[nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology

Sun Nov 16 01:24:23 UTC 2008

I think you are all getting too hung up on empty words.  The NFB 
philosophy is about actions and attitudes.

If you call me blind and mean by it that I am helpless, I will take 
offense.  If you call me impaired and mean that I just can't see much but 
am otherwise like anyone else, I'll accept your words as respectful.

I can almost always tell the difference, and I bet you can too.

Joseph

On Wed, Nov 05, 2008 at 11:06:10PM +0000, Corbb O'Connor wrote:
> I didn't write the subject line, but I am assuming that was a blanket  
> marketing e-mail. That is, it was meant to be forwarded around. Just as 
> we want to attract new members (as has been said by me and others), we 
> wouldn't want to push people toward the delete button after only reading 
> the subject line. Marketing, my friends, it's marketing. I agree with all 
> of you -- we in the Federation are blind, even those of us with some 
> residual vision. Let's not push people away from our great organization 
> before they even know who we are and why we use the words we do. I don't 
> think we're undermining ourselves or our philosophy -- we're trying to 
> find others out there who don't see as well as their peers (seniors, 
> students, and...well...everybody else) to show them our positive 
> philosophy on blindness.
>
> -----
> Corbb O'Connor
> studying at the National University of Ireland, Galway
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 5, 2008, at 10:33 PM, Janice wrote:
>
> Hello Karen, Terri and Listers,
>
> Wow, Karen!! I must say, thanks for calling us, as the nabs board and as
> nabs members,  out on this very interesting point. I have recently  
> noticed
> something like this also. I think that Terri's point can be a good one. 
> It
> might be important for the Federation to use terminology such as  
> visually
> impaired or low vision, to try to attract a larger facet of people.  
> These
> people might be uncomfortable with their blindness, they might not want 
> to
> identify as blind... so, we say- Hey you visually impaired person...  
> this
> group is for you too!
> Once we have their foot in the door so to speak, then
> we can teach them about our philosophy and educate them in the fact that 
> we
> are all blind individuals> We can then wow them into believing that  the 
> visual hierarchy does not matter. Even if you
> are legally blind,    the key word is blind. One is not going to be
> recognized as a legally visually impaired person, are they?
>
> However, I do wonder in certain instances where the lines get blurred  
> and if
> we are sacrificing what we are as an organization to try to get these  
> new
> individuals into our door. For example, not  to pick on one specific
> facebook group, but I will use the 411 group, since it seems to be the  
> most
> recent one and has sparked some debate. The salutation line- "Attention
> blind and visually impaired high school students!" This makes some sense
> according to Terri's argument. We want those who self identify as  
> visually
> impaired to come to our group. Yet, why would we need to use the  
> terminology
> visually impaired among ourselves and within our Federation family?
>
> Why would we use the words low vision, visually impaired, to refer to  
> other
> Federationist? One such example I an talking about is the email subject 
> line
> :"for the sake of ne, in which the group was actually announced to the  
> NABS
> list. the official heading was something like- Blind and Visually  
> Impaired
> Teen Group on Facebook. why not just use something like, "new blindness
> group of facebook!
> ? I am definitely not trying to point fingers at any specific group or  
> person... I am really curious, because I have seen terms such as  
> visually impaired, low vision, and high partial , in our literature  
> recently, also. I
> am merely using the facebook post as the most recent and relevant  
> example.
> Is this a new trend in Federation philosophy? or do we believe that  
> perhaps
> trying to be all inclusive has caused us to become a little lax and blur
> the lines of philosophy? Are the philosophical boundaries of all blind
> members being equal, thus united we stand and divided we fall, not as  
> solid
> , and binding, now, as when I first joined the Federation...?>
>
> I really am confused and would love to hear the philosophers among us  
> debate
> this observation. What are the effects of these happenings, to our
> philosophy? Do we need to tighten our concepts about blindness and what 
> it
> stands for within the Federation, or is inclusion the matter of  
> importance?
>
> Thoughtfully yours,
>
> Janice
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Terri Rupp" <terri.rupp at gmail.com>
> To: "NABS list serve" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 2:25 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 positive 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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>
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