies, hate fashion, hate music, hate books, hate half a hundred other things. I really do think it's the individual, not the disability. And I think reducing us and our differences to our disability does us a very bad turn.
Instead, I think the point to be making here is to find common ground.
If a few of the people you want to impress are kind of nerdy, into DND or RPGs in general, then trying to engage them in a conversation about fashion probably won't go over well. If a couple of people you'd like to talk to are big into sports, then carrying on about how amazing/awesome your screenreader shenanigans are will probably not go over well.
The reality is, there are few things that sighted people talk about that the blind never do. But there are some things that the blind talk about that the sighted rarely do. A really easy way to make the world think you're weird is to focus on those things. No, I'm not saying you can never talk about them, but using them as icebreakers is just going to make you come across as strange.
I have many friends now. For a lot of the closer ones, I could absolutely talk about being blind and its various pitfalls and comical experiences, and they might even laugh. But if I went out to do karaoke and met someone who was enjoying talking to me, I would absolutely -not tell that funny story about how Jaws crashed. Guess why? No common ground. Their eyes are gonna glaze over and they're going to rightly dismiss me as someone lacking either social skills or a sense of timing.
At the end of the day, I confess that I still don't get this.
I mean, have I ever struck a wrong note in a conversation? Oh, sure I have. I'd be a liar if I said otherwise. But generally, I read the people around me, and allow them, at least in broad strokes, to read me in return, and then we get along, or we don't. It has nothing to do with my nonfunctioning eyes.
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