No One Is What They Lack
THE TRIGGER
The hands on the clock already displayed
a quarter past twelve of a Saturday night
when suddenly, the telephone rang.
"I just arrived. I am with my friend at Colón
and Patricias Streets waiting for you, guys!”
told us Yesenia –who, by the pitch of her
voice, left evident her tremendous
enthusiasm to see us. She wanted us to join
them soon to meet her treasured friend,
whom she had met in High School.
It took us just a matter of a few minutes to
reach the location. That night, our friend
Yesenia was accompanied by a person that
mean a lot to her: Gisela Soledad Ruiz, a
29-year-old blind lady, who with a beautiful
smile drawn in her face was standing next
to her and held by her arm.
We greeted and introduced one another
with warm hugs. Yesenia had already told
us a little bit about Gisela before, and she
had expressed her desire to introduce her to
us.
Luckily, there was instant congeniality, and
Gisela´s special charm made the
conversation easier for us since it allowed
us to keep an open talk. Afterwards, we
walked down the street following our path
to a nearby pub to have some drinks and to
relax a little bit in a more comfortable
environment.
As time went by, we started to build trust
between us so we asked Gisela the most
diverse questions we could think of, always
bearing in mind not to hurt her feelings.
Maybe, we think now, this careful
behaviour could have been partly in
response to a sort of natural reaction. After
all, none of us had ever spent so many
hours with a person with a visual disability
before.
To our surprise, Gisela always showed us a
big smile, and that simple gesture was a
clear signal that she felt comfortable with
us, and that she was predisposed to solve
our concerns in the best possible way.
When the time of coming back home had
come, we realized that the description
Yesenia provided us of Gisela, could not
have been more accurate. From our first
interaction with this young woman, we
concluded that Gisela is a persistent,
independent, competent, completely
inspiring person, full of dreams and
ambitions to reach, as anyone of us indeed.
At only 29, Gisela has already achieved a
great deal of personal and professional
achievements, and she keeps on going. The
most outstanding part about Gisela, is that
at the same time, she also tries her best to
overcome several obstacles every day
because of the blindness that accompanies
her since the day she was born.
The conversation that we had with Gisela
was so enjoyable that night that we spoke
1
for hours. It made us realize that we take
things that we already have for granted, but
it also helped us become more aware of the
several difficulties that visually impaired
and blind people have to deal with on a
daily basis. A simple mundane task that we
do without much thought could prove to be
an aggravating task to someone who is
blind or visually impaired. Although we
know of these ailments, we as a society
decide not to speak about it because of the
complexity or sensitivity that comes with
the topic.
According to the American Foundation for
the Blind, in terms of the degree of visual
limitation, it is usual to distinguish between
blind people and people with visual
impairment. Those belonging to the first
group are the ones who are not able to get
the information through the visual channel
due to the complete loss of the sense of
sight. Unlike the ones in the first group,
people with visual impairment are able to
get partial information through this channel,
because they suffer a partial loss of their
sight.
In turn, within the group of people with
visual impairment there are various
manifestations, which are determined
according to the type of limitation, either by
acuity or by visual field. This classification
using just the acuity and visual field is not
exhaustive, but it broadly serves to draw a
distinction between the most frequent types
of visual impairment.
According to the figures published by the
World Health Organization, it is estimated
that around 285 million people suffer from
some type of visual disability in the world,
at least 39 million people are blind and 246
have low vision. Among the main causes of
visual impairment worldwide are:
uncorrected refractive errors (myopia,
hyperopia or astigmatism), 43% non-
operated cataracts, 33% and glaucoma, 2 %.
A curious fact is that 80% of all visual
disabilities can be avoided or cured; the
problem is that around 90% of people with
this condition live in developing countries,
so access to treatments is not available to
everyone.
Visual impairment can limit people in the
performance of their daily tasks and affect
their quality of life, as well as their
possibilities of interaction with the world
around them. For this reason, good quality
rehabilitation allows people with different
degrees of visual disability to enjoy life,
achieve their goals and participate actively
and productively in society.
