Re: frustrated with blindness (read post if you want context)
@74
The problem with training is twofold, but what you're seeing here is specifically problems with the NFB. There's a lot of history there, but the short version is that the NFB did a lot of advocacy in the 80s and 90s, and as part of that it had to be "blind people are independent", and now it's almost ableist "if you're blind, you should never ask for help" extremism.The other problem is schools and organizations which have liability concerns. There's the safe way to do everything, and the effective way to do everything, but no one can teach the effective way because the effective way is generally dangerous-ish at the beginning and no one wants to take that risk. For an example of this, my favorite thing to complain about is how blind people are taught to use knives. It's almost universally you get a fork and you put your left hand waaaay at the top of the fork and then you do this complicated thing with using the fork as a guide. You know what sighted people do? Fuck the fork, and grip the food in a specific way that's not super dangerous for your knuckles, then have at it. You know where all 10 fingers are when I chop stuff? Within 2 inches or less of the blade. But no one will teach you that kind of thing, because you could lose a finger during training, then lawsuit/bad publicity etc etc etc.
The problem with blind people training blind people is that the trainee needs to have a basic level of competence first. A lot of O&M requires being able to see the trainee for safety purposes. If they're at the point where you can trust that the trainee isn't going to get hurt, that opens up options. Same thing with e.g. the above about knives, lots of other things. Tell someone to use a knife how I do, and if you can't see they've got their thumb in the wrong place, then they've lost a thumb.
I think how this goes for most of us is that we learn the safe way, then develop efficiency on our own.
Agree with this, and some of the posts since my last post concerning asking for help. I do think in a lot of cases it would be best if the blind would train the blind, but if your family fights you, it's kind of hard to force your way into a situation and force to help. I'm not saying you always have to be sympathetic to a situation, but maybe a little compassion wouldn't kill you, because driven independents doesn't help in all cases either...
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