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This is officially the coolest addition I’ve ever gotten to a post. I’ve wanted to know about Chinese braille for years!!! Thank you sooooo much ❤️❤️❤️ The speculation about her seismic sense is amazing and so well thought out ❤️❤️❤️
Writing Toph Beifong, Advice from a Blind Writer
I’m Mimzy, an actual visually impaired writer and blogger who talks a lot about writing blind characters accurately and sensitively. A while back someone sent me an anon asking how to write Toph more accurately and sensitively.
Anonymous asked: Hi there! Your blog has been super-helpful already - I thought I knew a bit about writing with blind characters, but it turns out there was a lot to learn - but this is more specific. I’m writing a The Last Airbender fanfiction, and one of the characters is Toph. I think the fandom has done a fairly good job of respecting her blindness, but what are some things you’d like to see when people write her? I want to represent the character as best as possible; thanks in advance!
It’s taken a while for me to answer because I have a lot of thoughts about it as both a blind writer and someone who has read a lot of atla fanfiction. So here we go:
Keep reading
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what do you think of people avoiding to using the word "see/seeing" around blind people because thinking it would offend them?
It's going to cause miscommunication. It's awkward.
If the aim is to prevent blind people from feeling left out or being unnecessarily reminded that they're blind, then editing out 'see/seeing/watch/watched' out of your conversations is going to do the opposite of what you want. We can hear the real-time self-editing and it is making this conversation more awkward and more clunky.
We're suddenly very aware of how our blindness makes you so uncomfortable that you need to police yourself to avoid offending us.
Best thing is to talk to us the same way you talk to sighted people. If we have questions, we'll ask. If you need to give us directions to complete a task, then please be specific and replace words like 'over there' and 'right here' with 'to your left' or 'directly in front of you' or 'the second doorway on your right'.
Thank you for asking <3
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mimzy-writing-online · 2 months
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the post about fanfic writers updating despite wild life circumstances is funny and great, but to all the slow writers, the writers who can’t focus when life is happening a lot, or who simply like taking time off from writing: you’re doing amazing, fandom is not an obligation, and there are many people who prefer short fics, or who read slowly and are in no rush for updates.
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mimzy-writing-online · 3 months
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Would you consider a character who has visual agnosia (the inability to recognize or process what they are seeing) as a visual impairment? And would it be okay for that character to identify with the blind/visually impaired community?
I wouldn't use visually impaired as a label for a character I was creating. I think neurological disorder and sensory disability would better explain the condition to people who don't have it.
However I don't have it either, and if someone told me "I have visual agnosia, I am visually impaired, that's my experience" I would not question or argue with them because they are the ultimate authority of what their life experience is.
I would welcome a real person with visual agnosia into my community. I think labels should be used to explain experiences and identities. I don't think people should be categorized and separated by labels to create smaller and more isolated communities and exclude others.
I do share some experiences with visual agnosia though. Visual snow is also a neurological condition. A big part of my vision impairment is that my brain cannot process light accurately so I am experiencing disruptions in how I understand my vision. However I still have a few things wrong with the structure of my eyes that contributes to my vision and disability.
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mimzy-writing-online · 3 months
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I saw you Percy Jackson post, and this might be a stupid question - but what's daydreaming like for you? Because for me I can't really imagine zoning out without staring at something. Like, I'm usually zoning out all the time looking at something way in the distance, like visual ASMR.
Idk, it's a stupid question, but I just wanted to know if it's any different?
This isn't a stupid question <3
I don't think the experience has changed much from when I was sighted. I stare at one point in space and my eye muscles slowly relax. My eyes probably look like they're pointing in slightly different directions.
If I'm indoors and/or in small spaces then it's a lot easier to keep my eyes pointed at one spot. In outdoor settings and large spaces my gaze probably drifts and focuses on the most stimulating part of the flat-background. So spots of bright color, light sources, or repetitive motion (I can see movement and light sources a lot better than anything else).
If you're curious about what happens in my head when I daydream- I still have visual daydreams but the visuals are a combination of what I see in my daily life and what I see in movies/TV/photos. Visual media is about the only way I'm maintaining any visual memory of things like stars and landscapes.
For example, my computer wallpaper is of a lake in autumn time. Because the whole photo is right in front of me, I can actually see depth, but I conceptualize depth very mathematically. I also can't see individual leaves despite it being a high resolution photo.
My daydreams also have a lot of smell and touch folded into them because those senses add a lot of detail to my daily experiences. When I was sighted it was just visual and audio detail. For example, if I imagined walking through a rose garden, it would probably be one I've visited before and while the colors and shapes of the flowers are blurry, the smells are very clear. If I was imagining a castle, I would use a lot of visual detail I picked up from movies/TV shows.