Even though people with disabilities
represent a minority in our country, it is
also true that, they are among the most
vulnerable people since they tend to suffer
from social and cultural rejection. This
scenario demonstrates to us the weaknesses
that we all, as a society have nowadays, and
the things we should work together to
improve or to revert this situation. At least
2
by trying our best to modify our behaviour
to make a small but significant contribution.
To exemplify how they can be mistreated
by society, we will share a brief experience
that one of our friends lived a month ago.
One afternoon, while Hector was chatting
with a friend outside a well-known bar in
Colón Street, he saw that a blind boy sat
outside this place waiting to be seen. He
was alone and carrying a cane as support.
Curiously, since this boy had arrived, the
waiter had been free and standing at the
door of this pub and had seen him come and
sit. However, with no intent to serve him,
he looked inside the bar or to the sides. As
some minutes had passed by, and the
situation remained the same, Hector
approached the waiter and let him know
that there was a blind man sitting waiting
for someone to serve him. The employee
pretended not to have noticed him and went
to take the customer‟s order. Distraction? It
really is a little doubtful, since the waiter
was not busy when this person came and sat
down; he was even standing outside the
door of the pub and had been watching him
there for a while. Indifference
discrimination? Or simply fear or lack of
knowledge regarding interaction with these
type of people? A mixture of all these
reasons? We honestly do not know, but
attitudes like these lead us to rethink our
values as people, actions that undoubtedly
each of us must also work on to improve as
a society. If we observe what happens
around us closely every day for just a few
minutes, we could realize
unfortunately and sadly, there are many
people who tend to avoid helping people
with visual disability when they are
crossing the street, in a shop, in an
institution or anywhere. The reasons may
range from indifference or lack of empathy,
stereotypes people may have on visually
impaired people‟s bad temper to the lack of
education regarding the way of interacting
with them.
On the other hand, and luckily, there are
also people who show empathy and
tolerance towards the problems visually
impaired people face in public. Every time
they help them cross the street, they do this
as a gesture of goodwill and in their own
way, to extend a hand when they see them
in complicated situations. However, in the
absence of knowledge as to the correct way
to address or interact with them, sometimes
those watching the blind or visually
impaired people will think twice before
doing so. They do not want to discomfort or
offend the person with visual disability.
Without going any further, we recently
or witnessed an awkward situation in the
university dining hall of the “Universidad
Nacional de Cuyo”.
A crowded midday at the university dining hall
that,
3
While queuing to buy the ticket, a blind boy
queued turning his back to the counter. In
an attempt to help him, the girl behind him,
took him by the arms and turned him
abruptly toward the front. A moment later,
one of the cashiers approached him to
accompany him to the line where you pick
up your tray and food and without speaking
or asking anything, took him by the arm
and led him as a little child. The behaviour
shown by these people reflects the clear
lack of education in terms of dealing with
people with visual disabilities.
A SOCIETAL NEED
This is why trough a brief survey first, we
decided to ask people their opinions
regarding the treatment of visually disabled
people according to their own experiences
and the need for education regarding this
issue. A total of 83 people were surveyed,
ranging from 20 to 45 years old. 91.7% of
them had dealt with blind people, of which,
a 37.7% considered they did not know how
to interact with them properly. Of those
people surveyed who had never interacted
with blind people, 97.7% of them expressed
their desire to do so. While many of them
had the opportunity to deal with people
with visual disability and others did not,
most of the groups agreed on two main
aspects. A 98.6% considered that they
should learn how to deal with them and
surprisingly everyone considered it
necessary to provide education in this
regard in public and private educational
establishments. Based on this data, we
conclude that the need to educate with
regard to this issue is real. We decided to
contact Gisela again, to get her opinion
given that she has been blind since she was
6 months old, which was caused by an
illness, called: “Leber Congenital
Amaurosis”. As she is also a psychologist,
we considered she could help us solve our
concerns and advise us on this issue. The
answer -without any hesitation- was an
absolute "yes". Gisela expressed great
interest and willingness in being of help. "It
is something that is talked about little," she
said. We arranged a second meeting, this
time for an interview in a more relaxing
atmosphere, which turned out to be a quiet
cafe in Mendoza‟s downtown. Gisela was
waiting for us at the meeting point when we
arrived. Upon hearing our voices, she
greeted each of us by our names, with an
excellent auditory recognition for having
met with us just once. Gisela showed the
same charisma and receptiveness she had
shown from our first meeting and, taken by
our arm, we set off for the cafe among
chatter and laughs. After having shared
some delicious cups of coffee, Gisela was
ready to begin with the interview.
