September 23 - Watching TV

A group of us were discussing favourite TV shows when someone in the group turned to me and said, “but you probably don’t watch TV anyway.”

The supposition was that because I can’t see the screen, I wouldn’t be able or interested in “watching” TV shows.  Well, the assumption is both true and false.  I don’t watch much TV and I am certainly selective in what I watch.

I was talking about this with my friend, Sue who is totally without sight.  We agreed that one of the easiest programs to follow was the daily news.  The commentary is clear, although the content is often disturbing and seems to be repeated many nights over.  Documentaries are usually good and so are some nature shows.  Sue commented that sometimes when music is played behind the narration it takes away the focus for her.

I like to watch sitcoms where the voices of the main characters are familiar.  I enjoy PBS music programs.  I also like sports programs, especially tennis, but only when the commentators are doing a good job of describing the action.

Some programs have described video.  Lyle finds this feature very distracting, and because we usually watch TV together we don’t tend to use this feature.  However, I can see this adaptation can be beneficial for some.

I think the main point of this post is that we shouldn’t make assumptions about the abilities, capabilities and interests of other people.  I have expressed my personal opinions about watching TV, but I would not presume to think that other partially sighted and blind people would think and feel the same way.