[nabs-l] Personal characteristics and traits of successful blind people

[Joe]

Phil,

A successful blind person looks, acts, and communicates like me. Isn't that
obvious?

But, kidding aside, I want to give you a different perspective from the
people whining about how it is unfair to make blindness a factor in success.
Apparently some of us believe that success is success and blindness is
irrelevant, but to deny that blindness is a factor is to deny the reality
that more than 70% of our blind peers are unemployed. To a degree,
overcoming blindness is success onto itself, and if you can't succeed there,
a person's likelihood of succeeding anywhere else is slim. Is the person
willing to advocate for themselves? Are they willing to work twice as hard
to achieve tasks their sighted peers can complete sometimes in half the
time? Are they honest enough with themselves to tell if they possess
sufficient daily living, technology, and communication skills to succeed at
life, let alone the workplace? It may be true that our sighted peers may
need to ponder some of these points, but not with the same necessity or to
the same depth as the blind person who has to be extra competitive to beat
sighted applicants.

At some point over the past several years I stopped subscribing to the NFB
notion that blindness can be reduced to the level of a nuisance. Were that
true, I believe we would have seen better progress where blind people are
concerned. Blindness presents certain unique challenges a person must
regularly overcome to excel. Yes, building up confidence makes the process
easier, but I don't know that we have reached a point in our evolution of
independence that blindness is irrelevant, and certainly not so minimal as
to be labeled a minor inconvenience.

Now, as to success across the board, blind or sighted, I think pursuing your
own passions is a key ingredient. I wrote a blog post on the subject, which
you can read at the link below:

http://joeorozco.com/blog_are_you_living_someone_elses_dream

--
Twitter: @ScribblingJoe

Visit my blog:
http://joeorozco.com/blog

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Phil
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 6:29 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [nabs-l] Personal characteristics and traits of successful blind
people

Hi all,

I'm working on a research paper, and would like to hear what you think.
Obviously there are external factors such as accessibility barriers, social
and attitudinal barriers and so on that affect a blind person's likelihood
of success in life.  But if we focus on personal characteristics for a
moment, what do you think are some personal characteristics that can help a
blind person succeed, or ask in a different way, what characteristics and
behavior traits do successful blind people around you exhibit? And what
makes you cite these traits?
For example, some have rightly pointed out that a sense of curiosity and
exploration is key, both curiosity to explore one's physical surrounding,
intellectual curiosity to explore different subjects and career
possibilities, and so on. Others have also pointed out having the courage to
be different is important as a blind person.
What else do you think are important characteristics or behavior traits?
Hope to hear lots of diverse views on this.
Thanks!

Best,
Phil

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