THE TERMINOLOGY
Would you mind correcting the terms we
misuse? This was our initial question. It is
important to know which words we should
4
use to address people who happen to be Helen Keller School, located in Godoy
blind. Therefore, in order not to sound Cruz.
offensive or violent, we should always
consider the specialized terms that exist,
since even when trying to sound inclusive
or polite, we may be failing to be
respectful. “There is certain vocabulary that
we use incorrectly”, Gisela said. Qualifying
a person by the disability they may have is Helen Keller School in Godoy Cruz

never a good thing; it would certainly not

This school helps students who have
be correct to make use of the adjective in
problems with their sight by giving them
isolation –for instance just „blind‟- without
tools so they can live independently and
a noun. “To say a kid has a visual disability
communicate better, such as braille or
would be Ok, as this would better express
typewriting, among others. The school also
the idea of one of the characteristics of an
works together with teachers from ordinary
individual rather than their limitations”, she
schools to adapt their material, so they do
explained. Gisela added that there is no
not face any inconvenience in the
need to treat a blind person in any special
classroom. There, Mariela Farrando, a
way, not even when we introduce
professor who accepted to be interviewed
ourselves, since we can sometimes use
as a way of spreading knowledge and
unfortunate phrases like “Excuse me, don`t
overcoming ignorance, received us. When
you get me wrong, but, can I help you?”
we asked her about the terminology we
these words are, in a way, may sound
should implement in our vocabulary, she
derogatory to them. Gisela finishes her
told us that it is crucial that we refer to any
remark by referring to commonly used
person as what they are: people, “No one is
phrases, which even though we do not think
what they are not. No one is what they lack.
about as something wrong, they are. “Poor
I wouldn‟t say an apple is a non-banana,
thing or wretched thing”, are the phrases
that‟s completely ridiculous”, she said; so,
Gisela talks about. She thinks it is
the use of prefixes that negate, such as: un-,
necessary to raise awareness about the use
in-, dis-, or just the word not, like in the
of these phrases, since they can turn out to
following examples: non-sighted, not
be hurtful for a person‟s self-esteem.
normal, unable, incapable or uncommon, is
somewhat offensive. “If we may”, she said,
We decided that we needed a wider “We can talk about atypical people.”
perspective on the topic; so, we sought Likewise, we should avoid using the
professional help. We visited N. °2-006 famous expression: “person with special

5
abilities”, because it is incorrect since they
are like any of us.
Jim Omvig, touches upon the topic of the
terminology that is preferred “People who
cannot see are blind, and the word "blind"
is perfectly acceptable-in fact,
absolutely essential.” Throughout the article
called “Why Use the Word „Blind‟?”,
Omvig is opposed to the idea of using
pretentious vocabulary, such as, “visually
impaired", "visually limited", "visually
challenged", "unsighted", "sightless",
"sight-impaired", "low vision", or "hard-of-
seeing”. It is clear that there is not just one
opinion that encompasses what every blind
person feels comfortable with, in fact, we
are sure that we could find as many
opinions as there are blind
However, either people who suffer from
this disability and professionals of this field
agree on the proper use of the word blind as
long as it is followed by the person; as for
example: blind people, blind lady, blind
boy, etc. They also agreed on the use of the
structure “a person who suffers from
blindness”.
UNEQUAL TREATMENT
We could not avoid asking Gisela if she
had ever suffered any kind
discrimination. Her answer was a yes but
with the surprising fact that it happened to
her in the most unexpected area. She
remembers that back when she was in high
school, she had decided to study
psychology at university since it had been
her favourite subject. She knew from the
very beginning that it was her vocation.
