February 8 - Seeing Faces

When I began writing this post, I debated the choice of several titles. At first I thought of Listening for Voices or even Hearing Voices. While both of these would have been somewhat correct, they maybe also implied a measure of mental instability. I thought about using the single word, Bluffing – but maybe readers wouldn’t connect with this strategy. In the end I decided on Seeing Faces. I am still not sure if this adequately covers the gist of this post. Perhaps I should have written the title, Not Seeing Faces. I will leave it to you the reader to decide on the best heading.

Here goes! When a person becomes blind or has very limited vision, certain changes are inevitable. For many, the two biggies are the inability to drive and the inability to see print. Both of these involve major life adjustments. However, for me, one of the biggest changes was that I wasn’t able to see faces. I still regret that I can’t see facial details or expressions.

At first, I tried to bluff my way through vision loss. The idea of bluffing is not an uncommon one. (Yes, that was one of the headings that I considered for this post.) Initially, I tried to cover up the fact that I couldn’t see. I’m not really sure why I did this. I had quite a few little tricks that I would use hoping that others wouldn’t suspect that I was different in any way.

One of these bluffs was to try to look directly at people when they were speaking with me. This was a good deception but it also meant that because I have no central vision, I could see absolutely nothing of the person’s face right in front of me.

After the initial stage of bluffing, I then tried the technique of moving my head to different angles to see if I could catch a glimpse of someone’s face. This was awkward as the best angle for me was to tip my head backward and try to look from the bottom part of my left eye. The movement was physically exhausting for me and no doubt confusing for any sighted person who was conversing with me at the time.

Then I met Bert. Bert was completely without sight. He said that it didn’t matter at what angle he held his head he still couldn’t see. So, he decided to make a conscientious effort to look directly at the person he was speaking with. He explained that while this took little effort on his part, it did serve to make the other person more comfortable. This is the attitude I decided to adopt.

Actually, the idea of following someone’s voice as an indicator of where they are has become somewhat of a habit and a skill. I can usually tell if the person is sitting or standing. As long as they are speaking, I can tell if they are moving around. I try to focus my eyes towards the direction of their voice. The hard part is when someone in a group stays silent or even leaves the room. In familiar settings, I am often able to hear who is speaking. Nevertheless, it is always helpful when the people who are present identify themselves.

So, what do you think that the title of this post should be? I have given it the heading of Seeing Faces, but maybe you can use your judgment for an alternative title.