[nabs-l] should the blind adapt to the world, or should the world adapt to us?

[David Andrews]

Jim:

I would say that in general, the NFB position is not to never ask for 
changes in the environment, but to ask only for those changes we 
think are really necessary.  There are others in the blindness field 
who will always ask for changes first, and we don't think this is the 
right position to take.  Sometimes if you ask and you aren't 
successful, you do more damage then if you never asked at all -- 
setting a bad legal precedent.  Sometimes the cost may be to high, a 
literal cost, or a figurative cost -- that is in the damage you do to 
what  sighted people think of blind persons.

So to some we may seem inconsistent.  This isn't the case, but you 
must be able to draw sometimes subtle distinctions, weigh costs etc.

Dave

At 01:46 PM 6/19/2009, you wrote:
>Hey all,
>
>I have not been following this thread, so sorry if my thoughts have 
>been expressed by otheres elseware.
>
>Think about the silent /hybrid car issue and you have your answer. 
>Clearly the blind community has already deemed it appropreate to 
>make the world adapt to us. And if you look at the Kindle situation 
>you can see that the blind community would rather force the world to 
>adapt to us, rather than develop "work arounds" that allow us to 
>adapt to the world.