However, paradoxically, a psychologist -
who would later become one of her
it is professors at university-, in a failed attempt
to help her, ended up provoking a great
depression in Gisela. "You‟ll be able to
study psychology and become a
psychologist but you‟ll only be able to work
with patients with visual disability. You
will have to do this because people should
not look down upon you, which will happen
if you try to work with people who are not
visually disabled. Your patients have to
address you with admiration, not feel sad
for you," said the professor, when giving a
people. panorama about the career and her
professional future. Gisela remembers sadly
that she came out crying and frustrated
from the interview. She also remembers
other people who warned her that she
would not have enough capacity to evaluate
patients since she could not see their
gestures or evaluate their drawings. After
these sad facts, depression led Gisela to
look for different professions related to the
social area with no success. None of them
convinced her. Finally, she did a vocational
test and after some sessions with another
psychologist, the doctor asked her: Do you
of
know how to speak? "Yes", Gisela replied.
Do you know how to listen? "Sure, too".
"Well, that's enough", said the psychologist.
Gisela remembers, on the verge of tears,
that her reaction was immediate: she left
6
her chair, stood up and went to enrol in the
Psychology pre-entrance course. Today,
besides having been the standard-bearer at
the University of Aconcagua, she has her
own office where she deals with patients of
all ages, with no disabilities and with
disabilities alike, with totally adapted and
efficient methods appliable to any of the
two groups for psychological evaluation.
Gisela as the standard-bearer at the University of
Aconcagua
Unequal treatment is perhaps one of the
most common attitudes in those people who
deal with people with disability; it can even
be common –as seen before- in professional
and specialized people. Gisela's excellent
and successful academic performance
demonstrates that visual impairment is not a
real obstacle. Rather, it is often a self-
imposed or externally imposed barrier. This
is the idea that is generally taken by people
without disabilities, because in their way of
perceiving reality with all of their senses,
they cannot conceive how something can be
done successfully with the lack of any of
the senses. However, Gisela like many
other people with visual disabilities from
birth, are not fully "aware" of their
disability, since the available senses
constitute the totality of their perception
ability. They learn how to interact with the
world around them perfectly, despite not
having the ability to see by using the other
human senses that they do have at their
disposal.
Regarding treatment, we also asked Gisela
whether she felt people treated her as an
equal or with some special treatment.
"Well, sometimes people give me special
treatment that I always try to raise
awareness about. It has happened to me
several times. One of them is when
someone grabs my hand and makes me
recognize things by the touch; “This is a
plate. This is a spoon”, they say for
example. And I can notice that they speak
very slowly, as though I were not able to
process information quickly. Another
annoying behaviour is when people address
you by speaking every word in a diminutive
way, like: “What's the name of mommy and
daddy?" Gisela laughs with a resigned
attitude. Another typical situation is when I
am accompanied by someone in the street
or at a restaurant for example, and the
person next to me is asked instead of me
"What is her name? Well, you can ask me
what my name is, I say to myself. And I
immediately answer outloud: My name is
Gisela; ask me, no problem. There is no
need at all to address a blind person through
a third party. "I know that I put them
somewhat in an uncomfortable situation,
but it is also a way of raising awareness
about it."
7
In these situations, it is without ill-will and
sometimes unavoidable that we sometimes
end up unconsciously diminishing the
person with visual disability and as a result,
it may even sound discriminatory towards
them even though that is not our intention.
Gisela is the clear example that people with
visual disabilities can be an equal to anyone
without any type of disability and can
achieve exactly the same goals we can. The
problem of unequal treatment maybe relies
on ourselves, –without noticing it- we
perceive a reality leaving out the rest. A
small curious fact that also comes in handy
to better understand just how small our
reality about these people is, is that besides
Maradona and Messi, Argentina has the
best blind football player in the world. His
name is Silvio Velo. He is the captain of the
Argentinian team, twice world champion
and four times runner-up. In addition, in
2017 he was named the best Paralympic
athlete in the world. Did you know that? A
true star, isn‟t he? Perhaps, his little fame
reflects in some way, that we only perceive
our reality, and that we are led to a wrong
way of thinking when we consider people
with disabilities to have more barriers and
obstacles than we do.
