This week I would like to propose three ideas for your delectation. If you find none of them delectable, we will be in serious trouble. However, you have not let me down yet!
First, I thought it might be of interest to explore our experiences with books that feature blind people. My experience suggests that literature has contributed some to the attitude of society to those of us who are blind. How are we depicted? What are the worst depictions you remember? Have there been any good ones? What would make a depiction good! You can talk about TV shows or movies, if you like! My real intention is to talk about how we are perceived by those who get rich writing about us!
Second, Easter is coming along fairly early this year! What customs do you follow? Do you do Easter eggs? What special stuff do you eat? Would you like to talk about Passover instead? What about Ash Wednesday and Good Friday?
Third and hopefully last, I want to begin to look at another element of non-verbal communication. We are going to do a whole show relatively soon. I want to explore blind people and pictures. As a child I saw lots of pictures particularly in books produced by the Royal National Institute for the Blind as it was then. I was remarkably unimpressed with them. My friend Brian Charlson shamed me by being able to identify pictures of different animals that were tactile drawings shown at a convention we attended together! He lost his sight at eleven, I think. Can we do more to make pictures accessible to people who are blind? Is it worth the effort? Can people born blind benefit much? How would we explain such things as perspective? How do paintings that are flat convey three dimensions? We need to at least understand what we don't know if we are to decide whether we want to know it or not!
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