The Hostage Negotiation of the Front-Facing Camera

[cosmolinguist]

I can see a little, so I do care a lot about light and contrast and things, so I'm not in the exact situation that a Blind online acquaintance describes here, but so much of this resonates with me. Especially as we're under increasing pressure to have cameras-on internal meetings at work.

"I am an unwilling cameraman, shooting an obscure documentary about my own face" resonated so hard with me!

My own parents are the even worse about this, though. As per entries passim, I talk to them every week. The only comment I've heard them make about my visual appearance is excessively unkind to say the least if not overtly transphobic, so it's not as if I'm motivated to share my face with them. Yet recently when my webcam was broken for a couple of weeks, my mom could barely carry on a conversation because of how distracted she was by this.

And her language is so telling. It's not "We can't see you" it's "We don't have you." It makes me feel so trapped -- pinned, like a bug in a collection.

It's the same as Robert describes his friend: ""Oh, You're gone! Where did you go?" I don't go anywhere! My mom says "Are you there???" even while I'm already talking. Like he says, " I didn’t go anywhere. I am right here. I did not teleport. I am still in the same spot I was just a few seconds ago."

My new webcam is a nightmare. It doesn't even show my whole head on the screen if I have the monitor as close to me as I otherwise went it. It has way too high a resolution: I've never seen all my facial features this sharply, and I'm very distressed to start now!

Being able to see a little means I am aware of how I look, and you know how people hate the sound of their own voice on recordings because that's not how it sounds to them? I feel like that about seeing myself on video calls. (I actually mostly love the way my voice sounds on recordings, heh.)

Comments

[angelofthenorth]

How can they justify cameras on internal meetings in an organisation that is about the welfare of Blind People?!

[otter]

One of the things I appreciate about the mentoring program I work for, is that cameras and even speaking are optional. We do encourage people to have cameras on for introductions. Quite often, I'll visit a breakout room on our zoom call and see someone's camera pointed at a wall, or their foot, or just dark. We've had several folks who prefer to interact by typing rather than speaking. It works. It's enough.

[steorra]

It really is an astounding lack of perspective-taking for sighted people not to realize that seeing your conversation partner is unlikely to be an important point to blind people. I can kinda understand people being a bit clueless and not realizing it until it's pointed out, but that it's common for people to insist that they need to see you even after you point it out ... really, people, think a little bit.

Also, it's not like sighted people don't have experience of audio-only calls! Why does it become so important at certain times?

I like video sometimes. I like to be able to see people's facial expressions. But it's not essential. (And sometimes it's easier to do a audio-only call, if I want to be able to move around and not be tied to a camera.)

[diffrentcolours]

We can get you another webcam more like your old one with a wider angle, if you like? This is a problem we can solve for under £100 :)