THE STIGMA AND THE
PROPER TREATMENT
“ Those who present visual impairment
have the reputation of being grumpy or
intolerable”, Gisela claims referring to the
blind people who tend to reject the help
offered by people, in a bad way, due to the
fact that they have reached enough
autonomy to move freely around on their
own. Gisela disagrees with this particular
behaviour, and in fact, every time she has
the chance, she tries to make some of her
friends reconsider such responses. Due to
these types of answers from her peers,
Gisela understands, to a large extent, the
generalization people tend to make about
their bad temper. She also analyses this
from her professional perspective: “It is a
myth that words do not do any real harm
and that they move along like the wind to
be forgotten. I can say that it is the exact
opposite; words can make permanent
imprints on our souls. That is why we have
to be really careful when using them.”
Gisela told us that, most of the times she
goes anywhere by herself, and she adds
that, luckily, there are many people who
demonstrate their support by using many of
the typical questions, such as: Do you need
some help? Would you like to take a sit?
Do you want us to help you to cross the
street? However, from her personal
experience she also adds that, of those
occasions, that she has gone alone
somewhere without the need of help, and
people without knowing this had offered
her their cooperation, rather than rejecting
it, she had accepted. She has shown them
her gratitude and appreciated their kind-
hearted intent in trying to help her. Firstly,
because she understands the concern people
show towards her; and secondly, to raise
awareness about the mistaken
8
generalization about the bad temper people
with visual disability show. Likewise, from
her professional point of view, this young
psychologist remarks that the bad-tempered
issue or the resentment is not derived from
the disability itself, but it has to do with
traits of everyone's personalities.
Apart from this popular belief, a large
majority of society hold that visually
disabled people are bad-tempered and
disrespectful, Gisela also affirms that, in
many situations, many people prefer to
walk away from people who present this
specific disability instead of giving them
their hand. Probably, there is a total lack of
knowledge regarding the proper way to
interact with them. Among the most typical
errors Gisela has detected in strangers, the
most common scene is when a stranger
approaches to help them, but does not even
introduce himself or herself first. This
person takes them by the arm rudely and
sometimes, she or he even tries to move
them to another place. As soon as we heard
these words, the picture of the blind boy at
the University dining hall immediately
came to our minds. Through the
explanation Gisela gave us, we put
ourselves in their shoes and imagined how
they must feel when people naively try to
assist them, but that person does not know
how to interact correctly in the situation.
“As you can imagine, these kinds of
situations obviously tend to immediately
result in both a sense of rejection and a
feeling of insecurity because we do not
know if they want to help us or steal
something from us.” Now that we rethink
and analyze how stressful the circumstance
of having a stranger move you around
without saying anything to you in detail,
and from the perspective of a blind person's
feeling, we completely agree with them.
Evidently, had any of us experienced
something similar, we for sure would have
felt exactly the same as well. In this sense,
we coincidently realized that all of the
answer given by Gisela and Mariela were
the same. Both of them said that there is no
need to treat blind people that way, and that
with talking to them, and at the same time
giving them a light tap on the shoulder is
more than enough as an indicator that we
are talking to them.
Gisela shares with us an experience:
“Precisely yesterday, it happened to me that
as I was waiting for the bus, I heard a
woman that asked: „Where are you going?‟
As she never approached me, nor did she
even touch me, I did not know she was
talking to me. So, as I did not say anything
to her, I heard that same woman say to
another: „It seems to me that she does not
hear either‟. I asked her quickly if she was
referring to me, and when she said „yes‟, I
apologized with her by explaining that I did
not know she was addressing to me.”,
Gisela tells us laughing. She also says that
occasionally, she has also been called as
“lady”. “I did not know which one of us
they were referring to.” Gisela remembers
laughing again. As a general
9
recommendation, Gisela reiterates that the
best way to make a blind person know that
we are talking to them is by calling them by
their names, or in case we do not know
them, we can give them a light touch on the
shoulder as we talk. Finally, asking them if
they need any help and how can we help
them.
