how they approach others, talk to each other,
touch each other, etc., children learn the rules:
what they are expected to do. The young people
who grow up blind or deafblind, however, rely
heavily on other people to describe and explain
the world around them. People are generally ea-
ger and willing to describe and explain things to
students who are blind. But what about issues
that typically go unspoken, things that people with
vision experience, but do not necessarily talk
about, like the pleasure of watching a beautiful
woman sunbathing in a bikini or the erotic charge
of watching a buff man showing off a rippling six-
pack?
Students who are blind or deafblind are up
against the challenge of a double whammy; they
do not know what they do not see, and people
are often not comfortable or not able to talk with
them about issues considered taboo in polite con-
versation. This critical teaching, therefore, be-
comes a primary responsibility of teachers of stu-
dents with visual impairments. Students who
have access to accurate, developmentally-
appropriate information from a trusted adult are
better prepared to navigate the social world and
less likely to get into trouble due to a lack of
knowledge. Without information from adults,
young people with visual impairments will seek
out information on their own: on the Internet, from
peers, or through the otherwise appropriate and
reliable sense of touch. When examining an ob-
ject in class, a student who is visually impaired is
encouraged to use his/her hands to discover and
learn. The same does not hold true, however,
when it comes to learning about a classmate!!
Among the myriad of things that sighted
students are exposed to and learn from on a daily
basis: What are typical patterns of dress and
what parts of the body are always covered? Who
kisses on the cheek and who on the lips? What is
typical body language and posture in a variety of
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