[nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology

Sun Nov 16 02:10:57 UTC 2008

Also, I don't think that just because you call yourself visually impaired 
you are necessarily denying your blindness.  I will use an example with 
another disability from my own life.  I am hearing impaired.  Notice I said 
hearing impaired, not deaf.  I choose not to call myself deaf, because 
deafness generally implies profound hearing loss, sign language, the 
inability to speak, etc.  If any of you have been around me for a while, 
however, you no that I do not deny my hearing loss.  I wear two hearing 
aids.  I also accept that certain things are much harder if not impossible 
for me, such as street crossings and socializing in crowded situations.  Why 
is it deemed OK for me to call myself hearing impaired when it is not OK for 
a visually impaired individual to call themselves visually impaired?  after 
all, even if you are totally blind you are visually impaired.  The more I 
think about these things, the more I find myself struggling with some of the 
stricter points of NFB philosophy.
 ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "T. Joseph Carter" <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2008 8:24 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology


>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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