Today’s tidbit comes via my colleague, Shauna Sproston, from her article entitled “True or False: Dispelling the Misconceptions Related to Blindness”. Shauna writes on the common misconception of blind people having a sixth sense: “False: People who are blind have special abilities or a ‘sixth sense’. True: People who are blind do not have an innate ability to hear, touch, and smell more than people who are sighted. A person who is legally blind may be more aware of “information from their other senses” (Iowa Department for the Blind, n.d., Myths About Blindness, para. 1).”
I’ve heard it described, for example, that people who are blind train their hearing much like musicians do. In other words some of us train our ears to a level many sighted people can train their ears to rather than it being an innate ability. The same is true about spacial awareness or any of the other superpowers blind people are said to have.
Got a question? Questions can be submitted by contacting us or by calling the Bowen Island Accessibility Group’s Community Mailbox at +1 (604) 947-9021, extension 123.
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