{"id":130,"date":"2017-05-30T22:33:25","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T02:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mendingmisconceptions.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2017-05-30T22:33:25","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T02:33:25","slug":"mending-misconceptions-2-do-blind-people-count-their-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/?p=130","title":{"rendered":"Mending Misconceptions #2: Do Blind People Count Their Steps?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day during some point in my high school career, I was walking to the Vision Resource room (the place where vision and mobility teachers<\/a> work). As I walked down the hall, a group of boys were standing in front of the door so I ended up walking past it. I could always tell which was the right room because it had double doors And. I realized that I’d passed it because there  was a long stretch of wall after it.<\/p>\n

So, when I realized this, I turned back. This time the guys noticed me and as they moved out of my way, one of them was like:<\/p>\n

“Yo, move outta her way. You messing her up, she’s trying to count her steps.”<\/p>\n

I sometimes respond to people talking about me as though I’m an object, rather than a person. But this was not one of those times. Instead, I.  just laughed softly as I walked into the room. I think that’s the first time I’d had that experience, of someone assuming that I, and consequently all blind people counted their steps.<\/p>\n

A more recent instance of people assuming this happened about two weeks ago. I was on my way to my third day of training for my job when a construction worker stopped me. I was about to walk onto whatever they were working on  so he offered to assist me to the corner and, consequently, around the site.<\/p>\n

The guy grabbed my arm, and I had to correct him asking politely if I could instead hold his arm (I’ll write a post on how to properly guide a blind person in the future).<\/p>\n

But anyway, after correcting the guiding position, we setoff. As we walked, he told me what street we were approaching. I made some sound of acknowledgement and he responded, in a very stereotypical Brooklyn accent:<\/p>\n

“So, you counting your steps or what?”<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I don’t do it. And I don’t think I know anyone that does.<\/p>\n

It’s so inconsistent. Like, one day it may take you ten exuberant steps to walk from your home to the store. But fifteen slow, dragging ones as a reflection of the dreary weather.<\/p>\n

Now, this isn’t to say that no blind person counts their steps, some people may. But it’s a silly generalization.<\/p>\n

Now, some people may, subconsciously know how many steps are in their room, or how many steps it takes to get from one room to another. But I think that’s getting into memorization\/familiar territory. I’m sure many Sighteds can get around their own homes with their eyes closed, and without counting their steps..<\/p>\n

In case your interested here’s <\/a>a link to the first mended misconception, on our supposed extrasensory ability.<\/p>\n

And here’s<\/a> another link to a surprisingly accurate WikiHow article on interacting with blind people..with photos (I know you Sighteds like like those).<\/p>\n

Happy reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One day during some point in my high school career, I was walking to the Vision Resource room (the place where vision and mobility teachers work). As I walked down the hall, a group of boys were standing in front of the door so I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mending-misconceptions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilymordaunt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}