[nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology

[Bruce Sexton]

Dear Karen,



I understand your concern with calling a person visually impaired.  We are 
the National Federation of the Blind.  I have personal experience with 
converting from using terms such as visually impaired and legally blind.  I 
understand, and you understand the value of using such language as "Blind." 
It's powerful language that expresses how a person feels.  As we introduce 
people to this concept, it is imperative that we consider the new person's 
feelings of their blindness.  They have probably not yet been exposed to the 
freedoms that can be obtained by using non-visual techniques, alternative 
methods and powerful language so simple as "I am Blind" or National 
Federation OF the Blind (incases on the word "of" rather than the word 
 "for.")



Jim Omvig in his book "Freedom for the Blind" expresses this concept clearly 
when he says:



 "When a newly blinded individual is first met, however, and where that 
initial effort is to get the person interested at all in some kind of 
beneficial program, there are times when the school or agency specialist 
needs to be willing to tread lightly and even use some meaningless 
euphemisms.



".To get started simply, I asked a man whom we were visiting, "How long have 
you been blind?" Blind was not the word I should have used.



"I'm not blind!" he virtually screamed out at me. As a novice, and perhaps 
as too much of a purist, I had failed to take into account that the people 
who have not yet accepted their blindness enough even to get to the point of 
taking needed training may need to be dealt with differently from those who 
have made the decision to get on with their lives. From that day forward, my 
approach changed completely when dealing with newly blinded people who had 
not yet agreed to get into a training program. "How long have you had 'poor 
eyesight,'" or some meaningless or useless variant thereof, became a routine 
part of my conversation. I did not want to make that same mistake again and, 
perhaps, even undo what had already been done to begin to persuade that 
potential new customer to get involved in proper training."



Karen, I hope this makes sense.  If you have any other questions, don't 
hesitate to write!



Sincerely,

B.J. Sexton, board member

National Association of Blind Students

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terri Rupp" <terri.rupp at gmail.com>
To: "NABS list serve" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 12:25 PM
Subject: [nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology


> Karen and all,
> The NFB is using different outlets to try to reach out to nonmembers.
> Facebook is just one of them.  Although as you said, the philosophy of the
> federation is based on the word "Blind", that word "Blind" is sometimes a
> negative things to those people struggling to deal or accept their
> blindness.  It was only until a few years ago that I was one of them.  I
> didn't want to associate with anything that labeled me as blind.  I felt
> ashamed to be blind and called myself "visually impaired".  The acceptance
> of one's blindness is a grieving process that each person goes through
> differently.  What we have to do is serve as possitive blind role models,
> and show that being blind is no different than being short.  It is simply 
> a
> characteristic.  Once we attract them to these groups, we can promote NFB
> activities, scholarships, etc and reel them in with our philosophy.
>
> Yours,
> Terri Rupp, President
> National Association of Blind Students
> (707)-567-3019
> nabs.president at gmail.com
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