<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body dir="auto">
<div dir="ltr"></div>
<div dir="ltr">Justin,</div>
<div dir="ltr">I am angried by this post which assumes all blind people are just blind. What about people who has multiple disabilities? Are they supposed to lay down and die? I knew a man who had partial sight and, from an conident, became quadriplegic. He
lived alone and used a power chair, though could not prepare food, get in and out of bed, and some other very personal tasks without some assistance. The few daily hours of help made it possible for Albert to live independently. Yes, I consider him independent
even if he did not do everything by himself. </div>
<div dir="ltr">As for any of us becoming PCA'S, that won't happen if their rights aren't supported. </div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Sandy</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
On Mar 11, 2025, at 2:39 PM, Justin Salisbury via Massachusetts-NFB <massachusetts-nfb@nfbnet.org> wrote:<br>
<br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<style>@font-face { font-family: Helvetica; }
@font-face { font-family: "Cambria Math"; }
@font-face { font-family: Calibri; }
@font-face { font-family: Aptos; }
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; }
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }
span.EmailStyle19 { font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: windowtext; }
.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; }
@page WordSection1 { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 1in; }
div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; }</style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Hi Shara,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Thank you for letting us know this.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">I want to offer a few more thoughts just to offer background on why I asked. The summary, in one sentence, is that the collective blind relationship with PCA’s is very complicated,
and I do not think that I have a clear stance on blind people participating in such an effort. Because of that, nobody should think I am shaming them for whatever they choose.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">If people do attend, I want you to be aware that there is a problematic tradition of giving blind people PCA’s instead of giving us adjustment-to-blindness training and other
rehabilitation services. Instead of learning how to walk with a cane, we could just use a PCA to lead us everywhere with sighted guide. Instead of learning how to cook and clean, we could just use a PCA to do all of that for us.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">When I was a teenager and new to blindness, I went to a program that would help me to learn how to live as a blind person. I am sure that at least one other person on this
list will know exactly which program I am talking about. There was a man in a leadership role there who seemed pretty popular. There was a joke about him, that he had two wives. He had his actual wife, who was also blind, and then he had a woman who lived
with them and took care of them because they were blind. If I remember correctly, the story was that they got their health insurance to pay for her to be a PCA because of their blindness. They knew her because she had been the husband’s reader during college.
The staff in that summer program taught us that this was a great benefit that we as blind people could get from the government. Not a single staff member shared a dissenting opinion.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Now, with all the polyamory in the world today, I am not taking a stance against the idea of having two partners. If that’s something that you want to do, go ahead, really.
This isn’t about that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">What I am bringing up is that my teenage self was taught that the way to live as a blind person was to get a PCA to live with you to take care of you, as if it was too farfetched
to believe that a blind person, or a blind couple, could reach the American dream of owning a home, raising children, and doing it all on their own without a sighted person to take care of them. Those kinds of messages were very harmful to me as a kid, and
I didn’t really understand the extent of it until I started getting involved in the fight to make it illegal for the state to take people’s children away from them because they were blind. There is a longstanding idea in the broader society that blind people
cannot take care of ourselves and need a sighted person to take care of us. This is related to how people think we cannot raise kids on our own.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">I totally agree with the ideology about having solidarity with other groups. I am not a veteran, but I would happily march in the veterans’ march that his happening at state
capitols all over the country on Friday. I might actually go to the one here in Minnesota where I am in graduate school.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">If you go to the event, and if you get asked by anyone why you’re there, please do us all a favor and let folks know that it isn’t that blind people need PCA’s but that we’re
there to support other people with disabilities. That is a personal ask and not an ask from the NFB.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Blind people are not often finding employment as personal care attendants, but we should have that opportunity if we want it. In that sense, helping to make sure that PCA opportunities
exist is part of that solution; also, this could be an opportunity to get in the ears of the people who lead PCA certifying bodies and the leaders of healthcare organizations that employ the personal care attendants, and we might be able to encourage them
to ensure that we remove accessibility and attitudinal barriers to blind people becoming employed as a PCA. I am for that any day of the week.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Whenever we do something, we never know who is watching and who is learning from what we do. There could be newly blind people or people who will soon become blind who notice
that we are participating in this event. There could also be sighted people who are friends or family members to people who are, or will soon become, blind. They may end up taking away so many different kinds of interpretations, and much of that will depend
on how they currently think about blindness. As a minoritized group in this society, this is going to happen whether we like it or not. They could tell themselves that the blind people in the crowd want a PCA to come take care of us, that the blind people
in the crowd work as a PCA and take care of other people, that the blind people in the crowd got lost while walking outside and ended up in a crowd of people not knowing why they’re there, that blind people are standing in solidarity with other disability
groups, or a million other stories. I hope that we get to tell our own story. <o:p>
</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Most of all, I hope that no blind teenagers will get told what I got told in that summer program about 20 years ago. Blindness, by itself, does not make a person need a PCA.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Go Sox,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Justin Salisbury<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From Athol<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">Justin MH Salisbury, MEd, NOMC, NCRTB<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">English Pronouns: He/Him/His<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">Email:
