Hierarchy

When I was a young girl, it seemed that those who were visually impaired had a status that blind people did not have. They were given more responsibilities, and could use their perceived or appointed "power" even as teen-agers to "torment" us. There should not be a hierarchy, but many visually impaired people like to "pass" and can "pass" as sighted people, for a while. However, many people who are visually impaired eventually lose a good portion of their sight, and still have to go through a grief process and finally accept whatever they are given. Many visually impaired or low-vision people do not learn Braille, and they probably should not learn it, since they will not use it. They should use whatever sight they possess to navigate and use their cane (usually a white folding cane) for identification but not for interacting with the physical environment. Of course, what is most troubling is the emotional/psychological problems are much, much worse than one would imagine even the physical scars. These leave invisible scars, and when they occur over and over again, it ads to the depression and isolation of blind people. Koraling Lynne