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I've found, growing up, that one of the favorite games sighted people like to play with blind people is the "Guess Who I Am!" game. I think this game stems from the myth that blind people have better hearing than sighted people. With my increasing hearing loss, about the only good point is that people don't do this as often as they used to.
I am positive there is no bad intent on the sighted people who play this game. They just think it's neat to be recognized by their voice, and they genuinely have no idea how much this frustrates the blind person.
It was at my dad's funeral, back in 2001. There were 900 people in attendance, many of whom had come in contact with me at some point in my life, often decades previously. The people who had not seen me the longest were the most keen on having me guess who they were. One person even let the game run for ten or fifteen minutes before he finally broke down and identified himself, and it turnd out I hadn't talked to him since the seventies.
Again, I'm sure there were were no bad intentions here, but I was grieving, I was overwhelmed by the number of people surrounding me, I had a hearing problem, I hadn't talked to these people in ages, I didn't like the game in the first place, much less under these circumstances, ... it all added up to a great deal of anger on my part, which I judiciously hid because to express it would have been inappropriate, not to mention unfair to people who simply didn't realize what they were doing.
Now, the "Guess Who" game has had its moments. Some dear friends have played this game and I've genuinely enjoyed it. But these are special cases. One person in particular used to come up behind me, put her hands over my eyes, and say, "Guess who?" I don't think I would have let anyone else get away with it, but when she did it, I thought it was hilarious.
If you know me and you've played this game in the past, please don't feel guilty, that's not why I'm writing this. I'm just writing this because how is anyone going to know if they're not told? Sorry for the bad grammar in that last sentence.
And if you're among my friends who have played that game and I've enjoyed it as much as you, thanks for the fun and for being a special friend.
I am positive there is no bad intent on the sighted people who play this game. They just think it's neat to be recognized by their voice, and they genuinely have no idea how much this frustrates the blind person.
It was at my dad's funeral, back in 2001. There were 900 people in attendance, many of whom had come in contact with me at some point in my life, often decades previously. The people who had not seen me the longest were the most keen on having me guess who they were. One person even let the game run for ten or fifteen minutes before he finally broke down and identified himself, and it turnd out I hadn't talked to him since the seventies.
Again, I'm sure there were were no bad intentions here, but I was grieving, I was overwhelmed by the number of people surrounding me, I had a hearing problem, I hadn't talked to these people in ages, I didn't like the game in the first place, much less under these circumstances, ... it all added up to a great deal of anger on my part, which I judiciously hid because to express it would have been inappropriate, not to mention unfair to people who simply didn't realize what they were doing.
Now, the "Guess Who" game has had its moments. Some dear friends have played this game and I've genuinely enjoyed it. But these are special cases. One person in particular used to come up behind me, put her hands over my eyes, and say, "Guess who?" I don't think I would have let anyone else get away with it, but when she did it, I thought it was hilarious.
If you know me and you've played this game in the past, please don't feel guilty, that's not why I'm writing this. I'm just writing this because how is anyone going to know if they're not told? Sorry for the bad grammar in that last sentence.
And if you're among my friends who have played that game and I've enjoyed it as much as you, thanks for the fun and for being a special friend.
