Going To School As A Blind Person
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2017
- Tommy, who’s been blind since birth, talks about what it was like going to school as a blind person in both public and private schools.
Directed/Edited by Ben Churchill
/ radiotrippictures
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How Blind People Write Braille
• How Blind People Write...
How A Blind Person Uses A Calculator
• How A Blind Person Use...
Story: When I Was Busted By The Police
• When I Was Busted By T...
Story: When I Got Suspended Again!
• When I Got Suspended A...
More Videos About Growing Up As A Blind Person
• How My Parents Told Me...
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FOLLOW TOMMY
/ tommyedison
/ blindfilmcritic
/ blindfilmcritic
/ blindfilmcritic
tommyedison.com
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MUSIC
The Town Shop - “Befun” (No Vocals)
Kevin Graham - “Autumn”
Appearing - “A Look Out”
Alex Keren - “So Fine”
Marcos H - “Indie”
Mark Tracy - “Born Twice”
PHOTOS
“Gym” by Alan Light
“Canterbury School” by AdmissionsQuest
“Central Middle School” by Greenwich Public Schools
Photos used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Unported license
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
#blindness #education #school
Thanks for watching! Watch more videos about growing up as a blind person here: th-cam.com/video/D6a1NLPIJ7E/w-d-xo.html
The Tommy Edison Experience What is it like getting dressed and fixing your AWESOME HAIR?🤓
The Tommy Edison Experience how did you write this huh I need answers nigga
The Tommy Edison Experience I love your channel. I find it fascinating. Love learning about bind culture. Keep it up your doing great!!!!
The Tommy Edison Experience My school experience was mostly the same but instead of being blind I'm a little deaf in one ear and I was the only one so the teachers sort of made some of there own rules for me just to follow.
Hey Tommy, I just wanted to thank you! I'm a self defense teacher and recently I had the pleasure of teaching a blind person. Thanks to you and your videos I was actually really relaxed and cool with the whole situation and we both had a lot of fun. Before I knew your channel I was a little insecure whenever I came upon a blind person, but not anymore.
when I was in 6th grade there was a blind kid in my class, and one time the power went out and some girl screamed "I can't see!" and he shouted "neither can I" and it was magical. he was a cool dude.
Lol
Meliodas why?
when i was in primary, we had 2 new kids from other countries. teacher made them sit together. yet they couldn't speak each others language and integration was harder.
@@Timebomb_19 screaming when the lights go out is stupid I hated it when people did that
That's a lie
Tommy Edison...got detention for breaking a lightbulb. Oh, the irony xD
ᛞᛖᚾᚾᛁᛋ ᛏᚱᛟᚹᚨᛏᛟ LOL OMG
ᛞᛖᚾᚾᛁᛋ ᛏᚱᛟᚹᚨᛏᛟ oh my God… I just figured it out myself
Adry Florea Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb.... I think...
Thomas Edison patented the lightbulb, he did not invent it and was never an inventor. The inventor of the lightbulb and AC current that powers everything to this day was Nikola Tesla.
ᛞᛖᚾᚾᛁᛋ ᛏᚱᛟᚹᚨᛏᛟ 😂
His mother is awesome. She didn't wrap him up in cotton wool. She fought for him to be treated like a regular kid in school. What an amazing woman
You don't really know she was an amazing woman
I love how someone who is blind managed to be successful on a visual platform. It's amazing, truly!
TH-cam and a blind film critic, Tommy is awesome.
I’d love to learn from those who support him in his work
Amazing
Tommy has the perfect excuse if he ever wanted to rob someone's house.. "What? I'm not home? Oh sorry, I didn't notice.. my bad." "I thought I was packing up my own valuables."
adam mac that's awesome
Well he wouldn't recognize the layout of the house, so how would he find valuables if he doesnt know where they would even be at?
@@wb624
It was a joke, Wendy. Haha
There were two blind brothers in my high school, and I tutored them in calculus. It always amazed me that they could recall multi-line proofs and imagine sin and cos waves in their minds. One of the brothers is now a licensed paralegal and the other works in environmental science.
That is amazing. It reminds me of a girl I went to school with who didn't have hands, her arms just ended in a thumb like appendage. Despite that she could write as quickly as anyone and actually did calligraphy if I remember correctly. Her handwriting was so good our history teacher would have her right announcements on the board because it was much more neat than his handwriting.
