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

[Michael Peterson]

    Hi Haben. You just gave me an interesting set of ideas.
We have navigation like Senderon on the braille note so why if one needs a 
traffic signal couldn't a device be created with sensors the deaf blind 
person could carry with him/her.  This would most likely be a lot cheaper 
than putting a box on every traffic light in fact it could be set up to 
pulsate on your wrist like a cell phone alarm on vibrate it could give a 
series of two pulses for crossing north south and a long pusle for crossing 
east west.
If you visit another city you would still have the device just like a white 
cane or a guide dog
 it would be with you not sedentary.
In my mind it's about the size of a braille watch and kind of like a light 
probe a blind switch board operator might use.  It probably operates like an 
infr red sensor.
It might even be usable to protect blind folks without a hearing loss from 
highbred silent cars.

Also the money issue I'm sure such a device could read money in braille, for 
example if you have openbook and or most likely Kurzweill as a part of the 
scanner they have a bill scan feature. You can even now attach a braille 
note or a braille sense to your computer and probably read the money that 
way.
Also since we know the NFB believes very vehemently in braille literacy and 
we know there is currently a cellphone that takes pictures and reads back 
labels etc verbaly, the next step should be to give that phone a small 
attachment that would allow it's user to read text messages or scanned 
documents labels etc in braille.
When I sacrifice for the common good I attempt to come up with alternatives 
that can work and at the same time bring people together.  In my view 
staying inside without a whimper isn't for the good of anyone because it 
puts sighted folks in the position of caretaker.  Just to give an 
illustration of people feeling inconvenienced, a woman recently had eight 
babies at once.  She's happy, her children I guess are happy but her mom 
says she had six babies to take care of all ready and now has fourteen! 
She's not a happy camper.
Most people on some level get really unhappy when they feel forced to treat 
adults as children but they have a guilt thing going on.  When I speak of 
self sacrifice for the common good by trying to clear a path for my blind 
brothers and sisters I am not just helping them I'm helping society as a 
whole including the government which about now could reduce expenses 
significantly by employing the 70% or so of the disabled who currently don't 
work.
Talk about a posative stimulus package!

But on the otherhand as you said in other cultures blind people see 
sacrifice differently.
Speaking of the japaneese culture I either read or heard they actually have 
a higher regard in general for the blind.  In fact many blind practictioners 
do massage and other health wellness stuff that requires them to undergo 
very rigorous training and discipline.  They don't just go to massage school 
or at least the group I'm thinking of didn't.  I'm thinking I read it in the 
New York times or readers diggest a few years ago and these women were 
really highly regarded in Japaneese culture.
I don't know about other areas of employment they have but I had the 
impression they are more progressive than western Europe.
This is in contrast to a Japaneese man Doctor Journigan spoke about who saw 
blindness I think as a dying.
Maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong.
It's an interesting subject.
I know when I visited Germany I was kind of disappointed blind people aren't 
treated nearly as well there as in the US in fact when I wanted to go on a 
tour to the castles the tour guide refused saying "we don't have someone to 
babysit you." Never mind I had flown across the world and was staying in 
Munich unaccompanyed.  When I spoke to the hotel about it and said in 
America they could never do this he said I understand but this isn't 
America.
I did go to Switzerland and austria but I made a mistake, I knew I didn't 
know the area so I stayed on the bus instead of breaking off the tour and 
staying in the little town on the lake for a night.  I could've taken the 
train back to munich the next day and got a cab to the hotel without a 
problem but my confidence was shaken I guess because of conversations I was 
having with the tour guide.
She was very nice but also very condescending.  The little town was very 
quiet and sereen a postcard story book kind of town in the Alps.

I went there because I won a sweepstakes from Becks beer.  They felt bad 
about the situation with the tour company  too and were going to provide me 
with a private driver for the second tour I wanted.   I was going to go to 
the Black forest.  My problem was my plane schedule was to close so I 
couldn't work out the change.
I was suposed to have a guest with me but she couldn't go at the last minute 
and I wasn't about to throw away the trip of a life time.
So I went.
Cultural diversity is something we really stress in my training to become a 
VR counselor.
There is a book about the Hmon culture called "spirit catches you and you 
fall  down about a little Hmon girl who has epilepsi.  Realy interesting 
book.
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 11:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Cabs-talk] [cabs-talk] Diversity and the NFB


> 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
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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