[nabs-l] Out of curiosity

[Antonio Guimaraes]

Hello Patrick and others,

I wonder if anyone has heard of Dialogue in the Dark?


http://www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com/

A friend in Brazil participated in one of their workshops, and They did take 
take sighted people through a blindness experience in the dark. The 
difference is they had discussions about life as a real blind person, not a 
fabricated dinner experience.

I thought the events to be educational and thought-provoking.

Arielle's research reveals what many in the blindness field have thought to 
be true. Giving an artificial blindness experience for some short period 
only scares people into thinking they can never deal with being blind.

How many of you have heard "I wonder how he/she can do that." I bet some 
have heard this even today.

Dialogue in the Dark is lead by blind people who explain nuances we nabs 
students might cover with a sighted friend over lunch.

There isn't much opportunity for a full imersion into blindness there, but 
the people I like to share a meal with are already open to blindness, and 
understand some of my capabilities.

I may want to hide my limitations from them, but they are smart enough to 
figure them out too.

Blanket statements are never good, and some times we tend to have a chip on 
the sholder when it comes to the sighted.

Most inteligent and educated sighted, socially adjusted people know a cool 
blind person when they see one. Said blind person need not try to prove 
himself to others. If others put barriers to interacting with, or having no 
regard for a blind person, they will have no regard for other people who are 
different from them.

I tend to have mostly pleasant social contact these days. I snicker at the 
ones that smack of ignorance or fear and move on.

These come mostly from people in my subsidised housing building who tend to 
be older, and from a limited background.

I have molded to some of the NFb positions on many things, and I do not 
believe an extensive search for curing blindness to be very useful. I am 
glad for friends who will challenge current thought, and find a middle 
ground. Yes, that's you Kirt.

But there are many who hold religious dogma who think God created people to 
be healthy, including the sightless. They are the ones who will stop a group 
of 3 blind mice out in Boston, place a hand on each of their sholders, and 
say "restore thy site," one prayer for each poor unfortunate unseen 
creature.

We, I was one of the mice, didn't get our sites restored, so the praying 
person came back and repeated the ritual. We were all born blind, so no site 
could be restored since none was ever lost.

I once wrote a somewhat angry set of verse about this sort of thing, but now 
I just refer the prayerer to Exodus 4, verses 11 and 12.

God did create the seeing, and even the blind created he.

I didn't mean to get carried away on religion, but this happens more often 
than I care to admit, and is relevant to curing blindness from a theological 
model.

Best,

Antonio Guimaraes



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patrick Johnson" <pajohns1 at vt.edu>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2011 2:08 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Out of curiosity


> Group,
>
>    It's a little absurd to compare the NFB with the Foundation Fighting 
> Blindness.  The two have distinct missions and attract different 
> memberships.  The FFB focuses on the medical and scientific aspects of 
> blindness.  Take a look at their web site and the web site of their 
> upcoming conference.
>
> http://www.blindness.org/
> http://www.blindness.org/visions/
>
>    As for "Dining in the Dark", yes it is a fund raiser, but it is more 
> than that.  The wait staff is completely blind and the food is served in 
> the dark.  It is also an opportunity to educate the public.  The wait 
> staff instructs the diners on how to orient themselves to their place 
> setting, locate, and identify their food and drink.
>
>    To me this is educational and promotes the the vision that the blind 
> are capable of living independent and productive lives.
>
>    It is wrong to make blanket comments about other blindness 
> organizations such as the FFB.  The NFB, FFB, ACB, and dozens of other 
> organizations whoo advocate for the blind are all striving to improve our 
> lives.  Whether you or I disagree with a specific policy or goal of a 
> blindness organization is completely understandable.  But by making a 
> blanket statement about an entire organization makes the speaker  sound 
> uninformed and could alienate the listener.
>
> $0.02 worth from someone who is afiliated with both the NFB and FFB.
>
> Patrick
>
>
>
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