On A Cuppa at the Mosens, coping with the overly helpful, well-meaning sighted person

Submitted by JonathanMosen on Wed, 05/24/2017 - 09:38

A Cuppa at the Mosens is a live, weekly, global talk show, where we can discuss issues from a blindness perspective.

This week, most of us have been there. We’re going about our business, when someone arbitrarily decides that because we can’t see, we need help, and that assumption is made without asking first. Sometimes it can be quite a scary and violating experience, when unwanted hands are laid on us and we’re propelled in a direction we never intended to go. Yet there are times when we do need help, and we know others may be less independent than we are.

So how do we best deal with sighted people who mean well, but make assumptions and sometimes don’t take “no” for an answer. Are we justified in being rude and abrasive, and if so, can we define a threshold at which it is appropriate?

We’d also like to hear your best, or should we say worst, experiences of a sighted person being overly helpful to a degree that it was inappropriate and frustrating.

Is there a chance that we can sometimes be overly sensitive and impolite? Do we miss the opportunity to educate when we get too defensive, or should we not be expected to be educators when we’re just trying to do our thing?

There’s so much to talk about, and as always, we welcome a diversity of perspectives and experiences.

If you use either the Firefox or Chrome web browsers, you can call in via your computer for free, in high-quality audio. Otherwise, there are phone numbers around the world.

To dial in from the US, call 860-51Mosen. That’s 860-516-6736. For other phone numbers, check out the web page for the show at http://www.MushroomFm.com/Cuppa.

A Cuppa at the Mosens can be heard live on Thursdays at 9 PM Eastern time. To find out when that is if you’re outside the US, check the Mushroom FM schedule.

And don’t just tune in, call in, since the show relies on the views and experiences of people just like you. A Cuppa at the Mosens, hosted by Bonnie and Jonathan Mosen, is only on Mushroom FM.