I'm so glad you guys said something!!! These posts were bugging me, but as a newb to all this and still sighted to boot, I didn't want to say anything. Or at least not the first to say something. I didn't really like the videos either. They seemed heavy handed. Maybe thats fine and the overall message is good, but I also feel like is setting up a preconception of what people think about blind people by doing so, which might not actually be that true. I feel like before I got my diagnosis I just didn't know that much about blind people. I didn't think about blind people or being blind that much at all because I didn't know anyone personally. I didn't pitty them when I saw them, but the video seems to say that that is the norm. Now when I see blind people I am cumpulsively curious and desperate to talk to them because I am new at this and would love some help along the way and a friend I can talk to in person. You guys are still the only blind people I know! I know I need to work on that. But having you guys has been invaluable. I can not tell you how much it has helped me to have you all here these past few months.

When I first started thinking about blindness I didn't make assumptions about what blind people can do, but I did and still do, have serious doubts about my own limitations and ability to adapt to the world without my sight. In one of my firat posts I mentioned my fears about having kids blind. I know blind people have kids. I was worried about MY ability to be blind and raise kids. I didn't end up clarifying this when people got a bit huffy because other people stepped in to inform us all that CPS takes kids from blind parents at a higher rate than they do sighted parents.. which totally freaked me out more and I didn't feel up to replying to those particular tangents at all.. (also genetics was part of the initial concern)

Anyway, the point is, I just didn't know much of anything and am still learning. It wasn't like I was full of all these preconceptions I just had no conceptions. It is like what totally blind people see. Nothing. Not black or white or gray. Not a color or anything at all. Or to put it another way, like what sighted people see beyond their periphery: nothing.

When I am blind I don't want to run around thinking people are pitying me and that this is some crusade to change the bigotry of the sighted world! That seems like a horrible schema to be operating from and it won't do me any good.

When I am blind (and even now) I want to think of the experiencnof being a blind/vi person as being similar to being a foreigner living in China. Chinese people might treat you differently or act strange around you. But it was not because they had all these preconceived notions or were racist or bigoted in any way, they may have simply never met a foreigner before.

One of my best friends from China is a guy from Zimbabwe. Very tall, black man. Chinese people would jump around him all the time. He would be standing behind them in line at the store or next to them on the subway and they would realize he was there all of a sudden and jump. They had never seen a black person before. They weren't expecting to see one at that moment. This guy was great about it. He never assumed it was bigotry or racism on their part. He never got upset or even irritated. If he had chosen to operate from the schema that the Chinese people were racist and bigoted on the whole it would have driven him crazy. I knew expats in China who did operate from that schema. It made them bitter and angry and ugly people to be around.

I would rather operate from the schema that people just don't know what they don't know and that almost all of them are open to learning something new. I have actual blindspots and what I see there is nothing. I don't want to go making assumptions about other people's metaphorical blindspots, because the thing that is most likely there is nothing.

Tldr: I didn't want to be the first to say it, and am so glad other people piped up.. I also don't like the patronizing tone of the post and take further issue with the underlying schema they set up in the videos.

[Again, as a hearing person...]

Yes and no. Without hearing, the primary mode of communication with the larger population breaks down. This results in some pretty sharp cultural differences between those who communicate audibly and those who communicate by other means. I'm sure there are parallels due to the amount of visual communication I almost certainly take for granted, but I'm unaware of any parallel amongst the blind to the amount pride I see in Deaf culture. So there is definitely a large, focused advocacy for those with complete lack of hearing. To the extent that those who find themselves between the two worlds due to partial hearing, late in life hearing loss, and especially those who attempt to "correct" their hearing loss are seen as "not truly Deaf" [capitalized D], but merely deaf [lowercase d]. That distinction is palpable enough that I keep my rather severe hearing loss to myself around Deaf colleagues for fear of being judged.

Thank you, sincerely for answering my question, by the way.