[blparent] model state custody bill

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

I skimmed through the bill, and the word "solely" is used quite often. 
Child Services cannot deny blind people rights in guardianship, custody, 
adoption, or visitation solely because they are blind.  If it can be proven 
that there are other issues, it sounds as if Child Services will still be 
free to act.  Of course, there may be some blind people who will try to use 
the bill as an excuse for why they have been victimized, or a reason to 
complain, just as there are bound to be social workers who will invent 
reasons besides blindness to proceed because of their own misconceptions of 
what blind parents might or might not be capable of.  But as it is written, 
it sounds like the bill is quite specific about only prohibiting 
discrimination against blind parents for no other reason than their 
blindness.

Jo Elizabeth

I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's 
brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and 
died in cotton fields and sweatshops.--Stephen Jay Gould
-----Original Message----- 
From: Bernadetta Pracon
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 8:34 PM
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [blparent] model state custody bill

Kate has a point here. I thought about this myself--it's a ligitimit
thing to bring up. I can imagine it's tricky for social services and
other medical and state staff to determine which blind parents are put
under scrutiny for reasons that pertain to blindness or some reasons
which may branch from blindness but aren't directly related. I guess it
has to do with the willingness of the parent to get their issues in
order and dealt with. You can teach a parent  who is undereducated but
eager to learn and care for a child. It's markedly different, and I'd
imagine much more difficult to deal with someone who doesn't feel they
need any extra education, but clearly do. It's a valid point because it
measures the difference between a need for enlightenment and child
endangerment.

Bernadetta

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