Dealing with Prejudice

Whether it is at work or in school, discrimination and prejudice will always follow those that are different.

Prejudice in Schools

Children often lack empathy and understanding for the different. Too often do we see kids picked on because they dress differently, act differently, talk differently and all other reason. The taunting, bullying, and teasing becomes part of the school routine. So all of it makes living with stargardt's that much harder. Afterall, it's bad enough havingto overcome the hardships of being visually impaired in this sighted world. It makes it that much crappier to be picked on and isolated by other kids who wants to be cool at other people's expense.


Unfortunately, this is the realiity of human being. Curtesy, respect, and understanding is a learned trait that links to maturity. Which just means that if you are different, there will always be people who will try to make you a target.

Work and prejudice

As we get older, the prejudice becomes less obvious. There is no doubt in my mind that there is still alot of discrimination towards the visually impaired. Except most of it is unseen, so no one gets in trouble.
Take work for example, I've gone through countless interviews which I can pretty much say, IF I WASN'T legaglly blind, I would hae gotten the job. Reality is, employers are still hesitant to hire someone that is "disabled" given that they have similar experiences and background. Of course no emploer would dare to come out and say, "i didn't hire you because of your sight", after all no one wants to be sued, but it doesn't mean the thought goes away. The only want out of this is to hope taht you meet an employer who will not judge you by anything more than your experiences.


So waht can you do? Not much besides be the best you can be. It's always been my philosophy that "we cannot control other's actions, the only thing we can change is ourselves" So if you are doing waht you can do, forget about those who are narrow minded, because if you are good at what you do, you will find your success and a place that appreciates your talents one day!

Useful Tool for Microsoft Windows

For those of you that do not know, Microsoft Windows (since Windows 95) had an imbeded function in all their systems. It's a program called "magnifier" If you look above, you will see a screenshot of what the program looks like. It's a strip of window that magnifies whereever your mouse points to.

How do I open the program? Where is it?

Simply go to you Start menu --> all program --> Accessories--> Accessibility -- > Magnifier

Or you cna goto Run... type in "magnify" click OK and it should call the ptrogram as well.

Magnifier with you mouse?

In certain MIcrosoft Model mouse, there is a special function that you can set one of your mouse buttons to act as a floating "magnifying card". This can be very useful because you would be able to open and close the magnifier glass with the touch of a button.

So which model has this helpful function? Look for Microsoft mice that has the "magnifier" function listed on its description. If it's not listed, it doesn't have it! For a list of products that include this function, go to the Microsoft sotre and search for magnifier. Or you can follow the link below to see.

http://store.microsoft.com/search.aspx?q=magnifier

You are as the world sees you? Or are you?

There's two sides to every story. And the same applies to identity. On the one hand you have "the way you are perceived or labeled as" and on the flip side there is "the way you see yourself to be".
Labels You may wear.The world treats you as you are labelled. People usually act nicer when you show that you are disabled. Sometimes its out of pity, sometimes out of generous gesture, but often its just because they don't know how else to act. They judge based on these labels they put on you. The truth is irrelevant, you are treated by the label you are given, so when they see you as a blind disabled person, they will treat you differently than a normal sighted person. Don't be stubborn and try to change these labels, accept them as how the world is and learn to take advantage of people's generousity. If help is available, why not make good use of it?
Who you really are...Understand that just because you may be labelled a certain way doesn't define your character and who you really are. There is no shame in having a disability, although it sometimes may not feel like that. Be confident about who you are and odn't let anyone tell you otherwise. When you are confident about yourself and comfortable in your own skin, you worry less about what others think.

Perhaps I am only able to say thsi after going through some soul searching and finding my place. It's a process of self-discovery but even if you are just starting to understand, remember this... "believe in yourself, you are unique and you don't have to be who people think you are"

I can't look straight anymore

One of the issues I've been struggling with recently is the fact that my eyes seem to not be looking straight anymore. The loss of my central vision is causing me to use my peripheral vision and as a result my iris seems to be looking in the direction slightly left or right of the object I would be look at.

This is causing some inconvenineces especially when talking to people. It used to be that I can get away with not telling people about my vision considition. But now its gotten worst, it's sometimes hard to "act normal".

I considered surgery, that is until I found out that its not my muscle that is causing the problem, its simply the fact that I cannot see in the central part of my vision. It was until recently, when I went into the eye doctors that I realized how off my eye is. I didn't reazlie I had lost most of the central vision since everytime i look straigh my eyes jsut automatically adjust and focus. It wasn't until I was doing an eye exam that when they told me to stare at the dot in the middle of the circle that I realized when they asked me to look straight, I moved my eyes around and eventually hitting the blindspot where its in the centre yet I can't see the dot anymore.

I'm not sure if this is omething I simply have to deal with or if there's a way of adapting and working around the situation. A friend suggested focusing on the blind spot and you will know you are looking straight. However, I am having trouble since my vision naturally shifts to focus and see. I'd love to hear others ideas of ways you have learned to overcome this challenge.

Accessibility in Life

As a visually impaired person, if I had to go out in the world without any aids, it is rather difficult to survive very comfortably. Our ability to adapt relies on a keen sense of memorization to details about our surroundings. Now imagine if we were put in a completely new situation/place, our ability to survive comfortably is very limited since the world around us is not very acessible.

Whether its road signs, building numbers, restaurant menus, grocery store labels, or even a simple price tag in any store, we are unable to see. All of which has one commonality and its the fact that I cannot see without outside aid. Sure thereis nothing wrong with asking for directions or help, but if it came down to how accessible these thigns are to a person with visual impairment, bottom line would be its inaccessible.

I would have to say the two worst things are menus in a restaurant, price tag in any stores. I mena really, do price tag need to be that small, wha'ts the harm in just up-ing the size of the font by one or two pouints, it would make everyone's life so much easier (even senior citizens) You have no idea how much I struggle with looking at the price of a piece of clothing or a product.

The world of the sighted can be a difficult place to live in. It is only recently that Toronto has began taking notice about the inaccessibility of our city. Like I mentioned, the transit system finally decided to implement a system wide upgrade in its stop annoucement program. We put the beeping sounds into the pedestrian crossing trafic signs.

Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go in order to make life more accessible. Whether its online or offline, I look forward to a more accessible environment in the near future.