Perspectives from a Blind Man: What Blindness Is, What It Isn't
I was looking back on some questions in the archives and I stumbled across a
letter from Dan Kish on the World Access for the Blind website
(www.worldaccessfortheblind.org) . He was responding to an experiment at a
Mt. Laurel middle school (my neighbor here in South Jersey). The school had
half of its students wear blinders for a day and the other half act as
guides. Mr. Kish expressed his concerns about the campaign, "Kindess Beats
Blindness". I kind of understand where he is coming from. But, on the
other hand, we use simulators to aid in our own understanding of visually
impaired students - even though we can not truly experience their vision.
I'm new to this field and I was wondering what others in the field had to
say. Thanks for your response.
Janet Thawley
[email protected]
Hello, Janet - I can argue this issue from either side of the fence.
Sighted folks often want to [try to] know what it's like to have a visual impairment; ie: what does my student - or my child - see? what does the world look like from her/his perspective?
So, often, we/they try to use simulators; sometimes to walk, and write, and eat, and do other activities of daily living.
The problem with that is that we/they might have "gained" a reasonable facsimile of the visual impairment, but not the skills of blindness that are needed to survive and thrive in a competitive world.
Instead of achieving a true idea of what it might be like to live as a person with a visual impairment, the mindset under a simulator often becomes, "oh, no! this is terrible! how can blind people do anything... leave their home... cook a meal... travel independently. And the next thought is often, "I can't wait to take this blindfold off!"
Blind people can't take the blindfold off when the experiment is over.
That being said, I often use different kinds of simulations to show classroom teachers how/why their student can't read the blackboard (he/she could if they really tried hard enough!) or why playing volleyball might not be the best activity. There are many simulations of visual impairments on the Internet that can give an "aha! moment" or you can take a camera and take photos of different situations and adjust the focus. A computer graphics teacher showed me how to use a program to take a photo of a school hallway, for example, and "blur" the central vision, or "create" tunnel vision, or show low contrast - all by using the same original photo. We took a series of photos of things like the clock in the front of the classroom, the blackboard, a textbook, the cafeteria during lunch... and it was very effective ... and did not produce the "I can't wait to take this blindfold off!" type of comments.
However, your line, "even though we can not truly experience their vision" shows your insight and understanding, even as a newcomer. Good for you!
Sheila
----- Original Message -----
From: Janet Thawley
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 7:47 PM
Subject: [AERNet] Perspectives from a Blind Man: What Blindness Is,What It Isn't
I was looking back on some questions in the archives and I stumbled across a letter from Dan Kish on the World Access for the Blind website (www.worldaccessfortheblind.org) . He was responding to an experiment at a Mt. Laurel middle school (my neighbor here in South Jersey). The school had half of its students wear blinders for a day and the other half act as guides. Mr. Kish expressed his concerns about the campaign, "Kindess Beats Blindness". I kind of understand where he is coming from. But, on the other hand, we use simulators to aid in our own understanding of visually impaired students - even though we can not truly experience their vision. I'm new to this field and I was wondering what others in the field had to say. Thanks for your response.
Janet Thawley
[email protected]
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