[nabs-l] Blind Verses Legally Blind

[Steve Jacobson]

Elizabeth,

One always has to remember that just because we have a philosophy in the NFB, that doesn't mean that everyone is even aware of it.  It is completely 
normal for members of the public to not understand what we believe or even know about it.  Also, the public, in my experience, has more trouble 
understanding blind people with some vision than those of us who are totally blind.  They do think that the more vision one has the better off one is.  What 
I have seen is that sometimes it is harder for people with low vision than it is for me because they are so often told and almost forced to struggle with the 
little vision they have rather than to learn how to do things other ways.  Often the public assumes that "legally blind" means no vision so when they meet 
someone who can obviously see a little, they are sometimes even a little suspicious.  All of this is pretty normal.  Our philosophy is something we try to 
teach people, it is not something everyone knows already.

How you handle a particular incident is something only you can determine.  However, how each of us deals with the public does affect all of us to some 
degree.  Just because someone decides they are not going to represent the blind doesn't stop them from doing just that because the public determines 
how they get their information not each of us.  We all need to keep working to change this, but it is what it is.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson\

>On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 3:57 PM, Elizabeth Mohnke <lizmohnke at hotmail.com>wrote:

>> Hello All,
>>
>> Thank you for the responses thus far. However, how do I
>> even answer a question that I really do not know how to answer myself? Why
>> should I spend five minutes trying to stumble through some sort of answer
>> with a stranger I am most likely never going to see again? I do not know
>> why strangers are asking me if I am blind or legally blind except to figure
>> out how much I can see or not see.
>>
>> But I am just wondering what difference that really makes when the NFB
>> teaches that blind people are really no different than sighted people, and
>> with the right tools and attitudes, we can do pretty much anything that a
>> sighted person can do. If these beliefs are true, then what difference does
>> it make as to how much I can see or not see.
>>
>> It just seems to me that when people ask me these questions they are
>> trying to imply that I must have some sight because how could a person be
>> able to function without any sight. It is almost like people are trying to
>> tell me that the more eyesight a person has the better off they are in
>> life. How exactly am I suppose to deal with these kinds of questions when
>> my encounter with these people is rather brief, and I would rather not deal
>> with what seems to me like some form of idiotic line of thinking?
>>
>> What exactly should I say to these people if what I am saying is the wrong
>> thing, and I really do not know how to briefly describe what I can and
>> cannot see, or even wish to describe it in the first place? I would give a
>> specific example of how I encountered this situation from the other day,
>> but I am afraid it would only spear the conversation away from the real
>> heart of the issue.
>>
>> Again, this is just something I have been struggling with lately.  So I
>> was just interested in how other people deal with these kinds of questions
>> from other people in their lives.
>>
>> Elizabeth
>>
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