Debunking 10 Myths About Blindness

1. Blind people have supersonic hearing.
This is maybe true for some people. I can’t speak for all of my people. I personally feel like I have selective good hearing. If I am paying attention, the environment is just right, and it’s a Tuesday… I might have a little extra special hearing. Don’t even bother talking to me on Wednesday’s though.

2. Being blind means you can’t see a thing.
There are so many degrees of blindness. Some people identify as blind and they can still see. However, their vision could be as low as light perception only. Or, maybe the person can only see shadows. I have also met people that can’t see when they are in bright conditions. When I could still see, I had night blindness. Other people can only see using their peripheral vision. There is a definite grey area to blindness. It is not all darkness.

3. We all know Stevie Wonder.
You would not believe how many times someone wanted to know if the famous singer and I were buddies behind the scenes.

4. Just because I am blind does not mean I know every single blind person who has ever lived.
When my youngest daughter was in pre-school, I had a man come up to me and ask me if I knew *insert name*.
“No, does he have a kid that goes to this school?” I said a little confused. I should point out I had never been introduced to this guy one time.
He put a hand on my shoulder. “Oh no. He lives in Minnesota. I thought maybe because you were both blind…”

5. Not all blind people like to be touched by strangers.
Think back to the example I just gave in number four. When that guy touched my arm, I fully admit, it kind of creeped me out. I am not opposed to contact from other people. My problem was that I didn’t even know this guys name and yet he thought it would be a great idea to touch me. Another time I don’t like to be touched is in cases of my face. I can’t explain it. There is no real reason why. Ever since I lost my vision, I hate when someone randomly touches my face. They could be doing me a favor and getting a crumb off my cheek or a hair out of my eye. I appreciate it, but please tell me first. It saves me the awkward embarrassment of jerking back like I just got electrocuted.

6. No, I don’t want to touch your face.
This is a big one folks. In my experience in the blind community, it is extremely rare that you will find a blind person who wants to be introduced to you and get acquainted by giving your face a rub down. It’s no offense, but just yuck. I have yet to meet a blind person who does this. You know that expression, you don’t know where that has been? This kind of applies to that. It is no disrespect, but we don’t know if you are clean. We don’t know if you are greasy. You could have a poor complexion problem. You could have an open wound on your face. We also wouldn’t want to accidentally recruit you by poking you in the eye. There is just so many reasons why this is just not a good thing. Please, for the love of all blind people, just shake our hand.

7. Yes, I can hear you.
While it is true that some blind people are also deaf; this is not true for all of us. Even still, I can recall on several occasions where someone yelled at me rather than just speaking. Once, I asked a person why they were yelling. I am not kidding here… they actually told me that they did so because I was blind.

8. Blindness does not mean that I am a baby.
People mean well. I don’t in any way think that this is done out of malice for most people. Frequently however, I have had many people talk to me as though I am five years old. I’m not sure what it is about my cane. Sometimes though, it brings out the baby talk more than child-birth.

9. It is alright to talk directly to the blind person in front of you.
I believe this one happens because people are not sure how to act around a blind person. This is nothing against them at all. For instance, I come from a small town. This means that the blind population is not very big. This in turn means that people have little to no exposure to my people. Consequently, this means that sometimes the awkward interaction occurs. It sometimes goes something like this…
“Store Clerk: “Can I help you?” Their eye-contact is held with the sighted person beside me.
Me: “Yes, can you help me find *insert item*”
Store Clerk: Again, looking at my friend. “Does she know what color she wants?”
My friend: “I’m not sure. Why don’t you ask her?”
Unfortunately, this happens a lot. Again, I don’t think they are trying to ignore me. I just don’t think they quite know what to do about the whole blindness thing.

