[bksvol-discuss] Re: OT: infant cataract surgery
- From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 03:25:48 -0500
Dear Cindy,
Since they were both born with very limited sight, I think some of their
surgeries didn't help, but did no harm. They got some improvement and
stopped when told their eyes had too much scar tissue to be tampered with
any more. Both remained legally blind, but could read print for fun with 5x
magnification in addition to their glasses, and both could travel without
falling, as I did, or reaching out to see what was around them. Each of them
primarily used one eye for seeing, but did see something, I can't imagine
what, enough that it helped them to navigate with the weaker eye. Neither
used a cane.
It's strange but true that even the people you live with all of your life
can't grasp a level of vision lower than their own. Even though I was
literally constantly going around with scrapes, bumps and bruises, so much
so that new doctors often raised the subject, gently, if I was abused. I did
worlds better with my guide dog only falling 3 times in the 9 years she made
walking feel safe and even fun.
Without her, I just stay put. I'm beyond the point of shrugging off travel
battle scars.
There I go, again, meandering away from my point which is that my parents
were ashamed of me when I began using a cane in seventh grade. Until the end
of his life my father would tell me to look at this and that out of the car
window. I could never see a jot of what he was talking about, but my mother
finally convinced me to make appropriate remarks as if I was seeing the
thing for the sake of family harmony.
My mother got to love my guide dog immediately. Everyone who liked dogs
loved her. But, she would plead with me to leave her at home when she was
out with me. She really believed that blind people who had guide dogs were
the ones who were seeking attention from strangers!!! I caved in out of what
I believe was love, not weakness. I valued my mother too much to cause her
embarrassment or give up all of the wonderful things about being close to
her to make my point. We lived 50 miles apart for most of the years I had
Ivy Rose, so my girl was with me about 97 per cent of the time.
I've finally concluded that it's truly impossible for people who haven't
lived with very little or no vision to truly grasp the way blind people
interact with the world. I don't blame them and realize their will always be
a need to educate, educate, educate. My mind set is to want to like people.
If my own father couldn't figure it out, how can the majority of people who
have little or no contact with blind people? I'm so much happier noticing
what people do right, and the interesting and different aspects of them I
can't imagine is how anyone could be bored!
Oh, and Cindy, for the most part it is difficult for adults, even those who
lose their vision to read braille nearly as fast by touch as you read
print. You may have read about how our brains absorb new information more
rapidly at some times in our lives than others. For children with fairly
average learning ability, learning to read braille in first grade is as easy
as learning to read print is for little, sighted, six year olds. One
research paper I read concluded that an adult above the age of 35, was very
successful to be able to learn braille by touch at 40 words per minute. At
that rate, reading for pleasure isn't really a pleasure. Those adults mostly
read braille for quick notes, phone numbers labels, or other tasks of few
words.
You might compare learning to read by touch with learning a new language.
Kids who learn 2 languages when they are very young are usually more fluent
at both than an adult who starts learning as a mature adult. I know there
are exceptions, but this is a general observation about learning stages and
curves.
Most people who use braille in volunteering to work with blind people, read
it by sight. When I was teaching, my city had a devoted, group of volunteer
braillists whose work was plentiful and accurate to a fault. They copied
textbooks word by word and fiction books at my request for our school
collection of braille books for the students.
You accomplish so much with the kind of volunteer work you do for us on
behalf of book share. Learning braille would be extremely time consuming.
The rules you must master to become certified to transcribe braille are
numerous and the whole skill demands lots of practice and accuracy.
Just think. every book you scan or validate can be magically turned in to
braille by book share's brilliant software, so why copy books word by word
making only one copy when you can scan page by page resulting in as many
copies of the book in braille as there are blind readers who want to read
them?
I'm not trying to convince you not to learn braille. It's just a big
project, and from my selfish standpoint as a person who downloads most of my
books from the collection to read in braille, I am very happy every time you
add a new book or help someone with scanning issues to make corrections or
additions so they can add books.
Always With Love,
Lissi
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cindy" <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 2:07 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: OT: infant cataract surgery
Lissi,
Thanks for the explanation of the difference between
adult and pediatric cataracts. My heart bled, though,
when I read about your experience. Did your brother's
and mother's surgeries go o.k.?
Cindy
---
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