BLIND COMMUNITY/BLINDNESS

BLIND COMMUNITY/BLINDNESS

Blind Community/Blindness
Introduction
A blind person is an individual whose visual acuity in reference to the better eye is <3/60. This problem ranges from the young to the old (Gilbert, 2001). When a person is blind and goes to an organization of the blind there certain things he expects; they expect to be issued with services and skills that will help him or her to read better which is made possible with the help of optic aids, as others want to be helped with their mobility or also with areas like eating, dressing or housekeeping. Others require just medical assistance. The personal belief that the blind have concerning their physical deprivation is hugely contrasting with what those working for the blind think. The blind see that blindness as one of the worst disability that one could possibly have; they see it as an everlasting condition which has no cure, it is pervasive and complex to ameliorate.
The workers of the blind have a belief that if these conditions are to be solved effectively, then one has to be more than willing to understand his or her nature and be ready to commit oneself to the psychological process one is in to. The workers of the blind must be on the fore front to convince him or her that the practices and ideas about solving ones problems are quite unrealistic. The belief of their problems hinders one to be able to solve the main issues underneath; similarly to an iceberg which is the floating mass and covers the large mass of water underneath. The client is well advised.
When plans are formulated to try and help the blind, the views they personally hold concerning their nature is ignored. The blind people who are taken up in a help organization will come into contact with workers who attentively follow the views given to them by the blind but assume them as not correct or overzealous. The option to leave is not a choice as they have got no other option open to them.
There are some behaviors among the blind that display a certain desire among the blind, more so among the blind; there are marked impairment behaviors which are non verbal like an eye-to-eye gaze, posture of the body and gestures that regulate the posture of the body. Such behaviors may vary from person to person as some display varied forms of interest through the posture of the body while others don’t.
There certain blind persons that possess the non-autistic behavior while others display the autistic form. The autistic behaviour is where the person uses his hands or his or her expressions to pass information while similarly; non autistic is the use of expressions and the posture of the body to pass information. In non-autistic; there are certain relationships that may happen but after a long period of time, they display a form of curiosity by asking questions, they display a pleasant form of social interaction which is noted from their smile (Pawletko and Rocissano, 2000). They do seek to share information and experiences with other persons as seen from the children. Their language is fast developed, even with a delayed MR, they attempt to try and communicate by themselves, their conversational skills advance in a normal range. They do possess the pronominal reversals characteristics which are normally for a short period of time; this is normally in sighted children.
Speaking in relation to children, they tend to develop imitative play, which is where they imitate others as they do, but as they grow older they begin developing role plays. The interests relating to the blind children are some what restricted as compared to the sighted children. Their level of flexibility is quite commendable as they are normally engaged in exercises which keep their body fit. Their attempt to show direction may lead to poking or rocking. Finally, their preoccupation with objects is quite noticeable.
On the other hand, the autistic persons display a contrasting behaviour from their non-autistic partners. They display no form of peer relationships or if there it is distorted. Their level of curiosity is lower in comparison to the non-autistic. Their level of interest in the social arena is limited; if any is present they only do it in their own terms. The blind autistic more so in children, do not understand the social trend of life which is all about give and take, they additionally portray an aspect that results to treating others as objects. Their language, in contrast to the non-autistic may never develop, if present, it is only echolalic.
When one tries to communicate to them, they may most likely not respond, if in any case they do, they only discuss topics that are of perseverative form (Pawletko and Rocissano, 2000). Their pronominal reversal is normally of an extended period of time. Their pragmatic is quite inappropriate, in the sense that they reply to things that are out of concept to what is put across. Their initiative to play is at a level that is not appropriate as they may distort objects in the process. Their level of interest is restricted, higher than the non-autistic, as they engage in a limited number of activities. In instances where an adult wants to join in an activity, he or she finds it difficult. Even in the interruption of a certain activity the person is met with a heightened resistance. The autistic persons tend to be non-flexible more so when one attempts to change an activity to another one which he (the person), finds interesting. Their behaviour in relation to motors is extreme, which is, the rolling of the head, head flap, or rocking of the foot. Finally, they are highly resistant to changes.
