Do you ever get frustrated when you see a post or a text message that contains 5 words and 25 emojis? Or maybe this feels natural to you as you are the person that needs to use it to express yourself better? If you don’t see what is the big deal with using emojis, this Tumblr user ActuallyBlind pointed out the struggles that blind people experience in this situation.
Yes, they can “read” text messages and posts. These messages are usually read to them, and together with the text goes a description of the emoji. According to the user, one of the most frustrating things that visually impaired people face is having to hear multiple descriptions of the same emoji.
Image credits: Helar Lukats
User on Tumblr asks not to get wild with emojis when you text visually impaired person
Image credits: actuallyblind
Of course, it is undeniable that emojis now became an important part of our daily communication. Also, it is understandable that people who don’t have problems with their vision, don’t think much about these things. This of course led to a quite useful discussion on Tumblr, where other users started asking questions to become more aware of how to ease texting for blind people. The post didn’t lose its relevance and got 127k notes and even though this was first posted 3 years ago, it is still useful to this day.
As it turns out, most people don't know that emojis are also read to blind people
Image credits: candidlyautistic
What are other things we should consider when writing a message to a visually impaired person? According to Veronica, who writes a blog about living with vision impairment, there are some simple but effective points to take into consideration.
The person even shares their most hated emoji, the prayer hands, and explains why
Image credits: actuallyblind
First things first, correct grammar and punctuation are very important when you text to a blind person (I guess we can say that this is also appreciated by people who can see).
If you ever witnessed a situation when a person shouted to a deaf person and it looked pretty awkward as it didn’t help them to be heard, don’t use capital letters when you write to a blind person because it won’t change anything, but rather look as if you are yelling at them.
People on Tumblr started discussing "do's" and "don'ts" of texting blind people
Image credits: let-the-spectrum-in
It’s better not to use abbreviations or additional letters either, as screen reading technology will have trouble in pronouncing it correctly or will take longer to read the reply.
Same as with emojis, try not to add too many punctuation marks as the receiver end up listening to “exclamation point” 20 times.
Image credits: actuallyblind
When you add links, don’t forget to write where it will send you and use shorter versions of it as a screen reader might read the whole link.
You can also send messages that include pictures and photos as the mentioned technology can describe them. To ease the work, add a description together with the picture, as these readers are not perfect and might provide the person with the wrong description.
Image credits: carnistprivilege
Last, but not least don’t be afraid to use words such as look, see, watch or view when you talk with the visually impaired person. Some might think that this seems offensive, but in reality, blind people don’t mind these words being used.
If you know any more useful tips and tricks everyone should know to make it easier for blind people to read their messages, don’t forget to share your wisdom with others!