<a href="mailto:President@Alumni.ECU.edu"><span style="color:#0563C1">President@Alumni.ECU.edu</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">ResearchGate: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Salisbury&source=gmail-imap&ust=1727538746000000&usg=AOvVaw3uZJqqJkT2wSVxJDa9dD7W" originalsrc="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Salisbury&source=gmail-imap&ust=1727538746000000&usg=AOvVaw3uZJqqJkT2wSVxJDa9dD7W"><span style="color:#0563C1">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Salisbury</span></a></span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-salisbury&source=gmail-imap&ust=1727538746000000&usg=AOvVaw0XtyTG9WXXQ8TWe6UeU4Nz" originalsrc="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-salisbury&source=gmail-imap&ust=1727538746000000&usg=AOvVaw0XtyTG9WXXQ8TWe6UeU4Nz"><span lang="EN" style="color:#0563C1">https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-salisbury</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">ORCID:
<a href="https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1786-2786" originalsrc="https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1786-2786">
<span style="color:#0563C1">https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1786-2786</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">“Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Chinua Achebe</span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Massachusetts-NFB <massachusetts-nfb-bounces@nfbnet.org>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Shara Winton via Massachusetts-NFB<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, March 11, 2025 9:17 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> 'NFB of Massachusetts E-mail List' <massachusetts-nfb@nfbnet.org><br>
<b>Cc:</b> sharawinton@gmail.com<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Massachusetts-NFB] FW: Upcoming PCA rally on March 12<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Hi Folks,
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">This message was sent from a concerned citizen. We the NFB, have not taken a stance on this particular rally.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">However, if any of you would like to attend this rally., I would encourage you to do so. I think standing up for the rights of any group you feel are being treated unfairly
is a good way to stand up for what is right. If they throw anyone with disabilities “under the bus” so to say, we could be next.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">If I had time, I would be there. Not as a representative of the NFB, necessarily, but for the protection of the rights of people with disabilities.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Warmly,
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">Shara Winton<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">President, National federation of the Blind of Massachusetts<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><a href="http://www.nfbma.org/" originalsrc="http://www.nfbma.org/"><span style="color:#0563C1">www.nfbma.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual"><a href="mailto:sharawinton@gmail.com"><span style="color:#0563C1">sharawinton@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:standardcontextual">617-304-0347<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Massachusetts-NFB <<a href="mailto:massachusetts-nfb-bounces@nfbnet.org">massachusetts-nfb-bounces@nfbnet.org</a>>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Nora Nagle via Massachusetts-NFB<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, March 10, 2025 2:59 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:massachusetts-nfb@nfbnet.org">massachusetts-nfb@nfbnet.org</a><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Nora Nagle <<a href="mailto:nnagle@aol.com">nnagle@aol.com</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Massachusetts-NFB] Upcoming PCA rally on March 12<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">There will be a rally at the State House on Wednesday, March 12 in opposition to proposed limitations on the Personal Care Attendant (PCA) program. If you can, please come to support the disability community! Details below:<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:45.0pt">
<strong><i><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#202020">Rally for PCA Services!</span></i></strong><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#202020"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:45.0pt"><strong><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#202020">Last year</span></strong><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#202020"> the governor’s
budget proposal would have cut 6,000 people from the PCA program. The community battled back and the cuts were taken off the table by the legislature. </span><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:45.0pt">
<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#202020"> </span><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:45.0pt"><strong><u><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#202020">This year’s budget</span></u></strong><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#202020"> spares
the program— a reason to cheer—but it includes language that would result in people <strong><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">not </span></strong>getting services or PCAs not being able to get needed pay raises because of an artificial and indefinite
cap that would be placed on spending on the PCA program starting in16 months (<u>July 1, 2026</u>). </span><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:45.0pt">
<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#202020"><br>
<strong><i><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">Rally for PCA Services</span></i></strong><br>
<strong><i><u><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">March 12, 1:00 pm</span></u></i></strong><br>
<strong><i><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">State House, Boston, Bowdoin Street Entrance</span></i></strong><br>
</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:45.0pt"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#202020">We will rally outside and then visit the governor’s office to state our concerns about PCA services being restricted in 16 months.For
information contact BCIL at </span><u><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:blue">617-338-6665</span></u><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#202020"> or email <a href="mailto:contactBCIL@bostoncil.org" target="_blank"><span style="color:#007C89">contactBCIL@bostoncil.org</span></a>. <br>
This rally is supported by BCIL and 1199SEIU and all members of the disability and PCA communities are welcome!<br>
ASL interpreters have been confirmed.</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:45.0pt"><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nora Nagle<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sent from my iPad<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<span>_______________________________________________</span><br>
<span>Massachusetts-NFB mailing list</span><br>
<span>Massachusetts-NFB@nfbnet.org</span><br>
<span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/massachusetts-nfb_nfbnet.org</span><br>
<span>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Massachusetts-NFB:</span><br>
<span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/massachusetts-nfb_nfbnet.org/sandraburgess%40msn.com</span><br>
</div>
</body>
</html>