Eye Rolling...and accessibility

RantWoman regrets to advise her readers: most of the time RantWoman really CANNOT tell what is happening on people's faces. If something about RantWoman's demeanor, facial expression, clothing, couture, hairstyle, or just sunspots distresses you, please USE YOUR WORDS and tell RantWoman so. RantWoman regretably does not promise necessarily to be able to fix the problem, but she can at least make an effort to interact appropriately with your distress.

RantWoman does not read minds. RantWoman especially does not even read faces. Yet RantWoman is afflicted by all sorts of reflexes that, RantWoman worries, probably flash all sorts of RantWoman-style communications all over her face without asking her permission.

RantWoman is pretty sure she was never all that smooth about recognizing the flashes of emotion that wander over most people's faces almost instantaneously. RantWoman has the sense though that whatever limited capacity she might previously have had in this area has almost completely evaporated. This is a problem because RantWoman also has a hypersensitive built-in, very poorly modulated Idiot Detector.

RantWoman is pretty sure that she might as well have one of those movie theater marquee's emblazoned across her forehead. RantWoman is pretty sure that when someone engages the idiot detector, the news probably blazes across RantWoman's face some emphatically that just having it on a movie marquee would be easier. The idiot detector engages. RantWoman has no clue it has gone off. It goes off without any kind of moderation of the "please use your words" variety. RantWoman does not even have enough groupies who can recognize the problem and say things to soothe RantWoman's conversation companions, to alert RantWoman, or to drag the situation back into more civil zones. RantWoman MOST of the time would actually prefer not to cause as much distress as she fears this problem causes. RantWoman spends a certain percentage of her time writing job descriptions and she supposes she should just write "ability to rescue RantWoman from her own hyperactive idiot detector" into job descriptions for key roles.


RantWoman has an eye-rolling reflex that is almost as out of control, with another nuance as well: RantWoman's eye rolling reflex sometimes kicks in even for people she loves, admires, deeply esteems, considers role models and in all other respects would much prefer to make good impressions on. The ONLY thing RantWoman can say in this situation: relax, the eye rolling MIGHT just mean you are already on RantWoman's deeply esteemed list.

(RantWoman realized this last point while interacting with an email from someone from RantWoman's faith community with whom RantWoman serves on a committee. RantWoman has previously written of being exactly the sort of person who really needs her faith community. Enough said?)

Now, how on earth can RantWoman phrase all of this in terms of "reasonable accommodations?"