[Cabs-talk] [cabs-talk] Diversity and the NFB

[Haben Girma]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for sharing your concerns about chirping signals. I hadn't 
thought they would be a disadvantage for anyone. Just an aside, the 
traffic signal they guy set up near my house works 24/7 whenever someone 
presses the button.

We must be very careful in choosing our self-sacrifices. In many places 
around the world, a blind person might choose to just stay at home 
because he knows that if he stepped outside on his own he would cause 
his family and neighbors much stress. The man would do it for the 
greater good, for the majority sighted people around him. I happen to be 
reading about Japanese culture at the moment and they are very big on 
self sacrifice. I find that if I were to refrain from requesting all the 
things I would need to be successful in life, such as FM Systems, 
braille books, etc, it would not be a positive image for the NFB, I 
would simply become another un-productive statistic. I've also heard of 
deafblind folks holding up cards to request passerby help them cross 
streets. Since I absolutely cannot hear traffic patterns reliably, then 
I suppose I could have chosen to hold up signs instead of asking for a 
chirping signal. For me, the greater freedom offered by a chirping 
signal was preferable. I really appreciate that you've revealed to me 
that chirping signals might actually make crossing streets harder for 
some deafblind people; that's a factor I was totally unaware of. As far 
as images go, I certainly did point out to the city technician that my 
hearing loss prevented me from listening to traffic patterns, as a 
solely blind person might.

A girl made a youtube video criticizing the NFB. Many of her claims were 
untrue and uninformed. I suspect, though, that some of her frustrations 
might stem from the common knowledge of the NFB, and that knowledge 
seems to have a strong tendency to cast the blind person as belonging to 
a homogeneous population. There are subdivisions like the deafblind 
Division, but that is not the voice most people hear from the NFB. To be 
honest, I don't know about the activities of the deafblind division, I 
don't know of any to speak of. A year or so ago I read in the news of 
the NFB's protest against making currency with tactile identifications. 
One of the NFB's arguments was that there exist machines that "speak" 
the denomination of a bill. If the deafblind division ever mentioned 
that the deafblind cannot use such a machine, their voices were not in 
the articles I read about the issue. By bringing this up I only mean to 
provide an example of how the NFB might not even represent its deafblind 
division, or the other deafblind organizations; I do just fine with 
folding bills, by the way, and have successfully been employed doing 
tasks involving money and cash registers.

I like the NFB, it's a fantastic and incredibly supportive organization. 
All I mean to convey is that I realize the NFB cannot always represent 
me because its intent is to represent the majority of blind people. I 
totally understand this, though the process of understanding and 
realizing this has been a little unsettling.