Yeah in some other video he says he knows what colors are on the rainbow. I don’t, I literally cannot recall them off the top of my head yet I can see one and know instantly. It’s because of that they are constantly remembering how things are I think it could help with remembering math
Hi Tommy! When I was in kindergarten, the grade 8 kids came to our class to help us write our letter to santa. I was paired up with a girl who was blind, she wrote the letter for me on her typewriter, and it got sent off to santa. In Canada if you mail a letter to a special address 'santa' will write back. So a few weeks later, I received a letter from Santa, so excited only to find it had been written in Braille! I think I remember crying because I couldn't read what santa had said to me lol
Santa's postal code is *H0H 0H0.* Easy to remember! Address is just *North Pole.*
Colleen C I'm sorry but I just laughed way too hard at that 😂
The Santa replies are usually one of a few options they send out to all the kids. I mean, it's obvious you wouldn't get personalized messages but it alternates between what they do have. I think I remember the paper being really pretty though, like light blue with candy canes on it but it's been years since I've written to Santa so that could be wrong.
Did you find out? I would think the teacher could have asked the blind girl to come read it to you?
This made me tear up 😭 they replied in braille
Major kudos to Tommy's mom for getting him in the regular curriculum!
I wish we could see a video of little Tommy talking his way out of something!
He lived in a very prosperous area so they better have given him good services
When I was in second grade there was a blind girl in my class, and we would sometimes sit together at lunch/play together at recess. I remember one time we were talking about TV shows, and someone asked her what her favorite show was. Almost everyone at our table got super quiet, because I guess we thought it was rude to ask her that. But at that moment, she lit up and told us that her favorite show was Dancing With the Stars. I guess I still remember that moment because it was super eye-opening for me. It made me realize that she wasn't different from us at all, except for the fact that she couldn't see. I think it's really special and SUCH a blessing to know someone who is blind. Love your videos, Tommy!
My highschool has about 3600 students and there's only 1 blind girl that I know of. I see her every now and then with her cane just walking down the hallway with 1000s of other students and she parts them like Moses parted the red sea. I've never seen so many people get out of someones way so quickly.
5:43 "You're gonna *work* for bullies..."
Tommy, is Ben bullying you off camera? It's okay, we'll keep it a secret from him.
He doesn't work for ben
Cadrid Ben works for him, Tommy is the boss, "The Blind Bully"
Anthony Ingram Of course, the perfect cover!
Just blink twice to let us know if there's trouble! We'll wait!
Noah Topper open his eyes twice
My experience with school was pretty much the same, except I wasn't allowed to use the cane or learn Braille. The teachers all complained that the Braille writer was distracting, and it was supposedly unsafe to allow a blind kid to walk around independently, much less allow me to bring a metal pole. We had to fight so hard for me to use a cane. I had to learn it in secret at first. Don't even get me started on the textbook issues lol. It wasn't until I went to University that I was given a Braille writer or any other resources. I ended up with a Master's degree, and a decent job. I wish people knew just how lucky they are that they didn't have to fight so much for a basic education.
You are a golden person ;)
Under the ADA act, you are protected to use a cane or any tool to aid with your disability; you should’ve reported that school
@@chelseaezibe4765 unfortunately the ADA wasn't a thing until I was in junior high. In those days the emphasis was on making you as normal as possible, even at the expense of the education. The focus was on what you could see with your eyes. If you could see well enough to determine if there was a shape in front of you, you didn't get a cane. You just had to do better at watching where you were going. If you could recognize print at all, they'd just make the print bigger so you could see it. It didn't matter if reading gave you headaches. You were told to "suck it up". Braille and white canes were for the kids who were really blind. They finally pulled me out of regular PE when "Coach" came to the realization that I didn't try to catch a ball because I didn't see that he threw it. My freshman English teacher realized I'd only complete the homework if he announced it as he wrote it on the board. It's not that the school refused to accommodate, they just didn't know how to do it right. I learned to use a cane in secret because it was thought that it would cause more problems if students and teachers saw me do it. I started using it later in high school, and didn't have too much trouble with other students. Some of the teachers were a different story. They just didn't know how to deal with it.
I think with the policy changes and all the technology we have in place today I think the experience is much different.
