Has anyone else taken the Mass Commission for the Blind survey?

[kestrell]

June being Pride month, I found it particularly creepy that the very first question on the survey asked "What is your original gender as stated on your birth certificate?" only it was phrased much more precisely and weirdly than that. Seriously, these people did not invest in a sensitivity reader for this survey.

The second question asked what gender do you identify as, and the third or fourth question went on to ask about your sexual orientation. Later questions asked about your citizen status and your work status. The survey didn't allow you to go back and change any of your answers.

Let me add, these are the people who, twenty years ago when I was persuaded to undergo a period of training by my MCB counselor, and I was very reluctant I might add, I was put under a *lot* of pressure and reprimands to conform to very traditional female appearance including wearing makeup and spending large amounts of time on my hair, despite the fact that I was already wearing business-appropriate attire and had my hair in a very neat French braid.

There is still a lot of pressure in the blind community to be quote normal unquote, and a lot of emphasis is still placed on traditional gender roles and het relationships, and the MCB has always felt it has some sort of paternalistic privilege when it comes to snooping and judging people's lives. This is why many people choose not to receive services at all, because once you let these services in, you don't know where they draw the line regarding what is their job and what is your private life.

As for the questions on this survey, my straightforward summary of that first question doesn't even do justice to the weirdly-worded psycho-babble of the actual question. All I could think was, there is no way that a trans person read that first question and believed that this was a safe space for them.

Comments

[dewline]

Not living in Massachusetts, the survey as you describe it is definitely coming across as having Seriously Creepy Vibes, capitalization intended on my part. I also wonder who was hired to design and phrase the survey questions, as well as how the hiring was done.

[duskpeterson]

Well, I certainly don't feel safe after hearing that.

It is absolutely nobody's business whatsoever (except maybe a doctor helping a patient with a gender-related medical issue) to know what gender a person was assigned at birth. I wouldn't come near MCB after that survey question. Honestly, the "traditional gender appearance" reprimands would already have crossed a hard line for me.

[jesse_the_k]

Yikes! What a crap survey.

[kestrell]

Yes, I hear it's a pet project of the Commissioner of the Blind, and he wants to use it as an actual factual basis for making decisions about who gets services, even though, from a research perspective, the wording and the way the questions and answers are posed are amateur and imprecise--at one point I was freaking out that I had filled out a phishing attack, until another blind person assured me it was legit.
I'm also afraid that the questions may become part of the actual registration process, including the questions regarding people's legal status.
Even if this is legal, which I can't imagine it is, this is going to scare so many people away from getting services, even before MCB rejects them as unsuitable. And the Commissioner justifies all this as "fact finding." My MIT/Ravenclaw side is possibly almost as appalled at the poor research skills involved--if you saw it, you would make those outraged shrieky Jesse the K noises, that I secretly kind of enjoy hearing, because I think of them as your war cry.

[jesse_the_k]

I didn't realize I had a shrieky persona, and I'm glad you like it!

[kestrell]

Well, it's been too long since I've heard you in person, and maybe sounds of outrage are just lingering in my mind today, not that I'm comparing you with a turkey god, I promise. But, of course, now that I've said that, it sounds as if I am, so I apologize for the fact that when I say I'm not doing something, it sounds as if I am implying I'm actually implying I am doing that thing.

Wow, how much caffeine have I consumed already today? Is it lunchtime yet? I have two Zoom meetings tonight, which means I am likely to consume a lot more caffeine before the day is done. I think I will order a Hawaiian pizza for an early dinner, because I'm going to require a lot of protein to soak up all this caffeine.

Aren't you so glad I include you in my stream of consciousness day planning? Do you think all these Zoom meetings are causing a widespread Zoomania? Or should I just go back to being a Zoombie?

Zoo-be-do-be

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks so much for ferrying me down your stream of consciousness; it was an exciting and mystifying trip.

(I quacked "screaming turkey" but no joy. That's okay. Clearly your detailed fantasy life succeeds at keeping you alive even when you have to attend more than one Zoom a day.)

Hope that pizza was very tasty. (Ham and pineapple?)