Greetings:
There can be many challenges to being visually impaired. It is unfortunate that one of them is not being understood. Having been involved in teaching, job coaching, recreation, Scouting, and other programs with the visually impaired (as well as being visually impaired myself), I noticed a lot of misunderstanding and sometimes apprehension at times when blind children would enter youth groups or blind workers would enter the work place.
Talking with others, we thought it would be nice if there were a website people could be referred to if a blind student were to be entering their class/group or a blind worker was starting employment where their fellow classmates or workers could find some information out about the blind. Our hope is that would make everyone feel a little more comfortable in the situation.
This idea and much of this work came from a Boy Scout Troop at the Indiana School for the Blind when working on a disability awareness merit badge. As a group, we spent a number of meetings discussing what they thought the sighted world should know about blind people, what are some of the misconceptions they felt the world had about them, and what were some of the frustrations and challenges they felt.
This is a work in progress. We hope to provide some information that may help the sighted community feel a little more comfortable in dealing with visually impaired people. We hope to produce some resources for youth leaders who may be having visually impaired children joining their group. We are also planning on producing some powerpoint presentations and downloadable booklets for educating such groups.
Please remember this is only a perspective and nothing is going to hold true for all people. Everyone is an individual and we cannot break down thoughts and feelings for every visually impaired person or situation in the world any more than you could for every blond person, or tall person, etc. We don't pretend to be "the" voice of the blind.
We do hope to provide some insight, information and suggestions. We also welcome suggestions on what information would be helpful to provide or input from the visually impaired community. Thanks for visiting.
Gary L. Brockman
One big misconception in the sighted world is what is blindness? Check this page to find out what the term generally refers to.
We asked a group of about 20 blind youth and young people what they thought would be good for the world to know about blind people.
See a list of questions many blind have reported being asked over the years.
The new kid is blind... Some suggestions for adults who are receiving blind youth into their group.
The new employee is blind... Some suggestions for the workplace bringing in a blind employee.
Some common courtesy rules for being around the blind.
An introduction to basic orientation and mobility for the blind.
Paraphernalia- the tools and technology of the blind
Youth activities and integration- a few suggestions.
More information? Links to additional resources and learning.
