Tag Archives: blindness

By the pricking of my thumbs something wicked this way comes

As a child I attended several boarding schools for blind children. During this time I shared a number of dormatories with boys most of who’s names I can still remember! The first dormitory I can recollect had wooden floors with only small mats by each bed onto which we boys could step when dressing or undressing. Despite the huge old radiators my memory is of shivering with cold while dressing in the frosty winter mornings. Oh happy days!

Being boys we regailed one another with all kinds of stories after the lights had been switched off and we should have been in the land of dreams. Among these where stories of ghosts and ghouls. I well remember some clever soul (I think it may have been me but I can’t be sure at this distance in time) regailing his fellow dorm dwellers with a story of a boy who returned from the toilet only to find that the school had been boarded up and that he was trapped inside the building with all kinds of ghosts and ghouls. All this story telling was fine until one of us wanted to leave the room to use the toilet only to find ourselves scared half to death to go alone. What ghastly creatures lurked in the passage outside our dormitory god only knew!

I believe that my interest in ghost stories stems from my early school days. Even now I can feel cold shivers run down my spine when I read or hear a ghost story.

I am an agnostic and keep an open mind as to whether anything beyond the purely material world exists. However, irrespective of whether god or something god-like exists I continue to find ghost stories a great source of enjoyment.

Thus far I have written one ghost story, There are More Things in Heaven and Earth (http://newauthoronline.com/2013/03/17/there-are-more-things-in-heaven-and-earth/). In the story Michael,a devout atheist (now theirs a contradiction in terms if ever there was one) decides to sleep in the chamber of an old house in which a Victorian serving maid hanged herself. The result is tragic with Michael being found dead the following day.

The story suggests that Michael saw something unspeakable which brought on a massive heart attack. However the sceptic will no doubt argue that people can work themselves up to such a state of fear and/or excitement that they bring about their own demise. The imagination is an extremely powerful thing and I can recollect lying in bed at school listening to creaking floor boards and cooling pipes and being at least half convinced that unearthly forces where abroad.

I’m off to bed now to dream what I hope will be dreams lacking in ghosts and ghouls!

Kevin

Tales of the Unexpected

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I have for so long as I can remember enjoyed stories with unexpected endings. As a child growing up in Liverpool I watched ITV’s Tales of the Unexpected (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Unexpected_%28TV_series%29). Each episode featured a different tale all of which ended unexpectedly.

Tales of the Unexpected was in the back of my mind when I wrote Sting in the Tail (http://newauthoronline.com/2013/03/16/sting-in-the-tail/). In the story a highly educated and charming fraudster meets his match in the most unexpected manner in the form of a blind girl, Laura. The fraudster makes the fatal mistake of perceiving Laura as a poor disabled woman who poses no threat, indeed he determines not to defraud her as stealing from a blind woman is a step to far even for a hard bitten criminal such as him. The fraudster’s fatal mistake is to assume that disability equals intellectual inferiority rendering Laura a helpless victim who he, in a rare moment of conscience determines not to exploit.

Sting in the Tail is above all a story who’s aim as with all stories is to provide enjoyment to the reader, however, as a registered blind person I am also interested to explore how people can, quite erroneously conflate disability with what used to be known as feeble mindedness. As the fraudster finds to his chagrin in Sting in the Tail this is a costly error!

Change for Change’s Sake

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Yesterday evening as I browsed through the books on my bookshelves I was struck by the beauty of the hard back titles. The Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) used to provide books either in soft paper covers or, alternatively in what they described as cloth . boards. I am of the view that books are long term friends so purchased the hard back versions. Sadly RNIB no longer offer cloth bound volumes so the blind person wishing to purchase titles has Hobsons choice (they must like or lump the soft cover books sold by the Institute).

The hard cover books feel permanent and possess a wonderful scent wholly lacking in their soft bound alternatives. It is a real pleasure to take down Wuthering Heights in it’s cloth boards not only because it is a marvellous story but also due to the volumes being a pleasure to handle. They feel as though they where made to last and the braille protected as it is by the robust covers remains easy to read unlike some of my paper bound books. Where I to be a sighted person I would purchase hard backs in preference to paperbacks as they exude a sense of permanence and dare one say it stability.

As I browsed my books my mind wandered and I began to ponder the issue of permanence more generally. On occasions it seems as though we are, as a society obsessed with the ephemeral. Next time you are on public transport witness the number of people who are engrossed in madly texting rather than reading a book. Some of these texts are no doubt important, however especially with teenagers one suspects that many are wholly inane and are being sent to people whom the teen has only just left. Again the constant checking of Facebook fosters a view of the world in which nothing is permanent, things change constantly and one must always be moving forward on a roller coaster from one exciting post to another.

To sit down with a book is in contrast an experience to be savoured. With a good book one must concentrate and yes sometimes struggle. However the pleasure to be derived from comprehending a complicated plot or a difficult subject does (in my view) outweigh the shallow pleasures which eminate from the obsessive use of social media. In time (a very short time) most of the posts on Facebook will be forgotten, however Emily Brontae, Charles Dickens and other great writers will remain as proof that there is more to the world than a vapid ever shifting obsession with change for change’s sake.

I hope that I am not turning into an old fogey before my time!

Kevin

Cyborg?

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I became blind at 18 months old. My blindness is as a result of a blood clot on the brain (it could have killed me or rendered me severely mentally impaired, however, fortunately the clot only caused the loss of my sight). Although I am registered blind I possess some residual vision. I can see outlines of objects and I put the lights on when it gets dark as light helps me to avoid colliding with objects. As a child I was taught how to use a white cane however, as an adult I rely on my Labrador/retriever cross, Trigger for mobility when travelling outside.

