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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2017 - 09 - 03 - ID#6xrc7d
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If blind culture were like deaf culture [x-post /r/deaf] (self.Blind)
submitted by JeremyOxton
"Blindness isn't a disability, it's a difference in the human experience! We're just like you even though we would be best advised not to drive and literally can't read (in the way normal people can). Now accommodate us endlessly with described video and audio warnings at traffic crossings. Yes, the accommodations consist of aids to do things that we can't that most people can. That doesn't mean it's a disability even though that's the definition of a disability."

"Sadly, our daughter was born blind. Looks like it's hereditary. There are special glasses she can wear to boost her sight, and the doctors could even restore her sight with a surgery. But that's terrible! She needs to be part of our culture that she knows nothing about because of this disorder that wasn't her fault, and we refuse to enact this terrible minimally invasive procedure on her that can only lead to benefits later in life. Better she bump into things while learning to walk, or run across the street because she can't see any cars."

"English is the enemy of big B Blind culture! We've just been using straight braille letters correlated to written languages all these years, and we need to change that! Though we are already forced to use an ordinary form of established languages to communicate and it works just fine, we must create a new language (or more accurately, a bunch of languages all across the world) that is more easy for the blind to understand, thus separating us from the rest of the world and from each other. It's brilliant!"
Zach_of_Spades 7 points 5y ago
How is this post constructive at all? it's not. This is ignorant bullshit and I'm sorry to see it posted here.
KillerLag 2 points 5y ago
Some people do that, unfortunately. There are also some big misconceptions in there, too.
KillerLag 5 points 5y ago
I considered not bothering to respond, but I thought that this might be a teachable moment and you might find it useful.

For any type of surgery, there are risks versus gains. For example, cataract surgery. Generally considered one of the safest surgeries in the world (98% success rate), it has restored vision to millions of people. Howevere, some underlying conditions make that surgery significantly more dangerous. If someone has glaucoma, cataract surgery can make it much worse, which would cause more vision loss in the long term.

As a general rule, when someone loses their vision, they don't need to learn a new language. They can continue using the language they know. That is one of the biggest differences between vision loss and hearing loss.... Vision loss disconnects you from the world, but hearing loss disconnects you from people.

As for why the deaf use Sign language, give this a try.... when you speak, don't say each word, say each letter. And see how long that takes. Sign language replaces spelling out individual words with a sign so that conversations can be held within a more reasonable time span.



redalastor 3 points 5y ago
> Sign language replaces spelling out individual words with a sign so that conversations can be held within a more reasonable time span.

Not quite. They don't replace words they are distinct natural languages that evolved with similar mechanisms as spoken languages. They even have language families. The biggest is French Sign which includes languages such as American Sign Language.

The grammar is different from spoken languages as signed languages present different opportunities. For instance spoken languages are strictly linear, one word after the others but you have two hands and your face is often part of signs too so sign languages can differ there.

There are also tactile signed languages for the deaf-blind.
KillerLag 1 points 5y ago
I knew most of that, but I didn't want to type that all out. ;) The grammar I find really interesting, because some of my clients e-mail me, and in some cases, it takes a while to reconstruct what they mean.

I actually know how to fingerspell and the manual alphabet, but I'm pretty rusty at it now (at work, we have access to intervenors, and they do it much better than I can).
redalastor 3 points 5y ago
I like that you can't say you're doing fine if your face is saying the opposite because then your face is ungrammatical :)

> I actually know how to fingerspell and the manual alphabet, but I'm pretty rusty at it now (at work, we have access to intervenors, and they do it much better than I can).

Signed languages are pretty fun to learn.
KillerLag 3 points 5y ago
I was trying to learn before I ended up in my current profession, but never got too far. I actually learned some while I was in class for my current job, because I got a deaf/blind kid during my placement.

Funny story, so I learned some basic signs so I knew what she was communicating (classroom, cafeteria, etc). As we were walking down a hallway, my instructor stopped to speak to someone and I continued with the kids down the hall. A bit further down, she starts to do the T sign, but I didn't know what it meant (I knew it was a T, but that wasn't on the list of classrooms). After a few minutes, she was doing T MUCH more urgently. My instructor finally comes around, and I mention she's signalling T, and my instructor says we need to take her to the bathroom NOW. Quickly found out T stood for toilet :P
[deleted] 1 points 5y ago
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