What should be the proper way to proceed
when helping a person who is visually
disabled? Mariela Farrando, explained that
any time we approach a blind person, we
should introduce or identify ourselves, but
we never have to touch them before talking
to them first as many people tend to do.
Then, we can offer them our help, which
can be needed or not. She also explained
that what happens is that generally the blind
people who circulate alone by themselves
in public have gone through an important
process of training so that they can go
around anywhere without the need of
assistance from others. They would not be
alone had they not gone through this
training. However, they may need the help
of other pedestrians if they have lost their
sense of direction or if they need help in
crossing the street. If they require help, we
can offer them our arm or shoulder as to
guide them. They are the ones who have to
take us by our arm or shoulder, and not the
other way around. We must go before them,
and they are facing our back because in this
way we can guide them. Our body turns out
useful to them because with how we guide
them they can anticipate what is in front of
them, because, in a sense, we are like their
“eyes” and we see all that it is happening at
that moment. We are never supposed to
touch or grab their cane since it is a
personal tool for them. We can also offer
them some indications or warnings about
certain things. In this case, the word “stop”
always turns out to be much more
convenient than the common “careful” that
we all tend to tell them. The reason why I
say this is that if we only say, “be careful”,
they actually have no idea of what we are
referring to. They wonder what the obstacle
can be. Is the obstacle that put them in
danger coming from above, from below, a
dog, etc. We have to use accurate language
too. In fact, blind people force us to do so.
Terms such as “here” or “there”, by being
basically visual notions, should be replaced
by others such as: “on the right, on the left
side, go forward or go backward”. Space
orientations are always the ones that they
need the most in order to be orientated in
the street. Last but not least, Mariela
suggests grinning broadly: “And obviously,
we all should have the courage to meet
them and to talk to them. Bring ourselves to
ask them who they are, what their names
are, what they do, among other questions;
instead of repeating, “watch your step” all
the time.
INTEGRATION
Gisela also told us that, at age 7, she was
integrated into an ordinary school, called:
10
"República Oriental del Uruguay", located
in Las Heras. "Integration is an issue that
has been dealt with for several years and is
presently being developed even more. It
requires the child with disabilities to be
inserted in an environment where there are
children without disabilities so that he or
An integrative teacher working with a blind little girl
she can get on with all kinds of people."
Then, she adds: "Had I continued at Helen
In turn, the teacher was also in charge of
Keller School, maybe today I would not
adapting the study material, for example
have friends without visual disability and I
with Eva foam, corrugated cardboard,
would tend to always get together with
fabric paint, among other materials. “I
people with my condition. And the idea is
remember that they had adapted for me the
that the blind child grows and that at the
maps, the geometric bodies and I was even
same time, the people that are involved on a
diagrammed the digestive system with all
regular basis with that child begin to
the organs in braille”, she adds smiling.
incorporate how they themselves should
“When she took a test, the specialized
interact accordingly with a person who has
teacher had to transcribe the braille into
a disability. And this is done with all kinds
print so that the ordinary teacher could
of disabilities, not just with blindness."
correct it. As the specialized teacher
When she joined this new school where she
sometimes did not have enough time
used to attend the morning shift, she went
because of the number of students,
twice a week to the integration service at
sometimes she corrected my tests and in
Helen Keller School in the afternoons. In
those cases, it was my mother, who also
those integration sessions, she had a
knew braille, who transcribed them to
specialized teacher who focused on
manuscript. Because it was against school
integrative who gave her support lessons of
rules to take a test to my house so that my
what the rest of her classmates were
mom could transcribe them, you could not
learning as the educational level progressed
do that, but she was allowed to transcribe
and at the same time, the teacher went to
the homework”. At the Helen Keller school,
her normal educational establishment to
Gisela also learned typing, a tool she
dissipate other teachers‟ doubts.
considers to have taken full advantage of
starting from the time she was in college
and up to today which she is still using as
part of her profession, and as a personal
tool as well. Smiling, Gisela adds: “I write

11
with all the fingers of my hands. My fingers without discriminating. The inclusion of
cannot be seen when I type”. people with disabilities in the common
educational areas -which is approved by
law- is great progress in providing
awareness for students as well as a great
leap in the integration of people with
disabilities.

