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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2017 - 07 - 06 - ID#6lpg8f
5
Inclusive/exclusive wording. Your help needed. (self.Blind)
submitted by Quail85
Hi Redditors!

I work on a government website and am currently redeveloping our style guide.

I would like your opinion on the words view, see, read and watch.

Are they inclusive if we use them, or exclusive if we don't?

Thank you all for your help and input.

Edit:

Thank you all for your extremely valuable information! I'll make sure our style guide follows WCAG 2.0 guidelines (always aiming for the AAA).

You've all seriously been the best help, thank you again awesome Redditors!
-shacklebolt- 10 points 6y ago
I don't know any blind people who are offended by words like see, watch, read, etc. I say "see you later" all the time. I say I "watch" TV and videos. I use "read" to generally describe any method of reading text, be it regular or large print, TTS, or braille.

It's really only sighted people who seem to worry they'll offend us if using "visual" words to describe things, I don't really think it's a thing among blind people.

Having the actual content be accessible (in your case, 508 compliance if you're in the US) is way more important (and wanted) than someone trying to pander to my feelings.
snow671 4 points 6y ago
> It's really only sighted people who seem to worry they'll offend us if using "visual" words to describe things, I don't really think it's a thing among blind people.

Even the word "blind" seems touchy. My landlord puts me down as "optically challenged" on my maintenance requests. It kills me inside.
-shacklebolt- 5 points 6y ago
Dear god, that's terrible. "Optically challenged" sounds like maybe you misplace your glasses all the time or something, haha.

The one that always gets me is "person living with a visual impairment" or whatever. Come on guys, keep it simple: blind person.
Terry_Pie 6 points 6y ago
The idea that words like view, see, read, and watch are insensitive to blind/people with vision impairment is an example of political correctness gone mad. You aren't discriminating or disrespecting anyone, there is no issue. So long as you follow accessibility guidelines, you'll be fine.
fastfinge 5 points 6y ago
Going out of your way to avoid words like "watched" is more offensive than using them. If someone asked if I "listened to the TV show", the implication is that my experience of the show is so alien and different from a sighted person's experience of the same show, that I need a different, special word to describe it. And yet, if a sighted person is asked if she "watched the game last night", she'll probably say "yes", even if she only listened to it on the radio in her car.
awesomesaucesaywhat 5 points 6y ago
Is view and Watch are used to direct to a video, make sure it is audio described!
0xdeadf001 3 points 6y ago
Not blind, but my girlfriend is. She uses watch, see, etc. just like anyone else would, and she prefers it when people speak naturally, rather than working really hard to avoid things that might literally refer to vision, but which are usually used in a more general sense of "experienced".

She'll say "I saw an old friend last week" or "do you want to watch this show about [X] with me?" She had even said "I'll keep an eye out for it" when I told her I had lost something, and she didn't mean it ironically. She means it in the sense that sighted people mean -- if I find it, regardless of how I find it, I'll give it to you.
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