[blparent] Can blind people adopt?

[Steve Jacobson]

First, I'm not a lawyer, but the definition of such things as being legally blind are US laws and such a definition 
may have differing levels of relevance in other countries.  In the past, it has been my impression that having 
reasonable residual vision will be more important than whether one meets the definition of blindness in some 
countries.  If one adopts from a particular country, getting an understanding of whether one is going to be seen as 
blind by that country might be helpful.  It could be that having some vision may cause one's legal blindness to not 
be all that important.  One would not want to emphasize one's lack of vision when trying to explain how one would 
do certain tasks if the country involved doesn't see you as blind to begin with.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson
  
On Thu, 28 May 2015 18:04:52 -0400, Star Gazer via blparent wrote:

>				Steve, can you explain? What would a
>differing definition of "blind person" mean in some other country? 


>-----Original Message-----
>From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steve
>Jacobson via blparent
>Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2015 11:50 AM
>To: Blind Parents Mailing List
>Cc: Steve Jacobson
>Subject: Re: [blparent] Can blind people adopt?

>Alana,

>The answer to your question as to whether blind people can adopt is "yes,"
>but of course it is not as simple as that.  To my knowledge, it is pretty
>rare that a country has an official position against blind people adopting,
>and even if that is the case, the definition of "blind" may not be what we
>commonly think of here.  Even if a country says it does not permit blind
>people to adopt, it may not mean that an adoption agency in this country
>might not be able to make it happen.  In recent years, some of the countries
>who have traditionally been sources of adoptions have tightened up their
>policies.  As I understand it, both Russia and China have tighter policies
>now than they did some time back, but not just regarding blind people but
>foreign adoptions in general.  

>The larger issue is simply whether an adoption agency will consider allowing
>one to adopt as a blind person.  If one partner in a relationship has
>vision, it is usually easier, but blind couples can definitely adopt
>children.  One needs to be persistent and patient.  Not all of the questions
>that one is asked are intended to prevent one from adopting.  Social workers
>who work with adoption generally do not know how blind people carry out
>parenting and the most open social workers will ask many questions just to
>understand.  Certainly there is discrimination in adoption, but usually
>taking the time to fight such discrimination legally will mean you won't be
>able to adopt so most of us who have adopted children did not go that route.

>There are many blind people who have adopted kids both from within the
>United States and from other foreign countries, and I believe a number of
>people on this list have adopted.  Both of my kids came from Korea some
>twenty years or more ago.  

>I hope this addresses your question.

>Best regards,

>Steve Jacobson


>On Sat, 23 May 2015 00:12:09 -0700, Alana Leonhardy via blparent wrote:

>>Hello. I'm curious which, if any, countries blind people can adopt children
>from? I know China doesn't allow it, although they do permit deaf people to
>do so.

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