Being blind I was interested to read an article in today’s Daily Mail (9 February) regarding the development of a bionic eye which possesses the potential to enable some visually impaired people to see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275981/The-blind-soon-science-soon-market-high-tech-cyborg-eye.html#axzz2KOAWg0Do. The article is worth a read despite the terrible typographical errors! However I am not about to put Trigger out to grass (or whatever one does with retired guide dogs)! The causes of blindness are complex and not all of them are amenable to treatment. For those for whom the bionic eye works it is, obviously a wonderful and liberating invention but for many other visually impaired people this invention is of academic interest only. We will continue to live and enjoy our lives as unenhanced humans, no bionic eyes for us.

(Kevin Morris is a writer. For his collection of short stories, The First Time please visit the Kindle store on amazon.com or amazon.co.uk).

Does he take sugar?

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I am registered blind and live alone in London. I frequently shop independently (the shop assistants locate the items I require and I pay using either card or cash). I am, almost always unaccompanied on shopping trips, consequently the interaction is purely between myself and the shop assistant.

I spent the Christmas festivities visiting my mum and her partner in Liverpool. While there I visited a branch of W H Smiths and purchased a book, as a Christmas present for my sister. I paid for the item using my debit card and given that the transaction was between myself and the sales assistant I was surprised when she attempted to hand my receipt to my mum! My mum is non-disabled so I can only assume that the assistant felt more comfortable interacting with a non-disabled rather than a disabled person. The incident was resolved with the assistant handing the receipt to me (my mum refused to take it and I continued to hold out my hand)!

Having experienced similar incidents I’m able to see the funny side and my mum and I laughed about it afterwards. Had I been alone the assistant would have had no alternative other than to hand the receipt to me, however due to the presence of a non-disabled individual she automatically attempted to pass the paperwork to that person rather than the rightful recipient, yours truly!

On the whole attitudes towards people with disabilities have (and continue) to improve in the UK. In 1995 the Disability Discrimination Act came into force outlawing discrimination against people with disabilities in the fields of employment and service provision. The legislation has been strengthened since 1995 and has been superceeded by the Equalities Act. However despite the implementation of legislation and greatly improved social attitudes people with disabilities such as myself continue to encounter misunderstanding and, on occasions prejudice as is exemplified by my experience in purchasing a book in W H Smiths. What is the solution? Greater integration of disabled people into mainstream society is vital. As a child I attended several schools for visually impaired children and it was only on attending university that I entered mainstream education. Today greater numbers of children with disabilities are being educated with their non-disabled peers. The exposure of non-disabled children to those who are disabled is to be welcomed and will assist in enhancing understanding, however the incident in Smiths demonstrates that more education is required.

(Kevin Morris is a writer. For his latest book, The First Time” please visit https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/the-first-time-by-kevin-morris-availible-at-waterstones-for-only-0-98/).

Jaws (but not the shark)!

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I am registered blind which in my case means that I’m not able to read print. I can, however see outlines of objects and I turn the lights on when it is dark otherwise I tend to bang into things! I’m often asked by people who are unfamiliar with visual impairment how I access technology, consequently I thought that the below post might be of interest to people who have had no (or very limited contact) with blind and partially sighted people.

My Sony Vio laptop is equipped with software called Jaws which interprets what is on my PC’s screen and reads it back to me in speech and braille. I don’t use a mouse but rely on keyboard shortcuts some of which are unique to users of the Jaws software. For example in order to bring up a list of links on a webpage I press insert f7. This key combination produces a list of links which I can cursor through. When Jaws reads a link which I wish to activate I press the return/enter key to select it and Jaws reads the webpage. Again in order to bring up a list of headings the Jaws user activates insert F7. He/she is then able to cursor through the list of headings displayed on the webpage. As a child I was taught to touch type using a quirty keyboard which has stood me in good stead when using computers.

The world of technology can be a frustrating one for users of screenreading software such as Jaws. For instance many captchas (the visual puzzles which the PC user must solve in order to send contact forms etc) are inaccessible to Jaws and similar software. Jaws sees an image which it is unable to interpret. Ah there are audible captchas I hear you say. Indeed there are, however many of these are virtually impossible to solve due to the background noise which distorts the words being read. Again some sites do not even employ audio alternatives to visual captchas meaning that visually impaired computer users either give up in frustration or are forced to rely on the assistance of family and friends.

There is a very useful Firefox plug-in known as Webvisum which is designed to make the lives of visually impaired Firefox users much easier. One particularly useful feature of Webvisum is the ability to send a captcha electronically and have it solved. This isn’t 100 percent effective, however it does, in my experience work in the majority of instances. I’ve no idea how the Webvisum plug-in performs this magic trick but it is certainly a godsend for me and other visually impaired people.

One of my passions in life is reading. As a child I devoured braille books and spent hours listening to talking books provided by the RNIB’s Talking Book Library. The problem with braille books is that they are very bulky (The New Oxford Book of English Verse is comprised of 10 braille volumes and takes up quite a bit of space on my bookshelves). In addition only a tiny percentage of books produced in print are available to readers of braille. Talking Books are wonderful but, again only a comparatively small amount of the books available to readers of print make it onto this format.

The introduction of Amazon’s keyboard Kindle has greatly enhanced the ability of the visually impaired to access the same books as their non visually impaired family and friends. By activating the Kindle’s text to speech facility it is possible to have the latest crime thriller read aloud to you.

While things are by no means perfect from the point of view of blind technology users the advent of access software and it’s incorporation into mainstream products such as Apple’s I-Pad (Voiceover) continues to enhance the lives of the visually impaired.

(For my online novel, Samantha please visit https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/samantha-part-1/. For my book, The Girl At The Bus Stop And Other Erotic Short Stories, available on Amazon in the Kindle Store please see https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/my-books/.