blindlover
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Post by blindlover on Sept 13, 2019 19:13:09 GMT -5
Thank you, blindlover for all the explanations and the insights into your life. I didn't know that blindisms exist, but thinking about it I have definitely seen them before. I did not conclude any mental challenges back then, but okay, I might see the whole person in a different light than the general public ;-). Would you want your friends or partner to make you aware of them when they happen? Thank you again for the great replies!
you're very welcome off course , for me, answering these questions is also enjoyable in a way.
That some people might conclude mental problems is probably mostly based on the fact that these behaviours are also present in many intellectual disabilities.
Yes, I would like my friends or partner to make me aware, but this is not as easy as it seems. They themselves may not always be aware of it . Even if they are, they might find it annoying
to constantly interrupt the conversation for it, let alone my own annoyance. Moreover, in public, them making me aware shouldn't be to obvious so that it doesn't accentuate the impact of the behaviour even more.
That is why I thinkk, a more discrete, automated solution might be the way for me.
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Post by devogirl on Sept 13, 2019 19:33:03 GMT -5
I do agree that awareness is key here. However, I am not the greatest supporter of the social model of disability in this case, that states that the AB world should learn to accept behaviours of disabled people and should work towards accepting them integrally. I do agree that this should be the case when these behavioural patterns can not be changed. While this is often said about blind isms, my experience has taught me that with a lot of rigour, these can be managed and counter conditioned. Saying that this is not possible is, like many born blind people do , is for me just an excuse not to go through the effort , which after all is definitely not a small one. Furthermore, as you said, the acceptance of these behaviours is and will be nothing but a dream. Our brain is wired to like people who are similar to us , and dislike people who are different. This goes on at an unconscious level and is visible in many areas that could make is different such as race, weight, religion , politics, ... So even if we think we accept something completely , this is not by far always the case, and that does not appear to be any different for disability related attitudes, as illustrated here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891422213004903 That's quite an extreme statement at the end...while there is good evidence that even infants notice racial differences and have a strong preference for people of the same race as their parents, that doesn't mean that as adults we just shrug and say there's nothing we can do about racism. We all have the capability to be better than our basest instincts.
On the other hand, I also think it's really too bad there isn't more research or intervention for preventing blindisms in very young children. I have met congenitally blind people who did not show these behaviors, so it is possible to not develop them. I find it frustrating that parents are not better educated in successful techniques to prevent it from infancy. I read an interview with a guy who said when he was a baby, his parents were always sure to put a toy in his hands when he started rocking, to give him more sensory stimulus, which worked in his case but that's hardly a scientific study.
I disagree that acceptance of lack of eye contact is nothing but a dream, having known people who chose not to wear sunglasses and were still very socially and professionally successful. I just recently came across a post of a guy saying the same thing, it made me think of this discussion: http://instagram.com/p/ByrFBZDAXQ1
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blindlover
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Post by blindlover on Sept 13, 2019 20:43:12 GMT -5
I do agree that awareness is key here. However, I am not the greatest supporter of the social model of disability in this case, that states that the AB world should learn to accept behaviours of disabled people and should work towards accepting them integrally. I do agree that this should be the case when these behavioural patterns can not be changed. While this is often said about blind isms, my experience has taught me that with a lot of rigour, these can be managed and counter conditioned. Saying that this is not possible is, like many born blind people do , is for me just an excuse not to go through the effort , which after all is definitely not a small one. Furthermore, as you said, the acceptance of these behaviours is and will be nothing but a dream. Our brain is wired to like people who are similar to us , and dislike people who are different. This goes on at an unconscious level and is visible in many areas that could make is different such as race, weight, religion , politics, ... So even if we think we accept something completely , this is not by far always the case, and that does not appear to be any different for disability related attitudes, as illustrated here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891422213004903 That's quite an extreme statement at the end...while there is good evidence that even infants notice racial differences and have a strong preference for people of the same race as their parents, that doesn't mean that as adults we just shrug and say there's nothing we can do about racism. We all have the capability to be better than our basest instincts.
On the other hand, I also think it's really too bad there isn't more research or intervention for preventing blindisms in very young children. I have met congenitally blind people who did not show these behaviors, so it is possible to not develop them. I find it frustrating that parents are not better educated in successful techniques to prevent it from infancy. I read an interview with a guy who said when he was a baby, his parents were always sure to put a toy in his hands when he started rocking, to give him more sensory stimulus, which worked in his case but that's hardly a scientific study.
