It can be hard to grasp how different speech is for someone who has always been blind compared with someone who has always been sighted, when both are referred to simply as speech.
The vast majority of people who live with low vision or blindness lose sight in middle or later life. The great change in the speech they now receive; the loss of massive additions from sight, gets buried among all the other losses, and how to interact with people who see well is rarely discussed in education or training. This is a big hole in what people who lose sight are offered!
Everyone who lives with blindness or low vision has to speak up to people who see well and have never thought about not seeing.
They assume we are receiving all their visual cues and visual indicators; nodding, smiling, pointing, eye contact. “Sign on the screen,” “your bag is over there.” “Tap on the red button.”
All of us need to know how to manage social interactions without seeing the incoming visual cues, which are such an important part of communication especially at the beginning of interactions.
We need to know how to speak up to get what we need, to have a chat to a neighbor passing by, and first of all find out who we are talking to!
I am working on a short curriculum and practice book, Companion to my award-winning book, When You Can’t Believe Your Eyes: Vision Loss and Personal Recovery.
There are plenty of people new or fairly new to vision loss who want to understand why talking to people who see well has become awkward or down-right distressing. I am working with 4 groups to find the essentials for a practice book short and long curriculums for teachers and coordinators.
The good solutions I got from instructing clients in weekly classes called “Interpersonal Skills” at the Carroll Center for about 12 years showed me ways to manage speak up skills well, individually or in a group or class with discussion and role-playing.
Comment below and tell me what you want to hear more about with Speak Up Skills!
Award-winning book: When You Can’t Believe Your Eyes: Vision Loss and Personal Recovery (2019) Charles C. Thomas. Available on Amazon print, NLS dbc 11619, and Bookshare. Learn more.