Hanni and I gave a presentation in the BookKids department at BookPeople in Austin yesterday. I started the presentation by explaining that even though my eyes are open I can’t see. “When I was little, I went to school just like you – and then when I lost my sight I had to go to school and learn to do things all over again,” I told the kids.
Only trouble was, There were no kids in the audience — I had no idea that I was talking to a bunch of adults. Duh! It is so embarrassing now to think of how painstakingly (for the people in the audience, I’m sure!) I explained what Braille is. I encouraged the audience to try squeezing toothpaste onto a toothbrush with their eyes closed. I teased them, telling them they could borrow some of the Seeing Eye dog training methods to “train” their parents.
It wasn’t until I’d finished signing and paw-printing copies of “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” afterwards that it dawned on me. I’d signed 20 books or so but didn’t talk to a single kid. “There were some kids mingling around,” the BookKids event planner told me. “But the audience was all adults!”
Well, adults and dogs, that is. A couple from Austin brought their Seeing Eye dogs along to the presentation, so Hanni had a little competition. That’s good for her – her head was getting big after those designer treats at the Renaissance Hotel!
Karen Thomas was there, too – she’s the editor of Dialogue Magazine. DIALOGUE is an international news magazine for people who are experiencing vision loss or are blind. It comes out in large print and on cassette, and Karen brought a copy of both formats for me. Guess what? “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” is reviewed in the September/ October 2007 edition! I listened to the review — and the rest of the magazine — on my flight back to Chicago.
And now that I’m home, I’ve made a note to myself: in the future, I’ll start my presentations by asking the audience to say, hmmm, let me think. How about they say “Safe!” if they’re adults. “Sound!!” if they’re kids. Then at least I’ll know who I’m talking to!
I like that idea of “safe” and “sound” to get a feel for your audience! I am going to check out Dialogue magazine- never heard of that one.
I’m assuming, since you added an exclamation point, that the review in Dialogue was favorable.
It must feel good to be home after all that travel. I hope Hanni is not going to expect the royal treatment everywhere she goes. Celebrity does strange things to people. Maybe dogs, too. There’s a rumor that Benji spent some time in rehab.
Yes, the Dialogue review was very favorable, thanks for asking. But Hanni in rehab? That’d be awful!
Then again, just think of the publicity. Could be just the ticket we need to finally get on Oprah…..
Hi Beth– It’s me, Denice Martin’s niece. I just read your Bookpeople entry and wanted to say that there was one little boy there for a while. His parents were paying attention but he wasn’t. Anyway, I like the safe and sound idea, too, and I wanted to tell you that even if no kids were there, you gave the adults in the audience good ways to explain being blind to kids they see later. Again, I enjoyed it very much. Congrats on the Dialogue review!
You know, you’re right. Now that I think of it, a couple named Brad and Mary were there with their 2 year old –maybe his name was Jonah? Brad sat on the panel with me at the Convio conference a few days earlier, we talked about assistive technology. He works for Knowbility (www.knowbility.org) a terrific organization in Austin that helps organizations adn businesses make their web sites accessible to those of us who use screen readers.
Phew! I feel better! There *was* a kid there after all!
And I like the way you think — I guess I did teach folks in the audience how to explain blindness to children. Thanks for helping me “look” at the BookPeople event in a different way, Kate!
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