Connie Terry thank you for sharing, I’m so sorry you had to go through that back then
In second grade, i went to school with a blind guy named paul. he was two years older than the rest of us second graders, because he also had learning disabilities. I did a program called peer buddies where i sat next to him in class and played with him at recess and lunch and i just hung out with him. he also needed an aide because of his learning/mental disabilities. he was 100% blind, and he couldn't talk fluently. you could have a conversation with him, but it was choppy. nobody really hung out with him, he was basically ignored. me and about 5 of my friends started peer buddies though, and we always talked about how much we liked paul to our other friends. he was a really funny guy and super nice too. he was learning to read braille and that was fun to watch. slowly, because we talked about it so much, the other kids joined in helping him and by the end of the year and in the next year, he had the whole entire class as his friends!!
Aw this is so cute, you're awesome!
I've never in my 20 years of life met a blind person
TimTim same
I have seen a couple obviously blind people on the street but never really met one either. The closest encounter with a blind person for me is when a blind man almost ran into me at a mall but I noticed just in time to dodge him.
TimTim Would you like to touch one?
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I have, my grandpa is blind.
There are many in my city, i never actually met them, but i like knowing they can get around without trouble
i'm german and i never realised that 9 and "nein" is pronounced the same way :D
JanusPapers no its nein. Not no
If you ever watched Kim Possible, you might have known xD
Me neither! Now I think of possible jokes... e.g.:
An english police officer askes a german driver if he had more than one beer.
The German answered: "Nein"
XD well... I'm not good in making jokes. May be someone else will give it a try.
I can't help it, i always say no in german... So much more amusing to yell nein at everything :) and when people ask if i can actually speak german i reply Nein!
Revive 2Pac we are talking about the english 9, which is pronounced like "nein"
you're like the blind uncle i never knew i wish i had
I was forced to learn Braille and mobility in Elementary school, I hated it because I didn't want to be "different." Well.. Today I'm going back to school to get certified to become a Braille Transcriber lol
Tori that's amazing… Funny how things turn out right
It really is! I never realized how difficult it really is haha
@@toritina I just know 3 letters xD!
Are you blind
I was in class once and this girl couldn't find the stapler so the teacher pointed to the back of the classroom where it was sitting on a table. The girl says sarcastically "Oh wow, I'm so blind" and this other kid who's actually partially blind goes, "dude same"
I have an acquaintance at school who's almost totally blind. She can see /some/ colors & basic shapes, if they're right in her face... But dang she's amazing! She's super friendly, and everyone (even the tough kids) loves her.
I had a job during college being a visual assistant for a student who was legally blind. He had to hold paper with print on it about a single inch away from his face to read it. My job was to sit next to him in calculus lecture and operate a video magnifier, which was a camera set up to feed into a monitor, which he could put his face right up to and see the chalkboard to which I directed the camera. He used one of those braille typewriters to take notes and it was pretty quiet. I have to say that having been next to him every lecture, people that are visually impaired have to focus and work so hard to keep up with the material. And this dude was actually answering most of the questions the professor asked. A great amount of respect is due to blind or legally blind students who take a math class, especially to this guy who ended up getting an A.
I'm from Australia.
When I first got a job in child care there was a little 2 year girl who was completely blind from birth. That was my first and only experience with a blind person. She was the funniest kid though and I was always impressed when she could tell when it was me. Her mum moved her to a child care that cares for people with disabilities though and I miss her.
I did go to school with a blind kid. Mid 90s, I was 13 or 14. First day of class, the principal came in our class and made a speech to introduce him and to explain the challenges we would face. Everyone was sort of scared or embarrassed to go talk to him, so I went in and awkwardly talked to him and avoided the blindness subject as much as I could. About a couple of days later, we all got a calendar (the school used to print one at the start of every year and give out - keep in mind I'm from the south hemisphere, so our school years start in January), and while the kids were talking about the pictures (school photos), I sort of tried to ask him how it smelled nice - and he was not too keen on my explanation.
One of the kids was brave enough to just ask him if "all he could see was black", which is a stupid question for a blind person, but then we did learn he actually did see some light and some vague shadows - he could tell a person was in front of him and guess the shape of some familiar objects.
He would show us his braille machine (he had both a machine and a manual needle thing), and he would show us his talking wristwatch. On gym, he used to just sit there, and I would take the opportunity to escape from gym activities (which I hated) and keep him company.
He was not particularly friendly, though, and would not smile too much or keep a longer conversation, but I guess it was to be expected from his age.
And then, after one semester... he was out. The principal came back to explain he was not from that location and he was feeling homesick and decided to go back to where his parents lived (which I guess it was a BS cover story - it did not work out). He thanked all of us for the assistance and for proving, with that experience, that it could be done. And that was it.