I hope this helps <3 thank you for asking
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mimzy-writing-online · 3 months
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Hi there, i have a story where 1 MC is blind. I dont want to fall into any bad tropes so I was looking at your blog and I wanted to ask your opinion. my character went blind young but she sees a shifting mix of color, it cant imply distance or details however, at the start of the story she is gifted a tool that helps shape them into rough outlines, my plan is for her to stop using it as her character grows more confident (use it as a plot point for her development). Do you have any thoughts?
It sounds like this might be a possible accessibility tool, so I don't think she would abandon it completely. She might become less reliant on it as she develops her other senses to be more helpful, but in situations where she needs a little extra help, maybe she'd dig out that tool. New environments, meeting important people where she has to make a good impression, moments where she's in danger, those would all be useful and relatable reasons to use additional accessibility devices.
The goal of orientation & mobility and life-skills classes isn't to become Daredevil-levels of confident in your remaining senses. The goal is to make you an expert in all the accessibility devices at your disposal.
A personal weakness of mine is that I am not proficient at screen reader with my phone. I would be much more powerful if I would take the time to master it because I'd be able to use my phone in any situation without trouble. As it is, I struggle to use it in my low-vision settings and it takes me a lot longer to finish tasks (texting, google search, opening/navigating apps) and a lot more eye-spoons.
If I got good at it, I would probably use a combination of screen readers and my remaining vision to get things done.
I'm going to open the comments to all disabled readers and ask: is there an accessibility tool you used for a while and then phased out of your tool-kit?
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mimzy-writing-online · 3 months
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I have come to the conclusion that sighted people are super powered freaks of nature
I'm reading the Percy Jackson series for the first time and I can't tell if Percy has super demi-god vision that allows him to see insane levels of detail at a distance or if I'm really underestimating how much a sighted human can see.
Anyone want to weigh in? (I just finished book 2 and I haven't watched the movies or the new show, so no spoilers please)
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mimzy-writing-online · 3 months
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I'm reading the Percy Jackson series for the first time and I can't tell if Percy has super demi-god vision that allows him to see insane levels of detail at a distance or if I'm really underestimating how much a sighted human can see.
Anyone want to weigh in? (I just finished book 2 and I haven't watched the movies or the new show, so no spoilers please)
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mimzy-writing-online · 5 months
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Hey :) I’ve written a character and now decided that he’s blind. They have had this mentality of I have to do everything by myself can’t let others help me before I decided to make them blind. Now I’m wondering whether that’s a gods story for a blind character? Because obviously this mentality doesn’t stem from being blind, but it would add to it? Oh and also, if it is a ok plotline to have, can I have them realising that accepting some help is fine? Or is that a bad message? Ty in advance
That is my lived experience actually, insisting I can do everything myself but realizing that having help is not only necessary, but good. Having that support and community feels better than the loneliness of insisting I don't need help.
I recommend trying to build into what inspired this character's mindset. Were they not given a lot of support and help growing up and had to learn independence? Is society telling them "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" and they've bought into that ideal because no other alternative was offered? Do they have a role model who they idealize for being so independent and capable, and now they want to be just like them?
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mimzy-writing-online · 5 months
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Hello, I stumbled upon your blog in search of advice on writing a blind character. Rlly thankful that I found it but it raised a question. You said „You shouldn’t victimize your disabled characters.“ I am not an native english speaker and not certain I understood victimise right but I have a character that does grow up in a … well, tough household. However, that has nothing to do with the fact that he’s blind. Is that offensive? Because it’s kinda essential to his character…
When I said that, what I meant was "if you put your blind character in a situation where they can be hurt or will be miserable, please don't write it in a way that sounds like victim blaming."
A situation is: you character was walking home at night and was attacked.
Victimizing is having the attacker taunt the blind character by breaking their cane and calling them an easy target because they didn't see them coming and won't be able to pick them out of a line-up if they go to the police.
Victimizing is having typically compassionate characters suggest that maybe the blind character shouldn't have been walking home alone at night, that they should have asked for a ride or used public transport or picked a better lit area or walked home before it got dark.
Victimizing is basically the message the narrative itself is giving, intentionally or unintentionally.
Is the story suggesting that a sighted person wouldn't have fallen into this trap? That this only happened because the blind character was helpless because of their blindness? Who is the narrative assigning fault to, the abuser or the victim? If a secondary character victim-blames someone, is there another character or a narrative voice who says that's unfair to the character when the abuser deserves the blame?
Sighted people grow up in abusive family situations all the time. They also have a hard time leaving those situations. And it is harder to leave an abusive situation when you're disabled because of systemic inequality.
I hope that helps :)
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mimzy-writing-online · 5 months
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"What is hateful to you, do not do to others, the rest is commentary, go and study"
Hillel the Elder
"Then when G-d asks [Cain], ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ he arrogantly responds, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?' In essence, the entire Bible is written as an affirmative response to this question."
