by Mike Rosen | Mar 1, 2014 | Rosen, Tactile Graphics
In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m an engineer. There it is; right up front; out of the closet. Among other quirks and peculiarities, this means that I tend to look at things schematically. I like words and they generally like me, but my bias is that if I can render an idea as a diagram, I feel more certain that it has some validity. Maybe this is not surprising, given that my company, E.A.S.Y. LLC, is inventing and marketing tactile drawing tools for blind people and people with low vision. But that’s a topic for another time. And so to the point. If there is one theme heard and echoed at virtually every NFB Convention my company partners and I (all sighted) have attended, national and affiliate, it’s captured in this simple assertion: a frequent obstacle to the development of independence in young blind people is low expectations. We hear this again and again, an NFB mantra. Phrases like “Let me do that for you” or “You’ll need help with that” or worst, “You won’t be able to do this” – this sort of spoken or demonstrated expectation of failure is an almost physical barrier to growth. Well OK; sounds plausible. But how to integrate this with my mental graphic of what I have witnessed, for example, in the development of my own (sighted) children and now grandchildren. My diagram had looked like a circle. A the top, the youngster takes a courageous gamble and tries something new – riding a two-wheeler for example. A one skinned knee later, to her surprise, she’s riding without Dad holding on....
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