Monday, March 22, 1998
Report gives fifth-grader insight
into life as blind person
BY DEBORAH KENDRICK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Kristy Rausch is a fifth-grader who has to do a report on, as she puts it, ''The Blind and Braille.''
Kristy wrote me a lovely letter, asking me to respond to some questions. Kristy writes:
1. Is it hard to get around outside or pretty easy?
Getting around outside when you can't see depends on a number of other things. If there are sidewalks or easy paths to follow and you have made a picture in your head of which way to go and when to turn, it can be pretty easy.
Because blind people can't see the path that lies ahead, we use other tools to do this for us. One kind is a long cane. This acts as an extension of your arm - reaching out beyond where your feet are to ''see'' if there are manholes or bicycles or cracks in the sidewalk coming up.
A guide dog does the same thing, really, except that it lets you walk much faster, takes you around ordinary obstacles, and you have to tell it when to turn right or left.
Finding your way around in a strange place can be tricky, but many blind people love being outside.
2. How do you get to work?
After we know how to use the cane or dog, we still can't drive cars. Most of us use buses, taxis or car pool with others.
3. How do you usually get around to other places?
See Nos. 1 and 2.
4. How do you think Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille, changed the world?
The ability to read and write - whether you do it in print or in Braille - is the key to much of what we value as civilized people. Whether you're just curling up with a good book or reading the encyclopedia to learn more about Abraham Lincoln, Braille lets you read and then write your own thoughts in exactly the same way print does.
Louis Braille's system of reading with the fingertips has led to generations of blind children being educated alongside their seeing friends; it has enabled adults to hold jobs, run households and surf the Web.
5. Do you think it would be easier for someone who is born blind to read Braille, or for someone who goes blind at a later time to learn to read Braille?
I learned Braille in the first grade and it was very easy for me. Some people learn Braille when they are 50 or 60 (or even 80) and still find it pretty easy, while others learn as teen-agers and find it difficult.
With a good teacher, I think anyone can learn the basics.
6. Do people make fun of you because you're visually impaired or not, and why do you think visually impaired people might get made fun of?
If people do make fun of blind or other disabled people, it's because they don't feel important themselves. They think putting someone else down will put them up. Or they are afraid of someone who is different.
Meanness is meanness and not a popular trait. Sometimes, though, we laugh at ourselves - because having a disability and the situations it gets you into can really be very funny.
Actually, Kristy, it hurts to be made fun of, but it hurts more to be left out of the fun. Don't forget your friends with disabilities next time you plan a party - and don't forget to write the report in your own words.
Deborah Kendrick, a Cincinnati free-lance writer, is a nationally recognized advocate for people with disabilities. Write: Deborah Kendrick, Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; e-mail: 71340.473@compuserve.com.
KENDRICK ARCHIVE