Happy to see your videos again, I've missed you buddy. Hope you solved your youtube issues.
I went to school with a blind kid who was 2 grades below me. Holy cow he was the definition of going for the gold.
We were in the same scout troop and went to camp together. The first year, he took the riflery merit badge and was able to pass the shooting tests with only a spotter. The next year, he took aviation merit badge and became the first blind scout at that camp to complete the badge. He was able to fly with just direction from the copilot, and completed a great landing by himself!
I got a blind friend when I went to college. I had known her for a few days when we stopped and talked to this guy from my class, and I talked to him a little while she mostly just stood there waiting. when we left she asked me who he was, and I said he is a guy from my class. She said, he was handsome. And I was like, WHAT how in the world do you know that. (she was right offcourse. She told me she could see some shadows of him but mostly she went by his voice and how he was while talking to us. It has been 20 years but I never forgot that episode
I went to school with a blind girl in middle school. She had a cane and a seeing eye dog. The dog was a beautiful black dog that looked like a golden retriever except all the hair was black. What I remember is that the girl was the meanest person in the school. I even saw her kick the dog once. There was even a story that when she got upset she would use the word that allowed the dog to poop in the class.( I guess the dog is trained to hold its bathroom privileges until it was in a more appropriate environment) well when she was upset she would command the dog to poop in the classroom or hallway. I wonder what happened with that girl.
The golden retriever with black hair is probably a black lab
Ephigy you could be right. I don't know much about dog breeds. That mean lady kicked that poor dog.
Ephigy - or a flatcoated retriever
Or a black german shepherd.
Most likely a black lab. I volunteered at this event where motorcyclists would give a ride to blind people and my job was to take care of the dogs. All were labs, whether black or gold. They were so kind and well behaved, it breaks my heart hearing that someone was mean to theirs. They kept looking back at me whenever we were walking some place. is was so sweet!
I never went to school a with a blind person but my dad did, when he tells me about it he said people used to bully him and put cardboard inbetween his paper and braille typerwriter, so it wouldn't print any words, which is just awful
Those bullies needs to go to hell!
And there were not teachers back then? That's disgusting! I remember being bullied at school and teachers did nothing about it. It wouldn't surprise me if those teachers were like that
in high school there were 2 blind twins, and im not even joking, sometimes they would bump into each other in the hall and have sword fights with their canes lol.
Who bullies a blind kid. Bullying is something that's in every school but a blind kid!
Yeah the people that do that don't have a mind nor an hearth or a soul!
this is the first video I've got notified for like 3 months I have push notifications on
Same I almost forgot about tommy, the youtube algarythm is extremely messed up.
Use your subscriptions tab.
I knew a girl who was blind in one eye when I was in 1st grade. Her name was Lisa. She was the nicest person in my class we immediately became friends. There was also a completely blind man in my sister's college choir class. He was the first person I saw using a cane in real life. He was extremely funny and charismatic.
Watching it as soon as I noticed the notification!
I think in Japan there's one school for blind students, and one school for deaf students and another school for the rest of the students who are difficult to go to school with the "abled" students.
Yuka Momoyo One school for the blind? So it's there where Zato Ichi learnt his swordsmanship? I always wondered.
I'm not familiar with Zatoichi nor history but it looks like Zatoichi is from Edo era so I'm assuming they had a different school system back then. I took a quick look at the wiki page and it says he had an instructor who taught him how to kill people.
Yuka Momoyo You're kidding, right? My original question was (quite a bad) joke, but it kinda required previous knowledge of the famous blind masseur/swordsman (originally portrayed by Shintaro Katsu and more recently by Takeshi Kitano). From your name I've assumed you're probably Japanese and finding your comment about schools for the blind in Japan, moreover under Tommy's video, the idea you've never even heard of Zatoichi really didn't even cross my mind :)
Well, let's disregard my previous joke attempt, but I can really recommend the Zatoichi movies. I will even risk the fury of hardcore Zatoichi fans and recommend the newer Kitano's movie over the old Katsu's ones, even though they're really great as well... But probably not as well suited for today's mainstream audiences, unlike the 2003 reboot.
Jan Stavěl Of course I've heard of Zatoichi before but I meant I'm no expert about it. I'm sorry I didn't get your joke. Thank you for your recommendation! It is definitely on my list.
