[nabs-l] Why I am a Federationist: A Partial’s Perspective

[Karl Martin Adam]

Darian and All,

I'm totally blind (with light perception), but it so happens that 
all my close friends in the Federation have at least some usable 
vision.  To the extent that people think the NFB is only for the 
totally blind, I think that's very unfortunate.  The things we 
advocate for and the skills we teach help all the blind whether 
they have some vision or not.

Best,
Karl

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Darian Smith via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Thu, 2 Oct 2014 21:00:57 -0700
Subject: [nabs-l] Why I am a Federationist: A Partial’s 
Perspective

 Hi all,
 I found this  and wanted to get people’s thoughts here.
 Most people think that the NFB is only for people who are 
totally blind.

 do you think  it to be true? and what does this piece offer you 
once you read it?

 BEst,
   Darian



Why I am a Federationist: A Partial’s Perspective
by Meleah Jensen

Henry David Thoreau once said "I went to the woods because I 
wished to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out 
all the marrow of life to front only the essential facts of life 
and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and that when 
I came to die discover that I had not lived.” Just as Thoreau 
went in to the woods, I went to the NFB. I am a federationist 
because it has been only through my learning about and becoming a 
part of the federation that I have truly begun to live 
deliberately, and suck out the marrow of life.

When I was growing up, I had no positive blind role models, nor 
did I see myself as being blind. To me the word blind had an 
extremely negative connotation, and was definitely something I 
did not want to be. It wasn’t until I was introduced to the NFB 
that I gained not only positive role models, but also a better 
understanding of what being blind truly meant.

I had my first exposure to the NFB during my freshman year of 
high school when my VI teacher gave me a letter telling about a 
student seminar in Ruston Louisiana. My first thought was where 
in the world is Ruston?

I went to the seminar not exactly sure of what to expect; little 
did I know that not only was I opening the door to great future 
opportunities, but I was also laying the bricks of my foundation 
towards a positive attitude about blindness. I came away from 
that weekend amazed by what I had seen. I will always remember 
many of the events of the weekend but there is one that will 
stand out in my mind the most. On that Saturday afternoon we were 
sent on a scavenger hunt. We were divided up into groups and 
given a list of things to locate and bring back from various 
spots in town (for those of you who don’t know, Ruston is small 
enough to permit this to be done easily). The leader of my group 
was totally blind; I had absolutely no idea how we would go about 
doing this since she seemed to be the only one who supposedly 
knew her way around Ruston. We set out on our journey around 
town. I was utterly amazed how well she knew the town. No blind 
person I had met before could walk around a room without 
assistance much less a whole town. It was during that experience 
that I realized that there actually were blind people who could 
function independently.

Over the next couple of years, I continued to build my philosophy 
through attending student seminars, and talking with positive 
blind people. In 1998 I attended the Summer Training and 
Employment Project (STEP) at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. 
While in the STEP program I was taut Braille, cane travel, and 
many other important skills. I was also given the opportunity to 
attend my first national convention. In addition to all of this 
the STEP program is where I began to shape my philosophy into 
what it is today. It made me start to realize just why it was 
important to be a part of the federation. For the first time I 
realized that I was not alone. I had a network of people just 
like me. They not only understood, but also lived and overcame 
some of the very same issues I had been struggling with every 
day.

Through this shared understanding it became more and more 
apparent to me that I was in fact blind. Since these 
federationists were normal and shared many of my experiences, it 
slowly became ok for me to admit that I too was blind. 
Unfortunately, this process didn't occur over night. I was a 
little resistant at first it took a few years for me to fully 
understand just what being in the federation could truly be 
about. During my freshman year of college I began to realize that 
the quote sighted way” of doing things would not always work well 
for me. I had been able to depend on my sight for so long that it 
took me a while to accept that it no longer was the most 
efficient way to accomplish things. Unfortunately by the time I 
had realized this I had to struggle through many tough situations 
such as trying to take print notes in a dark classroom. After I 
would return from class I would look at my notes and see that I 
had to rewrite them because they were extremely sloppy. I also 
had problems traveling around at night. I walked slowly, and I 
found it hard to keep up with my friends. I still went out at 
night, but I found myself looking really awkward. Actually I 
found myself looking awkward in a lot of areas because of my lack 
of skills. Once I knew and accepted that I needed the skills of 
blindness in order to be successful I made the decision to attend 
the centers adult training program. It was during my time at the 
center that my transformation was completed. I not only grew in 
my attitudes towards blindness, but in my skills and confidence 
in my self as well.

Since completing my training I have returned to school. I have 
compared my experiences then and now and they are like night and 
day! I still have things that I have problems accomplishing in 
the course of a day, but now I can say that I have those problems 
simply because there aren’t enough hours in the day, not because 
of my blindness getting in the way; but what college student 
sighted or blind doesn’t have these issues?

Through all of these experiences, I too have become a 
federationist. I am now a part of that network of blind people 
that has come to mean so much to me throughout many aspects of my 
life. I am so glad to be able to be a part of an organization 
like the NFB. Now that I have finally recognized that I am blind 
and that it is truly respectable to be blind I have the chance, 
through this organization, to share my knowledge and experiences 
with others..

It is so important for us as blind people to work together in the 
federation to live our movement each day and share our philosophy 
with others. By doing this we will all be able to live 
deliberately and suck out all the marrow of life.



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