Questions and debates about blindness:

Nika said:
I agree. It doesn't hurt to bring your kid to the doctor a few extra times only to be sure there is nothing wrong, instead of leaving a medical condition neglected.
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Yes, exactly.

I don't think the neglected condition is the worst of it either. There is also the psycological damage to those accused of malingering who are actually quite genuine.
 
Nika said:
My elementary school experiences were awful. Every six months or so I would try to tell my parents again that I couldn't see. They would bring me to the eye doctor and the eye doctor would give me a 5 minute check-up and then tell him in adult-code that I was malingering. Finally at 12 he did a more thorough check-up and I also found another eye doctor through my friend who has made medical history in the eye world. This other doctor discovered many of my underlying vision problems.

During middle and high school I had my eye surgery and was going to the eye doctor 4 times a week. So everyone knew that I had eye issues going on. People would tease me for my red eyes and my thick glasses and for running into stuff. They would clap their hands in my face and so on.

High school was a nightmare for different reasons. The main reasons were that everyone thought vision therapy "cured" my eye problems so to speak, but I just started having different eye problems. Having gone 7 years undiagnosed I decided not to tell my parents and am just waiting till I'm not living with them anymore. I just don't think I could handle their denial all over again--it hurt enough the first time around.

I used to spend hours doing my homework. I would try to read the print and use a magnifying glass but the power was just not strong enough. I still haven't told my parents about my eyes. They think that just like my interest in ASL, my interest in braille and so on is incidental. When I go to the eye doctor, I go alone, so whatever he tells me is between me and him.

It sounds like a recurring story among blind AD'ers.

In short blindness isn't hard to live with. But I have to admit that having so many sighted people around me wanting to believe so strongly that I was sighted did wear on me.

On the brighter side, now that I'm at the college level, my professors have been much better about being accommodating. They're not ideal but I have to say it is a major improvement from my high school and middle school teachers. It really helps that all communication is direct, and not through my parents.
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I'm sorry about your parental and school experiences, and about the *shudder* magnifying glass... CCTV's are so much better.
 
Ok, Hear Again, and Dreama, I have been told there are a few differences between regular visual sign language, anyone know what they are?
 
typeingtornado, the only thing i can say is that when it comes to tactile sign, some signs are slightly modified to make them easier to identify tactually. for example, instead of looking towards someone who is speaking, a tactile terp will point in their direction. does that make sense? if you need other examples, let me know. smile.
 
wait a second. i didn't read your post carefully, typeingtornado. i can't explain the differences between asl, pse or see visually because i've never seen them before. however, i can explain the differences tactually.
 
Hear Again said:
wait a second. i didn't read your post carefully, typeingtornado. i can't explain the differences between asl, pse or see visually because i've never seen them before. however, i can explain the differences tactually.
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Sorry... I meant the differences between "visual" ASL, and tactile. Its all good...
 
I think the main differences between visual and tactual ASL is that facial expressions in ASL must be moved into hand movements, especially if you're signing for someone who is totally/functionally blind and not a restricted-field or close-range signer. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm still working on learning tactual because I know someday I will be NLP so I want to be fluent in tactual by the time I reach that point.
 
I think if I had to pick I would also go with NLP blindness. At least if you're NLP no one is expecting you to see or hoping you see more than you do. Likewise with being profoundly deaf (unless you are a CI user and as a result get people assuming that CI hearing is the same as natural hearing). But I think if I was NLP blind I would have gotten more of the resources I need just because of the black-and-white thinking my educators and parents have.
 
Nika said:
I think the main differences between visual and tactual ASL is that facial expressions in ASL must be moved into hand movements, especially if you're signing for someone who is totally/functionally blind and not a restricted-field or close-range signer. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm still working on learning tactual because I know someday I will be NLP so I want to be fluent in tactual by the time I reach that point.
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you are correct nika. it is also true that some asl signs are adapted to make them more readily identifiable tactually -- especially when 2 signs mirror one another.
 
another example of the differences between asl and tactile sign is that emotions are fingerspelled or signed rather than expressed on one's face.
 
yet another difference is the fact that when using tactile sign, a deafblind person is provided with environmental descriptors about his/her environment.
 
Thanks for the examples, Hear Again. They are really interesting. I didn't know about the fingerspelling facial expressions. But I will keep that in mind now! Thanks again. <smile>
 
Nika said:
Thanks for the examples, Hear Again. They are really interesting. I didn't know about the fingerspelling facial expressions. But I will keep that in mind now! Thanks again. <smile>
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you're welcome. i don't know if all deafblind people have their terps fingerspell emotions, but i did. in some cases, it was much easier and faster to tactually feel someone fingerspelling "s-a-d" instead of using the actual sign. that's what's so nice about tactile sign. you don't *have* to follow the rules of asl if you don't want to. it's all adaptable according to the deafblind person who uses it.
 
Ooh that is really nice. I think that is a great way to go about language in general. Do whatever helps all communicating understand the best.
 
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