No blind students. But there was one girl who had arthritis - she was allowed to go to the lunch hall early to avoid the stampede of kids as they rushed to the cafeteria.
I never went to school with a blind person but I did go to junior high with a deaf girl! Definitely a eye opening experience!
I used to have a blind kid in my school year, so people got taught how to be a guide and stuff. I never formally met him (we spoke once or twice but nothing more) apparently he was really mean to people, I struggle to understand why, guess he wasn't a happy person :(
EveryoneHatesAlexander I would have fucked him up
Doctor Who Fanatic woah calm down
Doctor Who Fanatic maybe because he was blind dude that's just insane just to think about I'd empathize with him
Well maybe it was because of what you just said, he wasn't happy. Unhappy kids often lash out
Who was the first blind person you met, then? I'd love to hear that story.
Liam M-D Me too👍👍👍👍
Doesn't he have a blind nephew? Maybe not the first person he's met but he definitely knows other blind people. And the few he's done collabs with
According to the rules of comedy they would have walked into each other
But that probably doesn't happen
No
In middle school, I was in a few classes with a blind girl. She would talk about the TV show Fear Factor (a show I loved at the time) and we discussed the disgusting shit they did in that show.
I also accidentally knocked her cane out of her hands when walking out of a classroom. I did hand it back to her quickly and apologized. She wasn't upset, which was nice
one of the channels that i always look forward to
Thank you for being so positive Tommy❤
I went to school with, and dated someone who was legally blind. Like 90% of his sight was gone. So he used this big screen that you put the paper on the bottom and it magnified it a lot. But he was really lazy. He was my best friend and at times my boyfriend. So I stupidly helped him too much instead of making him do his own damn work. Lol.
I was always known as “That one blind guy“ all throughout elementary school, junior high, and high school. But I was the first blind kid in my generation in my family to go through schooling so it gave the schools an opportunity to adapt to teaching a blind student, which paved the way for good treatment of my younger brother who is also blind and it set him up for achieving some really high expectations that I had initially caused the teachers to set as I went through school
Growing up, my best friend in the whole world, happened to be blind. Watching your videos, reading comments, hearing the stories.... All bring back memories. I'm just now realizing that simply because of the friendship I had with a blind person altered the way I grew up and how I view the world. Here are a couple of examples. Even though I have full vision, I know how to use a brailler. From the big clunky one to the electric ones. I also missed the sound of voice over. We went to elementary together and high school, so it was something I heard almost every day. When she left for college, I guess I sort of missed hearing it. Another thing I notice, I navigate quite well in the dark. No light needed. I would equate a bit of that to not needing lights when I was at her house. I followed her around in the dark. Most of the houses on our street, had the same layout. So even though her house was on the other side, I knew exactly how to navigate my own house growing up without much light. Just wanted to share some of my experiences! TH-cam can sometimes be a one sided street with no much response from viewers besides demands. Thanks for the videos!
And what a character you are! Love hearing all your stories! Always a treat to come home from work and see you have new video up! Thanks!
I was the only blind person at all the schools that I attended. I was known as the mean blind girl because I didn't allow anyone to walk over me...
I love tommys simple jokes
I am so beyond grateful that you have made this TH-cam channel. My 2year old daughter is blind. While right now, she’s exactly like any other toddler, I can’t help but wonder how she will handle things in school. I hope this channel will still be able to watch as she gets older. All of your videos are so encouraging and I love your personality! There’s nothing more that I hope for my daughter to have than a strong, uplifting personality no matter what life throws at her. Thank you for sharing your experiences and being such a positive person. I hope you are truly this happy even off camera. You are such an inspiration.
Hi Krissy! I'm a researcher looking for inspiring stories about people connecting and learning through TH-cam. We would really like to speak to you more on this. Thank you!
Your educational story is amazing! You are absolutely right, I never seen a blind person in a regular classroom and is learning the typical curriculum. You are great sir!!! The blind is not the person who can’t see, the person who does not have a great heart and personality just like you!
I had a blind girl in my grade. She was there most of the day, but would go off with a special teacher for an hour or so each afternoon. She wasn't completely blind, she had very thick glasses and she had a big screen she sat at that showed her text in huge letters so she could read it. You could see what she was reading from across the room. I think she used a typewriter (or braille writer?) to do her assignments.
Question for Tommy: Do you remember the first time you met another blind person? What was that like?