10. Blind people can’t do anything productive.
HA!!! This one is hilarious to me. Blind people are capable of doing so many things. We have jobs. We are athletes. We are parents. We are writers. We are musicians. We are volunteers. I have met so many amazing blind people over the years. Some of them impress me to the point of WOW! I have met blind people who go skiing and sky-diving. I have met blind lawyers. My husband is a blind drummer. There are blind Chefs and actors. There are blind people in the Government and politics. There was a blind person who played college football at one point or another. And the list goes on and on… Blindness is just a part of us. We can almost do anything a sighted person can do.

Thanks for reading.

There is more that could have made the list. Maybe there will be a second edition, so keep your eye out. If you are blind, what would be on your list? Visit the Facebook page and right yours in the comments for this post. If you are sighted, please don’t think I am bashing the way you do or don’t interact with blind people. I am fully aware that the vast majority do not mean to be offensive or hurtful. This post was done like most of my list posts are… to entertain and bring a little humor to the subject of blindness. As I have said a million times, blindness is not the end of the world. It is okay to laugh at experiences. It is even better to talk about them. In fact, that is how people learn.

Insane Questions For The Blind

In talking to new friends in the blind community, I've come across some funny questions asked by the uninformed. These are just some of the few that I thought would make you smile.

1. How do you eat?

2. How do you have sex?

3. How do you go to the bathroom?

4. More specifically, how do you wipe your butt?

5. Are you just faking for attention?

6. How do you parent your child if you're blind?

7. Where are your sunglasses?

8. Do you know Steevie Wonder?

9. How do you walk?

10. How many fingers am I holding up?

11. What color is my hand?

12. Can you see me?

13. How do you read?

Though I could pick apart all of these for a million paragraphs, diagraming exactly why they are rediculous... I won't, at least not right now. That would be for another post on another day. For now, just join me and laugh at some of the silly things that blind people have been asked.

PS... please keep in mind that these questions were mostly asked by full grown adults... and then laugh a little harder

Did That Really Just Happen 4

I haven’t had a Did That Really Just Happen moment in a while. I happened to have such an experience on Peanuts second day of school. I never would have expected an incident there, but what can you do? It just goes to show these things can happen anywhere.

I was there with my mom, dropping little Miss Peanut off in the morning. The first thing they do before breakfast is circle time. After this activity, the kids are directed to go and wash their hands before meal time.

Mom and I were just getting ready to leave when someone approached. “He,” a soft voice said.

I could tell it was an older man. I didn’t recognize the voice and had no idea who it was. “Hi,” I sounded a little unsure than intended, but the man didn’t seem to notice.

“Do you know the Crunks?” He seemed very hopeful, though his voice was barely above a whisper.

I searched my memory bank high and low. The name didn’t ring a bell at all. “No,” I replied. “Do they have a child in this class?” Stupidly, I found myself looking around for the Crunk family as if I could pick them out of a crowd. This was ridiculous on so many levels. Even if I had known who the Crunks were (which I didn’t), then I wouldn’t have been able to see them. So scanning the room was a pointless effort.

“No, they live on the east coast,” he said, dead serious. “I used to live there too. They had a son who was blind.”

“Oh,” I responded a little confused. “That’s cool.”

“Yeah, he was a nice kid. I thought maybe you two might know each other.”

Trying hard not to laugh I said, “Nope, sorry. Well, me and my mom are leaving now. I’ll see you later.”

He made his goodbyes since he was leaving too. He never said anything else about the Crunk family and left me more than a little baffled.

Why is it that some people assume that because you’re blind you must know every single blind person in the world? lol I wonder if the same rule applies to the deaf community. I didn’t react rude to this because it wasn’t ill intended. Some people just genuinely think this is how it works. I thought this was really cute. It used to happen a lot more often, but I haven’t experienced it in a while.

Has this ever happened to you? If so tell me about it in the comment section of this post. I am also looking for guest posters for this blog. If you have a funny Did That Really Just Happen moment and it’s too long to put in a comment, send me a message and set up a guest post. I’d love to have you. Just use the contact link on this page or leave me your email in the contact section.

The next You Tube Video

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