I disagree that acceptance of lack of eye contact is nothing but a dream, having known people who chose not to wear sunglasses and were still very socially and professionally successful. I just recently came across a post of a guy saying the same thing, it made me think of this discussion: http://instagr.am/p/ByrFBZDAXQ1
First off, I do agree completely that there is something to do about Racism and hence also other attitudinal biases. In fact there are are many places and domains for which the situation for the minority/out group gets better. My point was however not that we aren't able to change our thoughts or behaviour, but rather that we can only do it on a concious level. More then 20 years of research about the IAT and other implicit association tests have shown that no matter how much we try to not act according to such stereotypes and biases, they remain intact on an unconscious level, in which case there is no association between the persons self reported attitudes and the implicit ones, such as in the example above. This was even the case for Black rights activists and negative attitudes towards black people. While on many levels these peoples behaviours might have changed, these implicit attitudes can subsequently predict general attitudes and behaviour in domains for which we rely mostly on automatic and in concious processing. Liking and attraction being one of them.
Also I want to remark that my points of view are not so deterministic as you might have interpreted them. I think that our liking or attractiveness for someone is influenced by many factors , such as personality, contextual situation, and familiarity, but similarity and non-verbal communication are known to be two important factors to be taken into account. That said , to claim that no blind person would be successful without sung laces, would be a bit like saying that no black person would be successful in a white dominated society. While the statement about it being a dream to be accepted was primarily meant for the blind isms, I even have a good friend that has them more pronounced than I do. He has however, also an enormous charisma , which compensates for everything else and makes him a very successful person in life in general.
Also there are individual differences in how these factors affect or attitudes,. Let this board and all people on here be a testimony of that.
That said, it is well established that these factors can and do have an influence on how we perceive people and form our first impressions of people in general. I do hold that a world in which this is not the case, is a dream.
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Post by Ackrin on Sept 20, 2019 10:14:33 GMT -5
I agree about there being a ton of misconceptions about blindness. People think blindness that it just means you can't see at all. Just like many other things in life. Blindness can happen in varying degrees.
I was born 3 months premature and had to be in a incubator because my lungs were under developed. The oxygen caused me to get ROP. ( retinopathy of prematurity) which caused me to be visually impaired and legally blind. Luckily, I was one of the first babies in the early 80's in US that doctor's tried using high doses for vitamin e to stop the progression to total blindness.
My vision issues and being a dumb teenager are also what landed me in this chair as a quadriplegic.
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Post by feelsunshine on Sept 20, 2019 12:37:34 GMT -5
My vision issues and being a dumb teenager are also what landed me in this chair as a quadriplegic. what happened?
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Post by Ackrin on Sept 20, 2019 13:19:45 GMT -5
My vision issues and being a dumb teenager are also what landed me in this chair as a quadriplegic. what happened? I can't remember any of it. But I was told I was on the back of a jetski with a friend of mine who didn't know I had any vision issues. Since you can't really tell unless you see me reading things (since it has to be really close to my face) or if you pay attention to how my eyes move because they move around a lot which can SOMETIMES be a sign of vision issues. And I didn't usually let people know right away about my vision issue until they got to know me better. So that I'd be judged by my personality rather than my disability. My dumb ass decided at some point I want to try to drive the jetski. Everything was ok until I starting getting closer to shors. The water in the lake was low that year. I ended up not seeing and hitting a sand bar really close to shore and was thrown head first into a tree.
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Post by feelsunshine on Sept 20, 2019 13:51:55 GMT -5
I can't remember any of it. But I was told I was on the back of a jetski with a friend of mine who didn't know I had any vision issues. Since you can't really tell unless you see me reading things (since it has to be really close to my face) or if you pay attention to how my eyes move because they move around a lot which can SOMETIMES be a sign of vision issues. And I didn't usually let people know right away about my vision issue until they got to know me better. So that I'd be judged by my personality rather than my disability. My dumb ass decided at some point I want to try to drive the jetski. Everything was ok until I starting getting closer to shors. The water in the lake was low that year. I ended up not seeing and hitting a sand bar really close to shore and was thrown head first into a tree. that sounds bad. sorry to hear that, but I wouldn't completely put it on "bad vision". I think it could have happened also if you had clear sight.... going fast, having to make decisions fast and everything... that could clearly happen with a 100 % sight as well I guess. But still, I also get the point that it's not a good idea to do sports with bad vision. Some of you know that I wear glasses. I used to ride a motorcycle together with my dad - in an offoraod-team-vehicle. When we started, about 10 years ago, I just took off the glasses, because they wouldn't fit beneath the helmet and I was fine. But as the years went by, I realized that I couldn't do it anymore this way. I ended up that I didn't do that team sport with my dad anymore. It would have been so easy to just go out and get contact lenses.... well.. I didn't. I keep thinking about it once in a while. If we decide to hit the offroad again, I'll send pictures ;-) sorry for getting this thing here off-topic....