I was good friends with a blind kid in elementary school named Sam. We usually spent Recess talking and bouncing a ball or pretending to be ninjas, you know, kid stuff. Then he moved away in fifth grade. I remember he used to always be told to stop sticking his fingers in his eyes, but he never kicked the habit. That's my school experience with a blind person.
i always appreciate the nice music in your videos plus the uplifting personality of tom really puts you in a good mood
Tommy, you never fail to make me smile. Your videos make me so happy! Keep it up, proud of you!
''how do you say no in German''
''NIEN''
ICE Sniping and net is the next number 👍😀
ICE Sniping *NEIN
i go to school with a blind student :). we've never talked that much because shes not very verbal but she seems sweet
I think that a lot of people love to listen to you Tommy. Please never stop sharing your experience, so you can encourage other blind people to live their life to the fullest like urself
I love this dude so much. So positive and funny. It's so enjoyable to watch his videos. He's like that cool uncle that encourages the kids to get into trouble.
We had a lot of deaf kids at my schools.
But there was one kid who is legally blind, he couldn't see things unless they were 2 cm away from his face.
I wonder... As a blind person would you still feel the reminiscent type feelings when you visit a place you grew up or hadn't visit for a long time?
Jordy R absolutely, it would feel very familiar. I'm sure it was still smell the same, sound the same, things like that. Great question, thanks for watching. :-)
Wow thanks for answering! I was thinking about this all day haha
This was a FANTASTIC video. Your story telling is gripping.
Glad you're back Tommy!
I had a friend who was mostly blind and had tunnel vision due to an accident, and I knew of a few others. One was this kid naked Brandon who played the trombone in the band. I don't know how but that's cool.
I also did work experience with the blind support worker at our school. She wasn't a very nice woman, though.
Took me a while to figure out he was NAMED Brandon, and not a kid called Brandon who was really into nudist camps...
Emerald Nightshadow how was she mean? I'd like to hear about it
i AM the blind kid. i go to a blind school though, so i know tons of other kids. i was mainstreamed in primary school, it was terrible, they wouldn't let me use my cane
Tiller The Fgt oh
How u type this comment
voiceover, dictation i can type without looking too
Sure thing 'Her-Mee-Yone Ganger'
her me yone? interesting
Great video as always. Love hearing these stories
Glad to see your back to TH-cam!!!!
Hey! Just popped by to say I think you look dashing, and now we know that you've always been a handsome devil :)
There is a blind kid in my class and he is so freaking smart
Yeah you're right ;)
I love how you are so upbeat and positive and keep such a great sense of humor! For some people who have had their site and go blind later in life it’s hard to except that you probably will never see again do you hope and pray that science catches up!! ☮️🙏
Amazing video, I had a good friend through school who was born blind. What amazed me most about him was how good his memory was.
It'd be very hard for me to avoid accidentally treating a blind person like they were somewhat different as opposed to other people. But that's only because, in my experience, I am quite terrified of the possibility of my retinas pulling away from my eyes. ROP was something doctors predicted happening since birth and since I was a preemie, it's looking like it'll happen eventually. I rely heavily on my sight and I am grateful for being able to see things like art every day, and I know if and when I lose that gift, I'll become depressed and devastated. I know blind people are no different than anyone else but I just can't imagine how living with it must feel, and there's a very real chance that I'll find out one day. All I care about is being sensitive to how someone without sight mght feel.
You should be a voice actor tommy!!!!
Tommy! Thanks for sharing this experience with us. Thanks to Ben too. You guys have made such an incredible channel. It truly is a gem of goodness here on TH-cam.
Anyway I wanted to share something you might find interesting. Growing up, I didn't have any peers that happened to be blind, but when I got to middle school, my home education teacher happened to be blind. She used a guide dog to navigate and she was 100% blind. All of my friends that took her class LOVED it because the dog was friendly and she would allow the dog to walk around the class and the students could pet him. So obviously when I heard that I signed up for that class next semester lol. But when I went to her class for the first day I witnessed something truly amazing. She told us if we had a question all we had to do was raise our hand and she would call on us. It was incredible. Somehow when I raised my hand, sitting 20 feet away, she knew exactly who's hand was raised and she called on me!
The only thing she asked of us is to not switch seats with anyone else lol
You came to my elementary school back in the early 90s to do a presentation. You were awesome. It's great watching you here too.