Many blind people spend most of their time creating crafts or in art work. They enjoy creating things from what they feel, hear or touch. The arts and crafts work created most definitely or most of the time does present their thoughts through drawings and music. As a culture, the blind find it quite interesting to teach others how to read and write using the Braille technique.
As common tendency, the blind do rock back and forth when they are seated and even when they are standing. This does communicate a lot; either anxiety, discomfort or otherwise the desire of something among others. Blind children, do often press their eyes using their hands as an attempt to put across information. As a way of stimulating oneself, they always try and seek alternatives of doing so; this however does vary depending on the location and age of the person. Exercise is also a valuable tool which is common to the blind, as this will maintain their physical fitness.
The blind are faced with the problem of language barrier as they are not able to read printed documents. They face issues like miss-information as a result; this is easily solved buy the application of Braille which is renowned form of communication among the blind. Braille is a technique which involves raised dots on the texts which make it easier for the blind to use their hands to read the texts. This technique can also be produced personally if in possession of the right software, experienced training and in possession of an embosser. There is additionally, software that can transform the information on the computer into the brailled form, the blind can hence use the keyboard and print the needed document as needed.
When it comes to reading, the moon is a technique applied which involves the use of tactile symbols on lines and curves which are applied in the representation of letters, numbers and punctuation. In the listening aspect, cassettes, come in handy, as they can record and also listen to information. The use of mouth is obviously most common of all of the forms of communication. Facial expressions are however not common among the blind, as they rarely use them to put forth their thoughts.
The behaviors attributed by the blind in accomplishing a task are quite different from the able person; there are some networks which are applied to help them in mastering such skills an instance is the Iris Network. The blind in order to fit properly in the world as we know it are advised to follow some rules which will make it easier for them; they are advised to put on clothes that are non-blending colors when they are moving about especially in congested areas which will make them stand out from the rest and they will easily be noticed by the other people.
The blind are also encouraged to be in possession of white canes which will guide them successfully as they move in towns, markets, streets among other places (Jamioe & Berry, 2006). This will also let the visually-able persons notice them and help in their activities of moving about or accessing certain places difficult to them. The sticks are in additionally more preferred if they were longer, as this is worldly known as a sign of visual impairment. People will therefore not be in situations where they ignore them or bump into them in their daily chores.
The aspect of using dogs is not that worldly used, but it is a better form of rule which the blind can put to application. The dog, a must best friend, has a good sense of directions and is preferred when moving around in far and twisted turns. This can only be done by certain dogs as others are not well trained for certain things like crossing the roads, some run in the traffic and may be miss-directing at times. Such dogs always put on jackets which will more clearly state their roles and task to the owner.
There are some patterns of the visually impaired persons that are worth noting according to a study performed by the Field initiated Research in 1996. The study was mainly done on children. The following research was discovered; the tendency of the visual impairments varied in reference to the severity of any additional disability. The ethnic group of the visually disordered person varied according to the ethnic sub group one belongs to. According to the study, most of the African-Americans varied according to the Hispanics which was much higher and lesser than the mixed ethnic groups (Ferrell, 2004). The Hispanic visually impaired persons had lower mean gestation births as compared to other ethnic groups. The clients who suffer from albinism or other structural disabilities tend to improve their vision over a period of time, while the persons who had retinopathy of prematurity, optic nerve hypoplasia and anophthalmia were more likely not to improve their visual impairment over time. This aspect of limited performance by the congenitally blinded persons is elaborate gesture that there is a lack of visualization.