Gisela interacting with her friends in her social networks

EDUCATION WITH REGARD

Throughout her school education, Gisela
was the only student with a disability in the
TO DISABILITY
course where she studied. That is why the
specialized teacher was required. She talked When asking Gisela if she considered it
to the teachers; she talked to Gisela and
to be right to teach in schools about
also with her classmates. In fact, the first
disability and dealing with people who
day of classes at that school, this teacher
suffer from it, the answer made her opinion
gave a talk to her little classmates, aged 6
clear on the subject: "An emphatic huge and
and by using simple words, she tried to
absolute yes, in size 40 and in bold
explain to them how they could help her. - I
underlined", she laughed. As a result, we
remember that the first day of school my
also talked about the modern-day inclusion
teacher said: “Well guys, I want to tell you
of diverse groups of people, which
that you are going to have a classmate that
currently is a very hot topic in everyone's
cannot see because she has a little problem
mouth and for which these people struggle
in her eyes. You have to ask her if she
to attain new rights and which has also
wants to drink water or if she wants to go to
resulted in awareness raising being taught
the bathroom and you have to let her take
in schools. However, in this sense,
you by the arm. You have to play with her,
disability often remains in the background
and try to incorporate her into the games”,
and passes into oblivion. This lack of
Gisela remembers smiling. Then she adds
education and awareness is clearly reflected
that, at that moment, she felt really
in the nearly complete vandalization of the
comfortable because that very same day,
braille signage placed at bus stops in
everyone approached her to ask if she
Mendoza, after approving its
wanted to drink water or if she wanted to go
implementation in 2007. A fact that went
to the bathroom. Curiously, the majority of
almost unnoticed from its implementation
children seem to respond better than adults
until its almost complete disappearance and
to people with disabilities. Because of their
for which there were no transcending
innocence, they give equal treatment
demonstrations or claims. "I am sad by the
12
material and the time that people invested
in the design and the production of these
braille signage posts," says Gisela, feeling
more sorry for the people who cared
enough to make this inclusion initiative
than for the actual loss of the signs
themselves. This led us to ask Gisela about
awareness in ordinary schools regarding
disability in general terms, a subject in
which a 100% of the people surveyed in our
questionnaire agreed. "I think that I would
implement dynamic workshops instead of
adding new subjects" says Gisela. She also
mentions an important and not-so-known
fact: "From the Luis Braille Association
and the copyists center Santa Rosa de Lima
–both institutions work with
disability- both institutions go to schools to
provide workshops to raise awareness on
this issue"
Blind people working together at Santa Rosa de Lima centre
The methodology applied by
workshops consists in making people
experience what people with disability face
in their day-to-day life, using methods such
as eyes bandaging, the use of canes and
sorting out obstacles, among others. "I
would name them experiential workshops,"
Gisela proposes, adding that the main
objective of these workshops is to raise
awareness from an early age. Clearly, it
would be a breakthrough if these
workshops were to be offered to all schools
throughout the country so that students can
experience what a person with visual
impairment experiences at least once. Had
this been implemented before, the vandalic
acts may have not reached the point of
almost ending with all the braille signage
system at the bus stops. An awareness-
raising workshop accessible to all would be
useful not only to know what a blind person
feels, but also to learn how to interact with
them and to build a better society focusing
on better moral values. The lack of
awareness regarding people with visual
disabilities is not the problem itself, but the
visual lack of awareness and empathy regarding
any kind of disability. Suffice it to say that
nowadays, with the apparent progress in
terms of inclusion and respect, there are
still some people who park on the ramps for
disabled people, cutting off their mobility
even though fines are applied for such an
infraction. Although there are laws in
Argentina and in each of its provinces that
grant all kinds of rights to people with
disabilities, raising awareness has always
these been left aside. In fact, if awareness became
a general issue, maybe those rights would
be respected and, therefore, it would not be
necessary to constantly update the laws as it
is done. Meanwhile, there is a glimmer of
hope. There is now a project proposed by a
national deputy from Mendoza that intends
to improve the current law. Its objective is
to implement and put into operation
effective public awareness activities and the
13
promotion of awareness in the community
meant to: Promote receptive attitudes
regarding the rights of people
disabilities; positive relationships
greater social awareness of people with
disabilities; recognition of the abilities,
merits and abilities of people
disabilities and their contributions
relation to the workplace and the labour
market; at all levels of the education
system, including all children from an early
age, an attitude of respect for the rights of
people with disabilities; encourage the
media to disseminate an image of people
with disabilities that is compatible with the
purpose of this law; develop awareness
training programs that take into account
people with disabilities and their rights.