I'm a wheelchair user with Spina Bifida. I was the only wheelchair user in my school until high school. Then there was one other wheelchair user. Also a girl who used crutches and also had Spina Bifida. In early elementary school in gym class they had me endlessly dribble a basketball because they didn't know what else to do with me lol. I got very good at it. They also had me do chin ups on the chin up bar. They just had to pick me up and have me grab onto it. I could actually do more chin ups than everyone else in my class. They also had me bat and wheel to the bases in baseball. I liked to wack a ball with a bat and was pretty accurate with it lol. When I got to high school, after we moved to another state, and the ADA was brand new, my new school tried to ban me from gym class (which I loved), and put me on library duty (which I hated). My parents threatened to sue the school per the ADA, and I was magically allowed to take gym class again. I was integrated into regular classes and sometimes went to either a tutor or the special ed room for help with math. People with SB often really suck at math and I do lol. I do well in every class that doesn't involve math. I had two bullies in 5th grade. One was my "best friend." With both of them, once I physically fought back, they left me the hell alone. Just cause I'm sitting down doesn't mean I can't hurt you lol. With my "best friend" once we got to sixth grade, I was able to be around my other true friends and she realized she needed to be nice or she wasn't going to have friends, because the popular crowd didn't want her. Sorry I wrote a novel, but I hope it was interesting for you all. 😉 (I wish I would have gone to school with more disabled people. Maybe like a half disabled population. It's good and healthy to be around "your people." I did go to disabled camp every year though. The best part of my childhood ❤️)
Lisa TheCatDude what a great story, thank you so much for sharing. You are my hero. I am so impressed at what you were able to accomplish, well done. Thanks for watching. :-)
Inclusionism ftw. I had similar experiences in school. Luckily, by the time I made it to fifth grade, they had invented the braille note. Made things so much easier.
I love watching your videos. You have such a great presence. Thanks for being you 😊
What a great person you are Tommy!
I didn't know any blind individuals until I started to go to a camper for the blind at a school freshman impaired. I did me a six grader that was going t
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Hey Tommy I am a seventh grader this year and I just wanted to say that it is very weird how much of the same things that I have to do that you described in this video and how many things that you had that I also have these days. But I don't get in trouble LOL I am normally the funniest kid in the class though.
Your Blind Superhero hello seventh grade, most boring year of my life
Well to be fair I was put in classes I probably shouldn't have been in… Good luck my friend
Franky/ QuilavaFireblast yeah it is pretty fun so far and I am in the advanced band class and all advanced academic classes and I forgot to say I'm blind but you can probably already tell by my name
Your Blind Superhero awesome… I hope school treats you well
Hi Tommy. I'm a high school teacher and we just had a student join us as a freshmen who is congenitally blind. We had a meeting the other day to learn some things about him. It made me think of you. I've learned so much from your experiences. Then I say you had this timely video, so I've shared it with the rest of the teachers. Thanks!
Hi Matthew! I'm a researcher looking for inspiring stories about people connecting and learning through TH-cam. We would really like to speak to you more on this. Thank you!
Love your videos so much! So informative
Tommy, i would really like if you try to play a video game!
(Like so he can see)
JuneMoon "So he can see" xD
th-cam.com/video/lpDoYgGC9QI/w-d-xo.html
He kinda did
I've seen more deaf people throughout my education than blind . I believe deafness in the young is more common throughout the general population.
Wow you really got a lot of help from your family and those at your school that’s amazing!
Im addicted to this channel right now. Answering questions i didnt know i had
Tell us about your birthdays!!
I never was in school with a blind person until college.
You are always so happy! I Love it.
Love your channel Tommy!
“I saw them all day and everyday”
Me: you mean heard... I’m sorry
I went to school with a blind Asian guy, he had these cool blue shades, and I always thought his watch was neat.
I just love your videos Tommy. Such an inspiring guy. I always look forward to your new videos. Never stop doing them. :)
Love this channel Tommy you're a real inspiration..
I died at 1:54 good stuff
I didn't go to school with a blind kid, I am the blind kid. I'm the only one in the school.
What?! Are you blind from birth?
Thanks for the inspiration Tommy
I just found your channel via Fine Bros and your channel is hilarious. Your a great happy go lucky guy. Keep up the work man 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
I got the notification. I don't if that's still a problem but I'm here to help.
I help a blind kid in a few of my classes
Could you maybe do longer videos? I love hearing you talk about anything
Tommy i follow all your videos and you are truly inspirational.