Re: Do you feel excluded?
Man, another great post! I completely agree with everything you wrote. Yes, there's an inherent desire to want to be a part of society, what with certain generations setting the trend for popular culture and such. More power to you if you can ignore it and develop your own trends in what you deem popular, but more and more people flock to new technology, innovations, and especially those incorporating a social aspect. It is a bit disheartening when some groups are excluded because of its nature to be a certain way. Ok. Another thing, maybe along the same lines, is interaction with people who are not blind. I first want to say that I am going to show a bit of my vulnerability by stating what follows. Also, I want to emphasize that I in no way have had difficulty interacting with non-blind people. However, that being said, it is also disheartening when I, as a software professional, am trying very hard to communicate with people at a workplace, only to be ignored at times. At least, that's how I perceive it.
For example, the other day, I was working on addressing a bug, and someone had a question that I knew I would have been able to answer simply because it was the very thing I was working on, and a coworker immediately resorted to asking another coworker of mine for their input. The coworker who was being asked sits right next to me! lol And of course, me being a shy, but assertive person when appropriate, put myself out there and proceeded to provide my input as well. I wasn't being intrusive about it. I just commented with what I believe to have been a really good response. Then, the coworker who asked the question simply said something along the lines of, "Uh-Huh, thank you." I returned to my work. However, the coworker that asked his question proceeded to verify the response he received from the coworker that sits next to me, seemingly disregarding my contribution altogether. After that, I became a bit sad because I felt like I wasn't being valued. Perhaps there are other factors at play. but it is my belief that this kind of thing happening can be attributed to the fact that I am blind. Perhaps lack of eye contact might make me seem incompetent. Oh, and I want to point out that I'm the only blind person in the office. And this isn't the first time it's happened to me. I know it's not too big a deal, and I do get over it. It doesn't mean I don't get upset when it happens. Similar situations have arisen like that in meetings too, leading to the whole exclusion concept. And sometimes, I do get discouraged from contributing. Although, I will say, I do get praised quite often for doing great work. But moments like those are very discouraging.
Sorry, I think I used the word "coworker" too much in that example, but it's late, and I wanted to type this up before sleeping. lol I just wanted to provide a small example of what I feel in my life could be considered being excluded from something. I guess I'm both glad and saddened that there are others who can relate to some of what I go through.
Oh, and I wanted to add that in the example, or in general, it's not that I don't provide eye contact. I definitely turn in the direction of the person when they're talking and try my best. But as a totally blind person, it's rather difficult to achieve full and direct eye contact, especially since I never really had vision before. Well, technically I have, but that's another story. lol
-- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