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blindlover
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Post by blindlover on Sept 23, 2019 18:33:46 GMT -5
I can't remember any of it. But I was told I was on the back of a jetski with a friend of mine who didn't know I had any vision issues. Since you can't really tell unless you see me reading things (since it has to be really close to my face) or if you pay attention to how my eyes move because they move around a lot which can SOMETIMES be a sign of vision issues. And I didn't usually let people know right away about my vision issue until they got to know me better. So that I'd be judged by my personality rather than my disability. My dumb ass decided at some point I want to try to drive the jetski. Everything was ok until I starting getting closer to shors. The water in the lake was low that year. I ended up not seeing and hitting a sand bar really close to shore and was thrown head first into a tree.
Well i'm really sorry to hear that man. Sometimes, we just have bad luck, me and my genetic disorder aren't so different afterall.I'm not complaining, however, my life hasn't been bad lately, and that's actually also partially thanks to this board and the kind people I met along the way. I'm therefore also really glad you found your way here and I really hope things are good for you out there.
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erikajulia
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Post by erikajulia on Oct 7, 2019 8:16:20 GMT -5
But still, I also get the point that it's not a good idea to do sports with bad vision. Hi!
Wellll... I disagree, and am bewildered that no one else does. :-) I know blind Judoka, blind wrestlers, blind downhill-ski-racers, blind shooters, blind horse-riding-teachers, blind tandem-drivers, blind sailors, know of blind marathon-runners, bmx-drivers, soccer-players - not to talk about the goalball-players and showdown-players... there may be some sports that have to be adapted, and maybe some are not safe or not to accomplish at all, but sports are generally a good idea for everybody (says someone who sometimes likes watching sports, but not much more...cough...).
As the subject has only recently been broached: Sports have proven to be a very good help in coping with blindisms (my university had a small exploratory focus there and I did my thesis on one aspect of "individual peculiar movement patterns").
It might be helpful to be aware of ones limits of perception - and maybe it might help if the other sportsmen were aware - though.
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Post by feelsunshine on Oct 7, 2019 14:27:02 GMT -5
erikajuliaGood to see you back here, I missed you ;-) Thanks for enlightening me here - I honestly had no idea at all...
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erikajulia
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Post by erikajulia on Oct 7, 2019 15:09:41 GMT -5
erikajulia Good to see you back here, I missed you ;-) Thanks for enlightening me here - I honestly had no idea at all... Sorry, sometimes I can't keep from "klugscheißen"... did not want to offend.
Can't promise to stay long, my life got a bit troubled lately. But I will come back!
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blindLeap
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Post by blindLeap on Oct 18, 2019 14:22:21 GMT -5
I appear to be the new blind person on the block So ...I am guessing most questions in the thread have been answered, but I am willing to contribute to this topic as well. If others have questions, or want my perspective on some questions that have already been asked, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm good with personal messages as well if you'd rather not ask your question publically :-)
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erikajulia
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Post by erikajulia on Oct 26, 2019 11:35:57 GMT -5
Well, hi again! *laughs* I just found an advertising-site for traveling without barriers in Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz). My first question is, as always: Is this site accessible for blind persons? It certainly is "pretty to the eye" - if you like conservative and don't look too close. Which brings me to my second question: On this photo: He has his folded cane on the table. Well, at least not the tip of the cane, but still... I do understand the photographers wanted to emphasize: "HE is BLIND!", but... to me that's like propping your shoes on the table! Are there blind people who do that? I've worked with a lot of blind people once, and no one did it (well, maybe in classrooms sometimes), but times are changing, and maybe that's ordinary now? Please tell me the photographer was creating a scene and asked for a flag to wave around - far from reality.
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blindLeap
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Post by blindLeap on Oct 26, 2019 13:29:34 GMT -5
I am going to have a look at the website . I am a certified accessibility expert so it's funny you ask me this question :-) As for the cane ...no, I know of no blind person that does this. Generally , the cane goes under the table or behind the chair, i've seen it in the corner of a booth, but never on top of the table. I would rather say that is more of an obstacle since it's taking up valuable table space. It sounds to me like they needed to overemphasize the blindness that should've already been obvious, although by no means do all blind people wear dark glasses :-)
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blindLeap
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Post by blindLeap on Oct 26, 2019 13:32:27 GMT -5
Quickly browsing through the website, I would say it is reasonably accessible. They certainly tried, I see a lot of adaptive things they have added like hotkeys for often used links and proper heading structure, but I also see edit fields that don't have a proper label. So yes, it's accessible but I can still find things that can be improved.
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