[nabs-l] Personal characteristics and traits of successfulblind people

Sat Mar 29 16:10:19 UTC 2014

Revisit the Dr. Jernican speech on interdependence.

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kirt
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2014 12:03 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Personal characteristics and traits of successfulblind
people

Absolutely nothing and, if you think that's what the federation teaches,
you've been listening to the wrong people.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 29, 2014, at 6:46 AM, Carly Mihalakis <carlymih at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Good morning, everyone,
> 
> So, going back to how Robin holds up interdependence as a means of getting
assistance for such things as not quite accessable forms, what's wrong with
that?
> for today, Car
> 
> At 02:23 PM 3/28/2014, Ashley Bramlett wrote:
>> Hi Joe,
>> very well said. I, too, cannot believe blindness is a nuisance anymore.
Not with the barriers I face because the world is not conducive to nonvisual
access, especially appliances and technology. Do I think about blindness a
lot? No, its part of me; actually I have low vision.
>> I go about my business like making breakfast, listening to the news and
weather via radio and watching tv shows that are rather auditory a lot and
feel happy. I don't think about that I'm doing things differently because of
my vision or feel down over it. But, it does play a role in my ability to
accomplish visual tasks. For instance filling out job applications; its like
half are inaccessible; I came across at least three which say errors, fix
the boxes by red stars, and I do not know what the errors are. or others I
fill out are not accepted telling me that I missed fields, and I have no
idea which fields I missed. I need some eyes to assist me.
>> Then there is the transit issue; with mobility being a challenge, I
struggle with that, and hate the inconvenience of paratransit.
>> Then you have electronics which we cannot see.  So, no its not a 
>> nuisance, and we have not made enough progress to render blindness
insignificant in doing what we want to do.
>> 
>> Anyway, I agree with you on success. Its about living your passions. Its
also, I believe, about making goals, and doing them to change the world. Go
out and achieve big things for you.
>> 
>> Also, yeah, success is you. Having a federal job as you do in that field,
is a rather successful thing you accomplished.
>> You  are smart.
>> 
>> Ashley
>> -----Original Message----- From: Joe
>> Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 9:12 PM
>> To: 'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Personal characteristics and traits of 
>> successfulblind people
>> 
>> 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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