Do you have any experiences or stories about being with blind people (or people with significant vision impairment)?
I have a couple myself:
1. When I attended Open Door Preschool for Handicapped Children at age 3 or 4 years old at the time, I was eating lunch one day, and across from me was a little boy who’s blind. One of the aides was teaching him where to find his food on a plate by treating the plate as a “clock”. She told him that one food item is at 12 o’clock, another’s at 6 o’clock, and so forth. For some reason, this memory has stuck with me all these years.
2. As an adult (I was about 23 at the time), I once taught a blind mother how to fingerspell in sign language so she can communicate with her deaf daughter (I let her feel the shape of my hands to see what the fingerspelling signs are, then she tries it herself…..she did good and can now fingerspell to her daughter. <smile>)
3. When I was a teenager in 1980s, my cousins and I came over to visit our great-grandmother who was blind from glaucoma. Our mothers were with us too, and they were talking to Granny at the time. We cousins were all sitting in a couch and and in a chair. Well, my youngest cousin who came with us was making a face at Granny who was sitting in a rocking chair across from us, but she was talking to my mother and my aunt. Her brother then leaned over to her, and told her in confidence in front of me that Granny can see her "outline"! Well, my cousin had this embarrassed look on her face and went "oops". I was recently telling my mother this, and she said she remembers that...she said that was terrible of my cousin to do that.
4. When I worked at a Braille company, there were blind proofreaders there, including 2 Seeing eye dogs. I noticed that one of them was feeling for the correct change when he had his hand in his pocket...and it came out correct. Also his bills are being folded in a certain way to tell him which one is a $5.00, $10.00, $20.00, and $1.00. Also, they have a Braille watch that they touch over the face of the watch to tell them what time it is (also have voice activation)....these watches also have a see through glass cover over the faces of the timepieces.
5. I have been at a HotBraille forum for people with vision problems, and a lot of them have the same frustrations as with any disabilities. You know how some people take advantage of people's deafness?? Well, I heard stories about how the blind were taken advantage of (for example, one person mentioned that some sighted people were telling him there is a bus but there weren't any). I also learned what their "dreams in sleep" was like when blind or visually-impaired.
I have a couple myself:
1. When I attended Open Door Preschool for Handicapped Children at age 3 or 4 years old at the time, I was eating lunch one day, and across from me was a little boy who’s blind. One of the aides was teaching him where to find his food on a plate by treating the plate as a “clock”. She told him that one food item is at 12 o’clock, another’s at 6 o’clock, and so forth. For some reason, this memory has stuck with me all these years.
2. As an adult (I was about 23 at the time), I once taught a blind mother how to fingerspell in sign language so she can communicate with her deaf daughter (I let her feel the shape of my hands to see what the fingerspelling signs are, then she tries it herself…..she did good and can now fingerspell to her daughter. <smile>)
3. When I was a teenager in 1980s, my cousins and I came over to visit our great-grandmother who was blind from glaucoma. Our mothers were with us too, and they were talking to Granny at the time. We cousins were all sitting in a couch and and in a chair. Well, my youngest cousin who came with us was making a face at Granny who was sitting in a rocking chair across from us, but she was talking to my mother and my aunt. Her brother then leaned over to her, and told her in confidence in front of me that Granny can see her "outline"! Well, my cousin had this embarrassed look on her face and went "oops". I was recently telling my mother this, and she said she remembers that...she said that was terrible of my cousin to do that.
4. When I worked at a Braille company, there were blind proofreaders there, including 2 Seeing eye dogs. I noticed that one of them was feeling for the correct change when he had his hand in his pocket...and it came out correct. Also his bills are being folded in a certain way to tell him which one is a $5.00, $10.00, $20.00, and $1.00. Also, they have a Braille watch that they touch over the face of the watch to tell them what time it is (also have voice activation)....these watches also have a see through glass cover over the faces of the timepieces.
5. I have been at a HotBraille forum for people with vision problems, and a lot of them have the same frustrations as with any disabilities. You know how some people take advantage of people's deafness?? Well, I heard stories about how the blind were taken advantage of (for example, one person mentioned that some sighted people were telling him there is a bus but there weren't any). I also learned what their "dreams in sleep" was like when blind or visually-impaired.
