Our executive officer Kenneth Suratt often talks about “a common blind culture” and, I think he’s onto something. I’ve spoken to all sorts of blind people from Trinidad, of course, but beyond that I’ve talked to BVI people from diverse places ranging from the United States and Britain, to Indonesia, Vietnam and Mongolia, to Mozambique. I’ve found that many of us have similar cultural experiences.
Of course, I always say that the blind community isn’t a monolith. But in the same way everyone who lives in our twin islands is unique yet shares certain traits, like a broadly similar accent, eating the same foods and telling the same stories passed on from people that nobody remembers anymore, the blind community tends to share an overarching culture.
On the surface, one may wonder how could this be? The places I listed couldn’t be any more different. Even the UK and the US, the latter of which is an offshoot of the former, have subtle peculiarities of their own.
Interestingly, but also unfortunately, these common experiences are shaped, at least in part, by parenting; it seems like ableism is a widespread human trait.
Blind people the world over are forced into the same boxes. And, rather than being constrained to that box, we grow and mold it into a shape which works for us.
Let’s say an oval because ovals are cool.
But one day I was traveling to work, sitting in the maxi, and a school boy jumped in, smelling strong of powder. I then heard the sounds of people reaching into their purse, then the shuffle of them counting money and smelt the smell of perfume that’s much too strong, and I thought to myself, despite the world being so visual, we share so many sensory experiences.
I could easily say the smell of taxi or maxi in the morning and you’d find yourself there with me mentally.
Let me give you another example. I was describing a cake I was eating to some friends, and I described it like this:
“Ent you know them $5 cake in the bakery? And ent allyuh know how it does be dusty dusty in taste? And the ‘icening’ does kinda taste like paper?”
Everyone paused, looked at me in horror for describing it that way, but they immediately knew what I meant. I’m almost certain you also know what exactly I meant.
We’re so focused on the aesthetics that more often than not we ignore the other four senses, which in some ways can give you greater satisfaction than the eyes.
These shared sensory experiences can help bringing in your blind and visually impaired (BVI) people into the picture-centric world we live in. I have a low vision friend, and like me, she is very much into aesthetics. Our friend is blind but she’s also interested in the aesthetics of things.
When we’re telling her about the colour of a building, we don’t say navy blue or gamboge; none of those are helpful to a blind person, and in the case of the latter, nobody. We tell her “Suppligen blue” or “Corn Curls Orange.”
Somehow, it just clicks. Both for her and for us.
I talked a lot about smell so far but touch is also useful. Instead of struggling to describe a diagram or image, give them things in the shape of what you want to describe. A slice of pizza, sandwiches cut into quarters, or even a random stick blowing through the yard.
We complicate things sometimes to our detriment. Yes, 3D printing technology is cool and useful. Yes, it’s fun and creative to make Bristol board cut-outs, but why do all of that when little Bobby can think of what a triangle looks like every time he has a slice of pineapple pizza?
Nature is one of the best teachers out there, and the best part is Esperanto or English has nothing on it. Everyone understands it. Everyone speaks it. So why not enroll you and your BVI loved one in the class of 26?
You may be wondering why I started off talking about BVI culture then pivoted to shared sensory experiences. And I guess to the readership it may have been more interesting to talk about that common culture and, perhaps some day I will. But it’s far more important, I think, for us to recognize that there are more things that bind us together rather than make us peculiar and unique.
These common human experiences don’t belong to anybody in particular; we all share in them, whether we like it or not. Hence, why not use that to our advantage?
This column is supplied in conjunction with the T&T Blind Welfare Association
Headquarters: 118 Duke Street, Port of Spain, Trinidad
Email: ttbwa1914@gmail.com
Phone: (868) 624-4675
WhatsApp: (868) 395-3086
