We live in a culture that loves to make fun of those deemed to be "different". Not making eye contact or using the right facial expression is going to strike sighted folks as odd. And odd often times is translated as someone to avoid. Or at least someone to feel uncomfortable around.
Think about how Americans mimic the Japanese or Chinese. And we can all do a good Indian(India) accent. We get off over acting like the silly Brits, or the Norwegian fisherman. Don't kid yourself, we blind are different enough that we get our share of mimicking.
Singer Diane Schuur attended our training center when I was teaching Braille. She later went on to make a pretty good name for herself. Diane was invited to attend a function at the White House, I think it was President Reagan, although he was not present. But when Diane finished her song in front of Missus Reagan and others, she tried a curtsy. She raised her arms up and brought her thumbs together over her head, palms facing forward. She then bent her hands at the wrists and bowed her head, while doing a little bend at the knees. Cathy said the whole thing looked very bazaar. It left a strangeness in what should have been a magnificent performance.
But as a blind person, Diane had never had the visual contact to know what a bow should look like.
Curious Carl
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