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From: campbell%hpdmd48@hplabs.HP.COM (Gary Campbell)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: BLINDNESS AND THE BLINDFOLD
Message-ID: <15069@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 19 Oct 90 04:26:01 GMT
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Reply-To: campbell%hpdmd48@hplabs.HP.COM (Gary Campbell)
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Fidonet: Blink Talk Conference

Index Number: 11199

Darin McGrew (mcgrew@Eng.Sun.COM) writes:

>Index Number: 11062
>married.  I agree that just putting on a blindfold doesn't help a
>sighted person learn what blindness is like.  However, leaving
>the blindfold on long enough to learn how to do something does
>give a sighted person a better idea of what blindness is like.

I think that learning to do something and therefore that it *is*
possible to do something, is the only benefit a sighted person could
gainby being blindfolded.  I'm glad you began to recognize buildings ad
where you were.  As long as the person doesn't begin to feel like they
have "arrived" there probably isn't any problem, but I would be
concerned about someone beginning to think he/she can identify
limitations.  When I was in highschool, before I had any travel training
involving traffic lights, a person who had lost his sight was visiting
me.  He had gone through a training program, and felt that he had
adjusted and was now really functioning close to the maximum potential
for a blind person.  When I asked him about traffic lights, he said,
"they taught that, but I think that's pretty dangerous," and
communicated that it wasn't a realistic thing to do.  He didn't convince
me because I had heard of many people doing that, but it seemed to me
that he had an effect on my mother.  I was away from home when I learned
my travel skills, and my parents didn't restrict me, but in the
beginning, until I was already doing it, they wouldn't help me and
didn't encourage me much.  I think I remember some "even Bob doesn't"
comments.  I feel like Bob probably came a long way in histraining, and
probably found that he could do far more than he ever dreamed a blind
person could do, but somewhere his idea of the potential got set at a
level that was short of what is possible for many people.  If that
happened to someone who had been through a rehab program and was living
as a blind person every day, what could be the result of someone who
does it for only a short time?  If the blindfold experience demystifies
how we function and shows the person that he/she could do it with
practice, then it could be good, as long as the person still looks to
blind people who have much experience with functioning without sight to
determine what can be done, is easy, etc.

That took longer than I thought it was going to!  I hope it makes sense!

--
Gary Campbell