[Ct-nfb] Blind Babies and Our Purpose

[Trevor Attenberg]

While I've not been to India, I know several blind federationists from
India. While I can say we have many things going for us in the U.S.,--in no
small part due to the work of the NFB-we should remember it wasn't long ago
that nearly all blind Americans were prohibited from attending adequate
public schools like sighted peers. Such an era lasted well beyond the
foundation of the NFB; and from the beginning, the NFB's main message has
been blindness isn't a tragedy. I did visit a school for the blind in
Vietnam. As you might imagine, career opportunities and social acceptance
there is quite limited currently, despite their being a number of blind
national icons. What blind people face there is basically the same as what
we see in the U.S. People don't think blind folks are capable of achieving
greatness; blind people cannot keep up in a modern world; blindness is a
debilitating punishment, etc. Thus, blind people around the world face the
same problems of perception as we do. 

The strategy the NFB has always taken is to emphasize the potential and
capability of blind people rather than the obstickles and perceptions of
devastation and gloom that is too often the first thing people think. Thus,
I would say we could really do more by stressing a positive message of
blindness for the parents of the child, the senator, and the TV audience.
While the parents may have to struggle with the facts of having a blind
child in a country where there are few services and many fears surrounding
blindness, they and the child will benefit profusely from knowing their
child can achieve, and knowing they have a supportive community of
successful blind people there to offer what they can in terms of wisdom,
encouragement, and tools.

                This is what I was kind of tiptoeing around before after
getting the video message. While I am not opposed to curing cases of
blindness per se; this is really not the territory of the NFB at all. This
is more the territory of some medical charity or the Lions, and we're not a
charity in this way. As Justin pointed out, we're really treading on our
main goal and message by pushing such a political and media campaign. After
all, we and the Senator are not going to cure all the curable cases of
blindness in India, right?

Best,

Trevor A         

    

 

From: Ct-nfb [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Blindhands at aol.com
Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 7:57 PM
To: ct-nfb at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] Blind Babies and Our Purpose

 

Justin ,

 

I agree  with the Federation regarding what you said in your email, but this
child lives in India and is a native of India.

 

I don't know if you have had the opportunity to ever had gone to India and
experienced first hand the blind people in India, but I have.

 

There is 14.5 million blind people in India and the opportunity for the
blind in India is far from what yu can imagine.  They are not taught to
travel independently nor do they have the opportunity to even have a cane.
There isn't much opportunity for training of jobs.  

 

While I was there I had the chance of visiting some of the much better
schools for the blind.  Some examples I can give is a school in Mumbai  that
had over 500 students living at the school and I visited their computer lab.
They had 8 computers in there to train these 500 students on.

 

While I was there I had to get special peermission which was made ahead of
time to my arrival to travel with my guide dog.  I could not go in public
tourist areas with her, but I was invited to the Capital in New Deli to have
an appointment with the Department of rehabilitation for the government in
India.

 

Mind you I was only allowed to visit the blind schools that the India
government allowed me to visit along with members of the U.S. Embassy.

 

I totally understand the desperation of this Mother of this little boy
seeking medical attention in the USA to save her child's sight.

 

I never had the chance to visit blind people that live in the villages that
are cared for by their family for all of their life.

 

Joyce Kane
www.KraftersKorner.org <http://www.krafterskorner.org/> 
Blindhands at AOL.com 

 

In a message dated 7/15/2013 1:24:46 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu writes:

Justin 

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