[nabs-l] Philosophical Terminology

[Ben Moore]

Okay, here my take on what to call yourself if you're Blind/Legally Blind, etc.: when you hold out a cane, sighted people, on most occasions, will see you as Blind. Do you think the sighted stop to think about what the terms "Fully Blind, Legally Blind, Visually Impaired" mean? I doubt it! If you're out in public using a cane or have a guide dog, most sighted will instantly think, "he/she must be blind". Point here is that it doesn't matter what you call yourself; I walk the streets using a cane (sometimes w/ a sighted person guiding me if I'm in a location I don't know by heart)... but I wear glasses. Even though I'm Legally Blind, a lot of people think that cane equals blind.

Sorry if this is offensive, but this terminology debate on what you should call yourself (in terms of amount of vision) is total BS. Yeah the NFB has pretty, uh, descriptions on what you should call yourself, but are you gonna let some orginization tell you how to feel about your level of blindness? Hell NO!!!

Seriously, it feels to me that all this talk over how to describe your blindness is seperating us, not uniting us as one...