Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!130!10!Linda.Iverson
From: Linda.Iverson@f10.n130.z1.fidonet.org (Linda Iverson)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: More thoughts!
Message-ID: <16461@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 90 05:11:16 GMT
Sender: news@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: Linda.Iverson@f10.n130.z1.fidonet.org
Distribution: misc
Organization: FidoNet node 1:130/10 - D D Connection, Fort Worth TX
Lines: 44
Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP

Index Number: 12536

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Hi, Karen!
 
Tell your friend I like what she said about describing her loss.  Everyone 
can relate to having lost something.  You know, I still think people 
like us are luckier than people with multiple disabilities, or people 
with autism or mental retardation.  At least with proper training we 
can make our own decisions and control our lives.  I guess my parents 
were protective in some ways, but I've known other kids whose parents 
were worse, so I feel fortunate.
 
You are lucky to be able to read anything you want, and as I told you, 
I love books and miss that, but it's getting better with reading machines 
and computers.  Karen, you wouldn't believe how many bulletin boards 
there are here!  I have found so much information.  We are really living 
in an exciting age.
 
Take care, and keep those thoughts coming.  By the way, I attended 
the National Federation of the Blind convention this summer and met 
a deaf-blind lady who had recently had a cochlear impoant.  She couldn't 
hear conversation, but she could hear a faucet dripping if she were 
close to the sink, leaves and paper rustling, and those kinds of things. 
 I guess it's as much the frequency of the noise as the loudness.
 
I'm not surprised about your use of kinetic senses.  I do that to some 
degree, but probably not as much as you.  I have, and many blind people 
do, what is called "object perception" or "facial vision".  I can tell 
before my cane touches it when I'm approaching a large object--tree, 
truck, those kinds of things--walls and other objects that often block 
a path.  I've tried to cultivate that ability, and of course it is 
caused by the air current being different around those kinds of objects 
which makes the outdoors sound different.  One final thought.  I wouldn't 
worry about music--you're right, some of it does sound like noise! 
 
 
Linda
 

--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!130!10!Linda.Iverson
Internet: Linda.Iverson@f10.n130.z1.fidonet.org