See The Blind Person

No real apology was coming from my girlfriend, as it was my fault for not leaving a clearer message at her work, or indeed as she pointed out, I could have simply left a note at the bottom of the stairs. Of course. I should have thought of that. I should have realised people can’t see in the dark to talk to each other. No wonder people seem to be afraid of those with sight disabilities. Is that a politically correct way of saying ‘blind’? who knows? I still call a spade, a spade…. (That’s a gardening digging tool for those of you not strong on English, as opposed to those of you strong on slang and derogatory comments ). I have watched people physically shrink away from the ‘sight’ disabled when suddenly encountered. Or they respond emphatically and in error.

Isn’t it amazing how people often make two incorrect assumptions when encountering the blind. Both of those assumptions are usually very wide of the mark. The first being that a blind person is also deaf. How often have you seen, or heard people raising their voices, as soon as they encounter a person with sight disabilities. ‘HERE! TAKE MY HAND” (There’s the third error, How can they see to take the hand?). But no, they shout out as if the person with sight disabilities is deaf as well. They may be, but surely that should be asked first.  And then the second common error is that if the person is blind, then they must suffer mental health problems automatically as well. “DO YOU NEED A SPOOOON WITH YOURRR CUUUPP?”. Seriously, people, they can’t see, so it’s simple. Make sure they are aware of any obstacles and ask in a normal tone, if they even need assistance. Otherwise you’ll just be giving them something to complain (or laugh about) to their fellow sight impaired, next time they have a ‘cuppa’ together.

Actually, I think most people can’t handle any form of disability. I used to work with special needs children and was criticised on several occasions for appearing to be blasé in my treatment of them when they had a minor accident, such as one lad who had Cerebral Palsy and was often over excited when getting around resulting in the occasional fall or stumble. I usually laughed (with them) and pick them up if they had fallen over and were struggling, but never rushed up in a panic (they never appreciated people panicking around them, it often agitated them more as it increased attention on them). I always ensured they had suffered no injuries (we still had to note it in the diary) but any such incident was usually ‘treated’ as any ‘normal’ person would be (and yes, ‘normal’ here is slang, for a person without visual disabilities), if they had fallen over. Sometimes, when getting him back to his feet, what made it most difficult was, he would be laughing so much, he had trouble co-ordinating.

(Continued tomorrow)