After finishing our fun class project: Monsters on the Town, I proposed we do something more personal. I asked students questions: What is love? What is the meaning of life? What's the secret of happiness? The big concept questions answered by kids. Everyone was self-conscious and I didn't very interesting responses. Even when I asked what it was like being blind, some didn't know how to respond. But once I got them talking about what they wished sighted people knew about them, they opened up.
When people find out I work out I work with blind students, they start talking about sign language. Yes, I took American Sign Language in college, but I don't use it at work. The students can't see. The students complain about the same misconception. People confuse blindness for deafness and raise their voices or assume they speak sign language.
My students wish everyone understood that blindness is a spectrum, that you can have vision and lose it. They want to know when you enter a room and when you leave a room. Don't try to quiz them on your voice; let them know who you are.
They get tired of hearing phrases like "here" when they're being handed something, and "over there" when they're trying to find something. They can't see you pointing. We used stop motion animation with the camera from the top much of the time--just moving flat pieces of craft foam and felt on a piece of paper.
Other times we used claymation figures with the camera in the front. But hopefully, it all came together in a coherent way that helps my students self-advocate. I want them to learn that art can be used for a good purpose to edify and inform. What We Wish Sighted People Knew
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