Mark, very interesting. I once was on a flight and this nice young lady started asking me about my dog. The conversation quickly turned to questions about being blind, about how I work with computers and the like and eventually to her showing me an Iphone. THis was before the iPhone was accessible and even then I thought it was very cool. The point was she became very interested in me as a person and not just some blind guy. I think I left her with a very different perspective and understanding. I think it was one of the most intelligent convversations I have had in a good while and one where she really wanted to learn something and share her experiences. So, instead of seeing me as a disabled person, she saw me as a person with different abilities than herself and being a fellow Mac user, made for some really neat conversation. Of course I just knew she was cute and that didn't hurt either. :)
On Nov 30, 2009, at 4:04 PM, Mark BurningHawk Baxter wrote: > As long as the blind define themselves as "disabled," they will have > this problem. It's paradoxical, because as I said, I don't really > like to be around lots of blind people all together in a group, and > yet we, the blind people, need some sort of cohesive teaching / > enabling power that will allow us to not be disabled any more. It's > idealistic as hell to think that every single blind person can escape > from the disability of blindness without some cohesion, but also it's > just as dangerous to try and develop a "blind culture," as the deaf > have done. If we allow others to see us as disabled, then we will be, > but how do you change an attitude which I believe to be literally hard- > wired into the brain stem, which says that if a stranger can't meet > your eyes, then they are not to be trusted but instead are to be > ostracized and shunned, cast out? I personally don't have an answer, > except for myself; I do not allow people to act toward me as if I were > disabled, as much of the time as is feasible. Of course I ask for > help when I need it, directions or, in the case of a mailing label the > other day, the help of a sighted person to ensure the label she > printed for me went on right--I'm not naive, but I struggle constantly > to escape from the "disabled box," that people on the street put me in. > > Growing up as an only child, born blind, with things like Braille a > fact of life, rather than the exception, in a small town, in a very > constricted and confined environment where I didn't even need a cane > to get around, I could literally forget that I was blind--to this day, > when people come up to me and start talking to me like a blind man, it > often takes me a few moments to realize what's happening; until then, > things people say to me sound nonsensical or outright rude. Until I > remember that they're talking to my blind eyes, not to the man before > them. It causes me no end of social hassle because I don't know that > a person is "helping," me when I'm just doing my thing, and so I > respond as a "normal," person would to someone who came up out of the > blue and made a random comment about steps, or the curb, or whatever. > The other day, someone in the post office thought they were helping by > repeating everything the clerk said to me after she was done saying > it. I turned and snapped, "Wait your turn!" and it was only when the > person in question started yelling at me about how ungrateful I was > that I remembered that, "Oh yeah; this is probably someone trying to > help me the blind guy, not talking to me the guy." By then, as in > numerous other instances, it was already far too late. (Eventually > they had to call security to get the woman to leave me alone...) > Whether that's a sign of my near-complete adaptation to blindness, my > ADHD rearing its ugly head again, or what, I don't know, but I > personally don't think of myself as disabled, don't act as if I expect > people to give me a handicap. What would happen if every blind > person, instead of going out the door with the assumption that "I'm > blind, and people who come up and talk to me are talking to the blind > me, not the true me," instead walked out the door with the assumption > that "I'm just doing my thing, I'm as able as the next person, more or > less, just different, and people who come up and talk to me as if I'm > blind are rude?" This is the kind of universal change that I think > needs to be made, and which I despair will ever be made. If thousands > of blind people got on the phone to Microsoft, for example, and said, > "What's wrong with this computer that I can't use it!? what's wrong > with you for not making a computer I can use?" instead of waiting for > an agency or a specialized software company to fix the problem for > them?... > > > Mark BurningHawk Baxter > > Skype and Twitter: BurningHawk1969 > MSN: burninghawk1...@hotmail.com > My home page: > http://MarkBurningHawk.net/ > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
