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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2020 - 09 - 03 - ID#iloouo
3
Question about organising extracurricular activities (self.Blind)
submitted by yorkshirenation
Good morning guys. I work at a University in the residences office, and for the first semester we will have online courses. We cater for blind people and partially sighted people on the academic side of things, but in terms of activities outside of this, we usually have a residences life programme to help students socialise.

Because of the virus this year, we won't be able to host these events, but we are putting together a programme of online courses, gaming tournaments, yoga classes etc. And and online cafe.

It occurs to me, however, that none of these things might be blind people accessible with our current infrastructure and this worries me. On the one hand, we could host blind people specific events, but that would potentially isolate the blind community. On the other hand, the poor access to things that sighted people will have access to will be discriminatory in my opinion.

My question is: what would you prefer? Would you prefer one significantly over the other or would you prefer both?

As someone who has never had to contend with blindness, I'm looking for advice on what we can do to help blind people adjust to university life.

Thanks for your time.
80percentaccurate 2 points 2y ago
You’re so sweet! I think one group that is being overlooked and trodden on the most during this whole pandemic is people with visual impairments. Six feet apart is tough to determine!
Remember that blindness is a spectrum. Some people can see nothing and need to hear or feel to access their world. Others can see quite a bit still and just need things bigger, brighter, or closer.
If you make sure any content posted is visually clear that’s a step in the right direction. There are standards for accessible website development and I would follow those, but the name of the game is make sure you have high contrast for text. No swirly fonts. Keep clutter out as much as possible. If people who are posting videos can do the same, that helps. Make sure they have good lighting and background. Make sure they are explaining things that may be too small to see. That would help everyone learning in an online format I think.
For people who see nothing at all the accommodations get a tad more specific. Often times people who are totally blind use screen readers to work on computers. These screen readers do not do well with pictures, videos, or pictures of text. If there are any of these on the page the picture should be labeled with alt text that describes the important details in the picture.
For videos the creators should be accurately describing any visual information. If you aren’t sure if you’re going to have someone who is blind or visually impaired in each class you could always post the videos as you typically would then make a separate audio described track for each video as needed.
I hope this helps. It’s wonderful that you are thinking of this now before anyone takes a certain class or is upset about lack of access.
One point I disagree about is only providing access to classes that blind people can do. There are blind photographers out there. There are blind painters. My blind buddy said the one thing he always wanted to do but would never be able to was fly a plane. That weekend we were at the flight school letting him experience this bucket list activity that wasn’t really all that hard to do blind. So if all content is accessible we don’t have to decide what someone would or would not want to do based on their vision.
DrillInstructorJan 2 points 2y ago
I don't think anyone really wants to be hived off into some special event. Well, perhaps some people do, but I always think they should be discouraged from that. Having special events set up for you makes you feel good and special while the event is going on, but next week you'll be griping that nobody knows you and everyone who doesn't have your disability is distant and weird because of it. Youngsters often get into this mindset and it feels really good at the time, but in the longer term it's really self destructive. I've always pushed for integration especially at places like universities which are full of young people.

If you're putting on events that blind people just absolutely can't do (laser tag! photography classes!) then don't sweat it. It's not your problem. You don't have to not do that stuff simply because some people can't get involved. Wheelchair users exist, but people still do competitive 5K running races (and maybe a separate one for the wheelchair users). In the end, it's a disability, it disables me from doing things and that's my suckfest to handle. On the other hand, if you're doing more general stuff that anyone can do, then make reasonable accommodations. If you're doing some online thing, don't use software that's a nightmare from an accessibility point of view. If you're showing a film, make sure the AD is available. It often doesn't have to mean much. If I'm standing there looking lost as everyone goes from the reception area to the dinner table, say "hey, Jan, we're heading to dinner, want to take an elbow?" And I might say no thanks I'm fine, and that's okay too.

But don't try to fully-nerf the world. Especially at university, people need to be learning how to deal with reality, and the world is not always going to be perfectly set up.
yorkshirenation [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Have to say a massive thank you for such a helpful and instructive reply. Thank you.

You've given me a lot to think about and you've hit the nail on the head with what I was thinking. I don't want to make anything unaccessible but I don't want blind people to feel like they're having accommodations made that single them out.

I'm going to spend the day finding out more about AD and programmes for blind people. I'm sorry if I sound ignorant. I've never had to think about this before and that shows how out of touch I am.

Thanks so much again for your help. Have a great day!
nowwerecooking 1 points 2y ago
What kind of events/platforms are you planning to do?
FantasticGlove 1 points 2y ago
I am 100 percent against separating the blind and sighted people. Intigration is the key to true socialization. We are already different because we are blind and if people see blind people as weird or secluded, it will cause problems with socializing. Blind people can do a lot of things. We can play video games and DND and there are ways for people to have online groups with Zoom which works very well with screen readers. I hope this helps.
bradley22 2 points 2y ago
Me too.
achromatic_03 1 points 2y ago
I would say to do what you can to be inclusive with the activities so that people of all abilities can participate.

However, even though I don't live in California, the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind has some great virtual programming going on right now (like yoga and tech advice), and it's pretty open to everyone if they have zoom. You could put out a resource guide for that community so they have options. If you have inclusive opportunities with the University, but also have other options and resources, that's the best of both worlds.
Winnmark 0 points 2y ago
Accidentally read it as "orgasming", it would be a *very* different post.
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