best,
Haben

Michael Peterson wrote:
>    Hi Haben.
> I like you have multiple disabilities am totally blind and also have 
> about a 50% hearing loss using "smart" hearing aids". I wondered if 
> the chirping signal would be helpful and have used some over in Los 
> angeles near braille institute.
> This isn't because of the NFB but although I understand your dread of 
> crossing some streets especially more complex ones with islands and 
> multiple turns, I have major concerns about the chirping signals.
> 1.  For me, when the signal chirps it interferes with the traffic I 
> mean I can hear traffic but it goes over quieter cars.  If someone 
> makes a turn or I veer I think I'm less likely to notice.
> 2.  In many cities the audible signals only work certain hours.  Even 
> if they were an advantage I can't use them whenever I want.
> 3.   Most of these signals have one sound for north south another for 
> east west.  If I don't live there I don't know which is which.  I 
> might or might not be able to decipher at the intersection with long 
> careful listening.
> 4.  Even when I hear traffic I have to watch my veering, in Fact one 
> time I actually crossed Van Nuys and Sherman Way two very busy streets 
> cattycornered during the 4:00 p.m rush hour.  God was with me because 
> not one car honked or squealed even a tire.  The only noticeable thing 
> that happened was a friend of mine happened to be driving by at that 
> time she jumped out of her car like grease lightning but by the time 
> she got across I was well on my way the wrong direction heading 
> towards my destination.  I stated noticing something was wrong, wrong 
> landmarks etc about the time she found me.  I should have been going 
> east not North.
> My point is the extra distraction it would seem could cause me to line 
> up improperly more frequently.
>
>
> I do understand where your coming from, but you should remember the 
> sole or at least primary focus of the NFB are the blindness issues.
> It's possible to be a member of the NFB and support them where blind 
> people generally are concerned and differ because of extinuating 
> circumstances like multiple disabilities, or some other minority 
> concerns I might not be thinking about just now.
> I know someone who was blind and  severely deaf and he took buses to 
> work and carried signs with different slogans one told the driver to 
> call his stop, another ask people to cross him I imagine sometimes he 
> had a long waiting time but that's what he had to do. Once he got 
> stuck in an elavator for a while and it was really tramatic because 
> all he could do was ring the bell and hope someone knew he was there.
> I ask a counselor "why does he travel by himself? She laughed and said 
> lots of people might ask you that same question.
> If I did decide audible signals were helpful I wouldn't appeal to the 
> city on the basis of blindness but rather on the basis of a multiple 
> handicap blindness combined with poor hearing.
> I think though if I did instead of an audible signal I would like a 
> vibrating one on the traffic light.  I've also toyed with the idea of 
> tactile lines on the street to keep me straight while crossing that's 
> definitely something the NFB wouldn't like in the majority and 
> rightfully so.  Most blind people don't need tactile markers they can 
> hear good. I don't ask for those not because the NFB would get mad at 
> me but I do have concerns that the sighted public might 
> misunderstand.  They might think I couldn't function in the work place 
> without special beepers to tell me where my desk the bathroom etc are 
> and they might think I need tactual markers on the floor to keep me 
> from hurting or endangering myself.
> I don't want other blind people to be turned down for work because of 
> misconceptions I inadvertently create.
> Sometimes that means I have to sacrifice at least I feel I do for the 
> greater good.
> But our philosophy about ourselves and our blindness as well as our 
> responsability to the blind community doesn't just happen.  I did 
> things when I was younger I might not do today and visa versa.
> So in my view that's just a decision you made for better or worse and 
> it's done.
> You can still be as much a federationist as you used to be.
> But, perhaps folks like you and I should join the deaf blind division 
> and communicate these concerns.
> I never joined because like a medium or high partial I said why do I 
> need to be in the deaf blind group I can hear?
> Oh yah try telling my wife that when she has to repeat herself several 
> times.
> Thank God she's not in to throwing things or I might need a beeping 
> sound shield.
> Keep the faith.
> Mike
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Haben Girma" <habnkid at aol.com>
> To: "California Association of Blind Students Mailing List" 
> <cabs-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 7:42 PM
> Subject: [Cabs-talk] [cabs-talk] Diversity and the NFB
>
>
>>
>> A few months back I called the city of Portland's Transportation 
>> Department requesting that they place chirping signals at a 
>> particularly difficult intersection near my house. Today, finally, 
>> the city sent someone who actually did just that! I was amazed at how 
>> quickly the man was able to set up the chirping signals, and how 
>> little work it required. Reflecting on the whole situation, I 
>> wondered if maybe I could start a volunteer group to set up chirping 
>> signals at the intersections around Portland. Then my boyfriend said, 
>> "You know what the NFB would say?"
>>
>> "Oh shit," I was suddenly hot and took off my hat. I felt momentarily 
>> stressed, ashamed, panicked. I knew exactly what the NFB would say. 
>> The NFB would say chirping signals are not necessary, a properly 
>> trained blind person can safely cross the intersections by listening 
>> to traffic patterns. Suddenly my plan seemed stupid, and I felt 
>> guilty for asking the city to set up an chirping intersection near my 
>> home.
>>
>> After some thought, after talking it out with my boyfriend, I 
>> realized that the blind population is too diverse for the NFB to dish 
>> out standards for every single one of those blind people. I attended 
>> the Louisiana Center for the Blind and in some ways my confidence in 
>> crossing streets shrunk from that experience. I am blind, but I'm 
>> hard of hearing, too, and hence I cannot trust my ears to help me get 
>> across streets. I use a combination of vision and hearing to cross 
>> most streets, but some streets I simply do not feel safe crossing. 
>> The intersections that cannot be tamed by my vision and hearing are 
>> those for which I want the city of Portland to install chirping signals.
>>
>> My point is that the NFB should not be treated as law by all blind 
>> people. I've had to pick and choose which standards of the NFB to 
>> adopt, and which I should discard because I am hard-of-hearing. There 
>> are other blind people with multiple disabilities that probably 
>> experience similar frustrations with the NFB. I noticed that the girl 
>> in the youtube video who rants against the NFB has a partial facial 
>> paralysis. I strongly feel that the NFB should more vocally 
>> acknowledge the non-homogeneity of the blind population.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Haben
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Cabs-talk mailing list
>> Cabs-talk at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/cabs-talk_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>> Cabs-talk:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/cabs-talk_nfbnet.org/its_mike%40sbcglobal.net 
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Cabs-talk mailing list
> Cabs-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/cabs-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> Cabs-talk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/cabs-talk_nfbnet.org/habnkid%40aol.com 
>