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The Basics

Why might Blind How … The Basics interest you?

 

• You can’t see and are looking for some tips and suggestions for how to do what you want to do.

 

• You spend time with someone who can’t see and want some tips and suggestions for how to be more helpful.

 

• You are curious about how people who can’t see are able to do what they do.

 

• You want to know more about what people who can’t see can do to succeed in a world where most everyone else can see.

 

• You want to start with the basics, tips for folks who don’t know much of anything about how to live a full life without being able to see.

 

• You want to expand your understanding gradually to include more opportunities and options for doing whatever you hope to do, when you can’t see.

 

If I tell you that I am blind, what comes to mind? Now if I simply tell you that I can’t see, how does the picture in your mind’s eye change? Likely the change is significant.

 

The point is that telling someone that I’m blind seems to bring to mind a mixed bag of ideas and emotions about what that means in general and about me specifically. For the most part, people think about what I can’t do, causing them to feel sorry for me. Of course, not everyone is so limited in their understanding, but most are.

 

If instead I tell them that I can’t see, people are frequently not sure what to do or what to say. This is good news for me. They are then focused on what they should say or do next and not on ideas and notions they have about blind people that may be true, but often aren’t true for me – or for most blind people for that matter.

 

In Blind How … The Basics, I share tips about things I have done and can do. If you or someone you know can’t see, the tips may be helpful. If you can see, they may help you get a better handle when hanging out with people who can’t see. I hope the tips and discussion also help you be slower to pre-judge what people can and cannot do just because they can’t see.

 

If that has us in sync with the purpose of Blind How … The Basics and how it works, let’s get on with it.