The patterns displayed by the blind community vary in their educational experience as well as perception of things (Heller, 2005). The patterns displayed in the naming of tactile pictures, from the results of a research, are quite diverse. The late blind persons displayed a heightened haptic skill as well as the advantage of a prior experience with the pictures. In comparison to their congenitally blind counterparts, they displayed a poor performance in the naming of the objects well as their tangibility. This complexity in naming of objects and pictures is a show that there is a limited ability or even none at all, to perception of patterns in the right manner.
There congenitally blind persons had the ability to know or understand certain aspects of the drawings made considering that they had no familiarity with them. Speaking in relation to the feeling of objects, the congenitally blind had the best form of feeling objects, when the reference is made to the late blind, they possessed a heightened benefit of determine any slight distort in objects and the shape it composed of. This made the congenitally blind persons as far more advantageous in the determination of objects, even better than the sighted people when blind folded.
There has been some research advanced which tries to portray differently the notion that the congenitally blind person contrast highly with the late blind and sighted ones in their limited or totally no visual experience in addition to lacking in their visual imagery.
When in the presence of blind person there are certain important rituals that one has to take into consideration (C., 2004). An instance is when entering a room one has to state his or her presence like saying “hello” this will keep the visually impaired person abreast of what is going on around him making him or her fell secure, similarly when one leaves room simple rituals like saying “goodbye”
There are several challenges being faced by the blind community. The challenges vary from place to place depending on the action the blind person performs. The blind persons do not have any health insurance as from the services based on the state, this places them at a high risk of not getting the preferred treatment taking into consideration that they are the most vulnerable members of the society. They constantly cross the roads with no assistance from the other sighted partners who walk by them. People tend to ignore their plight considering them as cursed members of the society, this mostly happens in societies that are not well versed with the handling of the blind person.
The ones beneficial enough to acquire or access the health insurance arte not able to meet their daily medication as need be. The equipments that they use are also not catered for, considering the fact that they use them for their mobility and their daily errands in the society. Their daily relying on the public transport is a difficult issue, considering the fact that they have to keep themselves active in their jobs or their daily visit to the doctor. It is not all of them that do have assists who lead them to their required destinations. Most of their helpers also do have to keep themselves busy with other things that will develop their lives similarly.
Conclusion
The rituals, patterns, behaviors as well as the beliefs about the blind ought to be considered when one handles the blind community. They do too possess feelings and ought to be helped in their daily activities; some of them do not like one being pitiful to them so a prior knowledge of them is better.

References
C., B. (2004). Developmentally Appropriate Orientation and Mobility. Retrieved on 25th April 2011 from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~edin/Resources/modules/om/1/session_files/handouts/OM1_HandoutE_meeting-a-child-with-VI.pdf
Ferrell, K. A. (2004). A Longitudinal Study of Development Study of Children who are Visually Impaired. Retrieved on 25th April 2011 from http://www.unco.edu/ncssd/research/PRISM/ExecSumm.pdf
Gilbert, C. (2001). New Issues in Child Blindness. Community Eye Health . Retrieved on 25th April 2011 from http://www.cehjournal.org/0953-6833/14/jceh_14_40_053.html
Heller Morton et al (2005). Pattern Perception and Pictures for the Blind. Retrieved on 26th April 2011 from http://www.uv.es/revispsi/articulos1.05/11-HELLER.pdf
Jamioe, P., & B. C. (2006). The Blind and Visually Impaired. Retrieved on 25th April 2011 from http://www.who.int/ncd/vision2020_actionplan/documents/Newissuesinchildhoodblindness.PDF
Pawletko Terese and Rocissano Lorraine (2000). Examples of Symptom Presentation in Blind/Autistic Children in Contrast to Blind/Non-Autistic Children a la DSM-IV Criteria. Retrieved on 26th April 2011 from http://www.tsbvi.edu/component/content/article/64/1713-examples-of-symptom-presentation-in-blindautistic-children-in-contrast-to-blindnon-autistic-children-a-la-dsm-iv-criteria

Latest Assignments