[Blindtlk] non 24

[Ericka]

Well thought out Gary. Thank you.

Ericka Short
"Friends are like flowers in the garden of life"

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 20, 2016, at 12:43 PM, Gary Wunder via blindtlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Well, it sounds like most of us have an opinion about this subject. I don't
> have anything new to say about the motives of Vanda, the studies they used,
> or whether we should be accepting sponsorships for the convention. I do
> think we have to ask ourselves a very hard question: what message are we
> happy with about blindness if it doesn't come from us? I'm in the business
> of putting out our message as the editor of the Braille Monitor, so I love
> that message very much, but should we turn thumbs down on a guide dog school
> that decides to do radio advertising in order to give the blind greater
> mobility and that ad features a blind woman talking about the isolation she
> experienced and how she now moves about in her community? If a radio ad
> decides to promote a reading machine for the blind and a blind person talks
> about how it has changed her life because once she had stacks of mail that
> she didn't know how to get through and this new machine has given her
> tremendous independence, would we object on the grounds that she is implying
> that blind people without the machine can't handle paperwork? 
> 
> Like most statements that can be made, there is some truth in almost
> everything. Does the action of one blind person affect all blind people? Of
> course not. If it did, Mike Freeman's successful performance as a computer
> programmer would have meant that all discrimination against computer
> programmers who are blind would have ceased almost four decades ago. Does
> the fact that one blind person abusively swears at someone who offers help
> mean that nobody gets offered help? Of course not. Is it true that we are
> watched and that we can to some degree positively or negatively affect what
> people think about others who are blind? Yes, but again, this is all a
> matter of degree.
> 
> I think we should give be employers and members of the general public some
> credit for exercising the same intelligence we do when listening to
> advertisements, reading pamphlets, or being persuaded by someone with a
> definite point of view. We filter it, think about it, and we do our best to
> go beyond what we are able to perceive as our biases and prejudices. I think
> we have tried in our literature to answer the questions is literature
> against us, is history against us, and is the public against us. I think the
> answer is no. We are not at the top of the stairs, but at least we are
> climbing, and I think that getting to the top of the stairs means being as
> honest as we can about the problems that we face and our ability to solve
> them if we work together. 
> 
> 
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