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
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mimzy-writing-online · 5 months
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Okay okay time for miscellaneous disability shout outs:
People who can't pick out their own clothes
People who need help buckling their seat belt
People who can comfortably hold detailed face to face conversations on the toilet (you get used to it after needing toileting help )
People who only wear slide ons because adapted shoes are expensive as all hell
Mobility aid users with scratched, dented and banged up mobility aids
Powerchair users that have almost or actually tipped over trying to do donuts
People who don't have the energy to gently explain things to every curious kid
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mimzy-writing-online · 5 months
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Blind Tumblr users: don’t get the latest iOS app update!
I just updated my tablet to the newest version of the tumblr app for iOS and it completely broke screen reader access for both VoiceOver and Spoken Content. This has happened in the past already, so I will file a support ticket and copy-paste my text from last time, but this really sucks. I sincerely hope this doesn’t affect all screen reader users, but I’m unsure how they could program this bug in a way it only affects me. If you rely on a screen reader to use the tumblr app, I’d advice to not get the latest update to be on the safe side.
When I say “completely broke access”, what I mean is that no posts on my dash or on individual blogs get read or recognized at all. No plain text, alt text, tags, etc. Note count and buttons still work though.
If you also run into this bug, here’s my advice. If anyone has something more useful, please tell me
File a support ticket and report this bug
Use the browser web version, which still works for me
Interestingly, if you save a post to your drafts and click on “edit” the post text seems to get read correctly. This might be a work-around for some people.
If you have the latest version but your screen reader didn’t break, also please tell me! I would be fascinated to know if this bug is only affecting some people
TL;DR: The latest tumblr app update for iOS made it so screen readers no longer work in the app
Please boost!
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mimzy-writing-online · 6 months
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opinion that shouldn't be controversial: a student shouldn't need a doctor's note to have access to free screen readers, audio copies of class content, physical copies of class content, accurate subtitles, unlimited doctor's appointments, their sensory needs met, etc etc. student's shouldn't have a medical barrier, which goes hand in hand with sexism, racism, classism, and ableism in general, to basic education.
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mimzy-writing-online · 6 months
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since I've seen it talked about in several places recently:
if you are going to do a whump- or kink- or ANY-tober or other similar challenges please please please don't post them as one fic with 31 chapters unless it actually is one coherent fic. if they're 31 completely separate fics or ficlets then please just make a collection for them or just post them as separate fics. it doesn't matter if they're only 100 words or if you think they're too small or insignificant to post alone, they're not.
and why this?
because if you post all 31 of them in one fic the tagging is absolutely useless. if I look for things to read on ao3 I'm gonna look at the tags, and if the tags include something that's a dealbreaker for me, i won't even click on the fic. I might not even SEE the fic because I've filtered out the nope-tag! so I'm gonna lose out on reading 30 perfectly nice fics because of one fic that my nope-tag applied to.
ao3 is about archiving. it's about clear tagging and being informative. there is nothing informative about it if the tags in the fic apply to random chapters while others have nothing to do with it. it makes so much more sense to have each work as an individual fic with its own individual tags and warnings, so readers can make informed choices.
of course, you do you. I can't police what other people decide to do. but personally, I find it incredibly frustrating to weed through 31 chapters to find the ones I actually want to read. so I don't. I automatically scroll past all works posted like that. and I know some others do, too.
there is absolutely no shame in posting short things on ao3. there is no minimum word count. no one is going to look at you funny if you post a small ficlet on its own, I promise. it's just going to make some readers very happy when they can actually find the things they want to read.
so, please. at least consider the upsides of posting each work as their own fic.
signed, one very frustrated fandom grandma.
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mimzy-writing-online · 6 months
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Limb difference vs amputee
I've been seeing a rise in people using the term limb difference and also rise in (what I think are well meaning) folks shouting "Amputee is not a dirty word, stop talking over disabled people, just say amputee" and while I love the energy, that's not what's going on here lol.
Amputee refers to anyone who has lost a limb or was born without one/multiple of their limbs.
Limb difference is a broader umbrella term to refer to anyone with a physical disability the effects the person's limbs specifically, usually (but not always) in ways that are visible to others to some degree. It can refer to amputees, but also people with single-limb paralysis, people who's limbs didn't develop properly (even if it's not severe enough to be considered an amputation) and more!
All amputees have a type of limb difference, but not everyone with a limb difference is an amputee.
As far as I'm aware, the term actually started in congenital amputee circles (people who were born without a limb) because they felt the word amputee didn't really fit them properly. amputee implies they had the limb but it was removed, but they never had it to begin with. It eventually spread to become an umbrella term, but it was created by and for disabled people.
I do understand some people's hesitation with the word, it does sound kind of similar to "differently abled" but I promise, it's not.
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mimzy-writing-online · 7 months
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cooking while chronically ill
baking with arthritis or other chronic hand pain
living with chronic migraines
adhd meal plan
chronic pain tips
getting yourself to eat
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