Undoubtedly, a law proposal that denotes in
its content the scope of this problem
area.
Surprisingly, some days after
interview with Gisela, she told us that
thanks to the city hall where she works,
she gave her first workshop
disability and inclusion to a group of
6th grade students from a primary
school. “I was asked tons of questions.
Never in my life have I seen so much
curiosity and interest in children. It was
a lovely and enriching experience!”, she
says gladly and optimistic. No doubt
Gisela`s experience shows how much
curiosity this issue awakens on children
who, in their innocence, make essential
questions that most adults are not
confident enough or do not dare to ask.
with
and
WHAT DID WE LEARN AND
WHAT CAN WE DO?
with
in Gisela ends up by saying that to raise
awareness about this issue in society, one
essential part lies in the way we interact
with those who are blind or who present
visual impairment. The proper way to
connect with them must always be based on
an equal treatment instead of a special one.
“It is crucial to learn how to build bounds
from the equality, always acting
respectfully, and recognizing that the
person who is before us is an individual as
anybody else with equal rights, with
aspirations and goals to fulfil like any of
us”, Gisela adds, touched. In the same way,
it is basic that we recognize their skills as
the well. It often happens that we tend to
quickly assume that blind or visual
impaired people “always” need help from
on others, but actually, this is a mistaken
belief. This is the reason why, both Gisela
and Mariela agree with the fact that before
taking action without asking them anything,
we must be sure that they really need our
help, and then ask them how we can help
them out. Gisela affirms that in this sense,
the key is to give them our assistance only
when it is necessary. This young
psychologist also encourages the fact that
the way to interact with them does not have
to differ from the normal and kind
14
treatment we have with our friends or
relatives. Regarding this, she adds that in
order not to make mistakes, it is important
to have in mind some of
recommendations we were given; they will
make the situation comfortable enough to
start a chat with the other individual.
Finally, Gisela also tells us that it is
absolutely necessary to work on our sense
of empathy, develop more our sense of
compassion for others, and to walk in the
other's shoes.
“Tomorrow, many of us may
difficulties to read, to see and not
necessarily because we will be blind, but
because we may be visually impaired. If we
could learn from this, maybe everything
would sound familiar to us, and the
inclusion would start from thinking about
how we could help others.”
“My family has always encouraged me to fulfil my dreams.
They have been the cornerstone of my life.”
Neme, Ana
Typical but kind behaviour we have
towards blind people makes them and us
feel comfortable. What may seem a normal
the task for us, like crossing the street with no
help, writing or reading may be an
awkward and sometimes difficult situation
for them.
When they feel somehow inferior, they may
feel upset. As mentioned before, dealing
with blind or visually impaired people does
not have to different from how we treat
other people. Orientation or instruction
regarding this issue could be given in public
have
and private establishments, at least, the
basic notions on how to interact with them
in an accurate and in a more normal way.
Besides, given that they are part of our
society it is necessary to build a path that
lead us to their integration or inclusion in
all the aspects of society.
Borchert, Sebastián Bogarín, Iván
15