#like that kids education was riding on being able to see
Can we please stop teaching children that there is something shameful about having to wear glasses?
Let’s stop telling kids they have to take them off for pictures so they “look good” or so we can “see their beautiful eyes”
My mother was a photographer and she never once told me to take my glasses off for a picture. I am legally blind without them. But every school picture or picture anyone else ever took of me my glasses have been removed, either because they photographer verbally insisted or ACTUALLY physically removed them from my face and took them out of my reach without my consent. (I’ve had to wear them since I was a baby, so you can imagine the anxiety attack that happens when someone renders me blind and takes my assistive technology out of my reach.)
Why would you make a disabled person remove their assistive tech to satisfy your aesthetic? You know what sort of message that sends?
“This thing that is a necessity for you is ugly for us.”
I take them off when I take selfies, and you know why? Because with them on the camera’s selfie mode gives the error message that it can’t find a face. I have to take them off to use the face recognition because the coating I have on them to protect my eyes from UV light makes the computer and phone unable to find my face.
I do have contacts lenses I can wear, but they are massively expensive for me, because of what is wrong with my eyes, and I tend to wear them very sparingly, and often I cannot afford more. So, in person, I pretty much always have glasses on. So pictures of me without them don’t really feel like pictures of me.
Please don’t teach kids that glasses are something to be ashamed of.Even if your kid doesn’t wear them. They aren’t a curiosity or a character flaw. it is not okay to mock someone for wearing them and it is not okay to grab them off a persons face without consent. You wouldn’t tip someone out of their wheelchair because “You just wanna try it out” so why would you think it’s okay to grab someone’s glasses?
My mom and I had worn glasses for years. I remember there was a kid who was having trouble seeing the board in class. My mom told their mom that she needed to be careful about getting her child glasses. Why? Because once her kid got glasses, they would need glasses for life.
Imagine saying “I know your child has had trouble walking for years, but don’t get them crutches, or they’ll need them forever.”
