[Blindtlk] Use of the Term Visually Impaired

Fri Jun 21 21:32:20 UTC 2013

Your comment reminds me of someone I met several years ago. This person 
worked with individuals  that  were in rehab for brain trauma. Anyway, I 
know this person meant well, but she was so extremely person first, without 
a disability, and she actually got annoyed with me for not even at the time 
realizing that it was an issue as I typically used the phrase visually 
impaired people, that personally it was almost offensive to me. I think when 
someone without a disability  or impairment starts acting so extremely 
strongly, it almost, at least to me, starts to feel like the person is just 
really uncomfortable with the disability. In other words, it almost feels 
like they are over doing the oh you are a person first, because they are 
really uncomfortable with the disability.
With warm regards,
Chris

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carly Mihalakis" <carlymih at comcast.net>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>; "'Blind Talk Mailing 
List'" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 5:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Use of the Term Visually Impaired

> Here in Berkeley, they routinely ram that person first shit down our 
> throats but I have to say, i am enucleated and therefore am not "impaired" 
> by any strech of anyone's imagination, but am stone ass BLIND. When, in 
> public people refer to my blind partner and I as "visually in paired" or 
> "unsighted" I quickly correct them by  saying "no, I'm blind." People feel 
> seem to feel so strongly about such an issue yet, those who conceivers of 
> this so called People First lingo,to the best of my knowledge, are not 
> themselves effected by anything separating them from the main stream. 
> Oughtn't effected people be them deaf, blind  or  crippled, inform society 
> as to how they would like to be referred?
> for today, Car
>>From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Christine
>>Szostak
>>Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 4:38 PM
>>To: Blind Talk Mailing List
>>Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Use of the Term Visually Impaired
>>
>>Hi,
>>   I suspect that actually the issue was not really with the term visually
>>impaired, but rather with the order. When you say a "visually impaired
>>person" the disability comes first as  opposed to saying a "person with a
>>visual impairment". Thus, having the disability first is objected to, at
>>least this is what I am assuming the blogger was getting at.
>>Happy Friday!
>>Chris
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Kelby Carlson" <kelbycarlson at gmail.com>
>>To: <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>>Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 4:24 PM
>>Subject: [Blindtlk] Use of the Term Visually Impaired
>>
>>
>> > Hi everybody!
>> >
>> > So, since I'm not aware of any incendiary debates flaring up around 
>> > here
>> > recently, I thought I'd bring up something I read recently that I found
>> > utterly baffling.  This was on a blog thread about proper etiquette 
>> > around
>>
>> > people with disabilities.  Towards the end, a discussion of language
>> > appropriateness came up, and someone said that "visually impaired" was 
>> > an
>> > unacceptable term that should not be used.  Instead, one should say 
>> > "with
>> > a visual impairment." I have heard similar things regaring the phrasing 
>> > of
>>
>> > a "blind person" versus "a person with blindness", but this was 
>> > especially
>>
>> > perplexing because I can't recall ever meeting someone in my entire 
>> > life
>> > who was opposed to the term "visually impaired", at least when it was 
>> > used
>>
>> > to describe someone who had some functional vision.  I don't have 
>> > strong
>> > feelings either way, but I would actually lean more to towards 
>> > preferring
>> > visually impaired than "partially sighted", though I think neither one 
>> > is
>> > more linguistically accurate than the other.
>> >
>> > I have encountered the issue of language surrounding disability many
>> > times, and it's always been a bit strange-don't we, as blind people 
>> > (among
>>
>> > other people with various kinds of disabilities) have higher priorities 
>> > on
>>
>> > our lists of "things to fix in the world"? These are just my thoughts 
>> > on
>> > the matter.
>> >
>> > Kelby S.  Carlson
>> >
>> > Vanderbilt University
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> >
>>
>>
>>
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>
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