Some Thoughts for Eye Thinkers

Word Press is misbehaving again. What else is new. My comment on this post isn't posting. Well, this post is good enough to deserve two links (one in the Link Log):

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/09/01/elsa-s-henry-on-teaching-disabled-representation-in-fiction/

I have astigmatism--actually better than average long, short, and middle-range vision for whatever age I've been, all my life, but my eyes don't focus quickly. Glasses to correct astigmatism have to be specially made, are expensive, take some time to get used to, and may even reduce visual acuity at some distances; I've been able to spare myself that burden.

Instead I've carried the burden, throughout life, of being able to see someone's face clearly just when their face is registering that I've missed some sort of facial tic that they intended to mean something, and so they've written me off, forever, as hostile, stupid, insensitive, or all of the above. Not everyone in the world does this, and visual thinkers usually deny that they do it--but they do it.

Most of my close real-world friends have had some sort of visual impairment. They're not hung up on how fast my eyes focus; they don't necessarily even see that. Most of them aren't blind, can drive and can enjoy colors, but they

* wear glasses
* and/or are blind on one side
* and/or would have been blind on one side without an eye transplant
* and/or are nearsighted or farsighted
* and/or have astigmatism like me.

And we haaate web sites where the point of a post is supposed to be made by a picture or video. (Amazon photo links shouldn't count; if they work properly they open a page of nice friendly words.)



Apart from that, most of us aren't considered disabled (I'm not), but there's always been a certain interest in physical disability issues, especially blindness.

And what I've written that's featured blind characters may have been fictionalized, but it's been written from fact.

I look forward to reading more from Elsa S. Henry.