Snarky grump

[cosmolinguist]

"Things blind or partially sighted people wish sighted people knew..." goes the social media post.

The third comment is already from the parent of a blind child.

And of course it's saying "my child can do anything a sighted person can do!"

Yeah. Including grow up with a lot of ableist thought patterns, which is what I did in that environment.

When I went back later, it was a whole thread. Full of stuff like "nothing will stop my VI grandson!"

Okay I hope he can get a job or benefits, I hope he can get a bus or a train!

I know we're still fighting the same misconceptions that were old when I was young, that if the default assumption is that blind people can't do things it's an improvement to say we can. I just wish there was a bit more nuance and less defensiveness, less evidence that the adults in the situation have accepted the ableist premise of society and are still defining success as "exactly the same as a sighted person."

I dunno. Maybe I was just seeing this in the middle of an incredibly busy and kind of demoralizing work day, maybe I'm just projecting from my own visually inspired childhood.

But if nothing else, the question was what blind and partially sighted people want sighted people to know. Can we not have one social media thread without sighted people immediately butting in?