An Article on Disparity in Disabilities by a Deaf Woman

I just read this article from a website on deafness. In it, a woman argues that many deaf people have an “us vs. them” mentality because “the hearing world” tries to turn them into “normal” people by requiring speech therapy and lip reading, not allowing kids to learn sign language and by continually trying to [...]

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Thoughts on Assistance

In chapter 8 of Self-Esteem and Adjusting with Blindness, Tuttle writes in the third paragraph about independence. Here, he writes about several attitudes sighted people may have when offering help to a blind person, and about reactions blind people may display when help is offered.
Sighted People’s Attitudes
1. The Fearful Avoider: It’s hard to say if [...]

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A Cold and Lots of Homework

I have a very bad cold! Started yesterday but now is worse. *Sigh* I also have a headache. By the way, no pain in my eyes so far.
Pfff, have a lot of work to do. Project on British Idealism and a bunch of Dutch writng assignments. Blegh! But yeah, has to be done huh?
Astrid

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Thoughts on Passing and “Partial” Disabilities

I found this great essay by a woman with paralysed legs, and, even though I have a different disability from hers, I recognise a lot in what she writes. Her resistance to seeing her disability sounds familiar. How often I’ve screamed to my parents or teachers that I’m not blind! And often it’s been [...]

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Reflections on “Low Vision Classes”

I said I’d talk about “low vision classes”. Well, I had them in fourth grade. Initially, I din’t attend them, but in November I myself asked about them. Somehow, I was permitted to attend them. My first “lesson” was on December 5, 1995. I can still clearly remember the teacher: she was an older woman [...]

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Elementary School Teachers’ Perspectives on My Blindness

As far as I know, the teachers at my first school for the visually impaired in Rotterdam (grades 1-3), had few objections to me being visually oriented. In my first year, I used large print just like most other students. When I started learning Braille, a special teacher had to come to teach it to [...]

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Thoughts about Acknowledging and Grieving over Vision Loss

What, exactly, caused me to grieve my recent vision loss? I don’t know if it’s normal with my eye condition, but my sight has decreased gradually even in the times between my complications (1993, 1994, 1998 and 2004). Then, why, am I especially feeling bad about this recent vision loss, while I’ve lost much of [...]

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Confessions about Denial and Dreaming of Improvement in Sight

According to Tuttle, trauma is often followed by shock, in which state a common defense machanism is denial. About this, he writes the following:

Denial can demonstrate itself in at least two forms of denial, either of which can be partial or full (VanderKolk, 1981). The first is a disbelief, a refusal to acknowledge, a [...]

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Thoughts on Trauma and Blindness According to Tuttle

In chapter seven of Self-Esteem and Adjusting with Blindness, the adjusting process of blind persons is discussed. Phase one is what is called “trauma”. I don’t like that term, for it seems pitiful, but it is what it is: the onset of, or awareness thereof, a particular serious physical or social problem, in this case [...]

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Reflections on Attitudes about Blindness

In Self-Esteem and Adjusting with Blindness, Dean Tuttle lists several attitudes the sighted can have regarding the blind, and how these affect relationships and ther blind person’s self-esteem.
1. The “It”: It’s rare that people really have treated me like an “it”, but it has occurred. Too often, strangers will approach y sister or mother when [...]

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