Blind by association

Just read a short article by Damon Rose, who apparently edits a BBC disability web newsletter http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/columnists/damon/020206.shtml

I found the writing irritating, however I do understand something of his feelings and have had not dissimilar reactions when apparently associated with either “the stereotype” or with the behaviour of an individual blind person.

The article was telling a story of a blind man who, while shopping for clothes with his wife, apparently began to undress in the midst of the shop rather than use the changing room. I rather liked the picture that it conjured up, wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had such a low degree of self-consciousness. The inference is that the guy had such poor spatial and self-awareness that he didn’t know where he was.

The article writer was (I thought) slightly too perturbed by it and clearly worried that he too might be expected to undress next time he is in Gap.

I don’t want to disassociate myself from the embarrassment wholly though, I find myself irritated by this guy’s teenage tantrum style of writing, but I too can feel embarrassed at what I worry might be assumed of me because of the behaviour, lifestyle… whatever, of other blind people.

There is of course a societal dimension to this. Blind people have traditionally been kept out of the way in special schools, colleges, residential homes, workplaces (or types of work), social activities – in many ways, those less advantaged blind people still are and I think that it is those groups that give weight to the stereotype. For those of us who aren’t or hope that we’re not like that stereotype, what’s the embarrassment about? I think it’s about non-acceptance of our own blindness, these people who are on the edge, who don’t really seem like they are very aware of the world represent the thing we most hate in ourselves – blindness.

It’s the same at special schools, far from being places of support, mutual understanding, learning how to be “blind and strong” they are places where there are strong hierarchies of sightedness, even amongst totally blind people there’s a hierarchy of mobility (spatial awareness, confidence, training really).

It would be nice if we were all so used to seeing disabled people around, that the strange behaviour of one had no impact upon the external or internal expectations of others. It worries me most though when people like this guy who wrote the article unselfconsciously have such a big reaction to it without wondering where he is in the picture.

Which is more embarrassing I wonder, being associated with someone who (apparently) accidentally drops his trousers in public, or some loud mouthed over-self-conscious little guy having a tantrum in public. I know which of these two I’d rather be associated with.