[Nd-talk] FW: Is he really Disabled

Mon Oct 1 19:53:14 UTC 2018

I do have a handicap sticker. I have a bone disease as well as 
blindness, but would get the sticker even if I didn't. With that 
being said, I would discourage anyone driving me from taking a 
wheelchair accessible spot.

Ali

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Sherry Shirek via Nd-talk <nd-talk at nfbnet.org
To: "'North Dakota Talk Discussion List'" <nd-talk at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 1 Oct 2018 13:35:24 -0500
Subject: Re: [Nd-talk] FW: Is he really Disabled

Oh wow! I have had that conversation with people about the 
accessible parking spaces-especially during the holidays and 
there is less parking available and itâ€™s cold. Nobody ever 
stopped giving me a ride because I refused to take a space from 
someone who needs it. Imagine that!

We are constantly told what we are and who we are supposed to be 
by the public â€“ no no no I have been bouncing otherâ€™s views 
off of me like wonder woman <smiles

Thanks Duane for sharingâ€¦

Sherry

From: Nd-talk <nd-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of diverson 
via Nd-talk
Sent: Monday, October 1, 2018 1:26 PM
To: 'North Dakota Talk Discussion List' <nd-talk at nfbnet.org
Cc: diverson <diverson1954 at charter.net
Subject: Re: [Nd-talk] FW: Is he really Disabled

One little story.

In the early 2000s I lived in Fargo. A lady who used to give me 
rides from time to time asked me why I didn't get a handicapped 
sign for a car. "I don't need one," I said, "I can walk just 
fine."

Yes, she reposted, "but if you had a sticker I could park in the 
handicapped space when I gave you rides places." "True" I 
replied, "But you can walk too."

"OK then I won't give you rides places any more" she said.

And she didn't! Somehow though my life went on and the world 
continued to rotate.

From: Nd-talk [mailto:nd-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
Sherry Shirek via Nd-talk
Sent: Monday, October 1, 2018 8:42 AM
To: 'North Dakota Talk Discussion List' <nd-talk at nfbnet.org 
<mailto:nd-talk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Sherry Shirek <sherrybeth7 at gmail.com 
<mailto:sherrybeth7 at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Nd-talk] FW: Is he really Disabled

I love this story! I can relate. I am blind not disabled! This is 
my label for myself. I have always felt this way.

Clarence has a wonderful history. I love to read these stories.

Have a great day!

Sherry Shirek

From: Nd-talk <nd-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org 
<mailto:nd-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> > On Behalf Of Milton Ota via 
Nd-talk
Sent: Monday, October 1, 2018 7:20 AM
To: 'North Dakota Talk Discussion List' <nd-talk at nfbnet.org 
<mailto:nd-talk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Milton Ota <mota1252 at gmail.com <mailto:mota1252 at gmail.com
Subject: [Nd-talk] FW: Is he really Disabled

From: The Blind History Lady <theblindhistorylady at gmail.com 
<mailto:theblindhistorylady at gmail.com
Sent: Monday, October 1, 2018 4:55 AM
To: mota1252 at gmail.com <mailto:mota1252 at gmail.com
Subject: Is he really Disabled

October is Disability Awareness Month

.

.Greetings Blind History Lady fans:

October is Disability awareness month. At this time each year, I 
ponder the term disabled/disability. Through my research I find 
many who are blind that belie the term disabled.

For me, the word â€œdisabledâ€ brings to mind a car on the 
shoulder of a freeway with its hood up, going nowhere while the 
world passes it by. I know that for many of our blind ancestors 
who did not have the courage or the opportunity to step up, this 
was the case. I sometimes wonder if the label unconsciously 
allows us to be off of the road, going nowhere.

For the most part, I do not give the verbiage much thought. I am 
a blind person. I am not a disabled person. If others label me 
thus, well, that is their label for me, but not mine.

Today I want to share a brief story with you about another man 
who did not label himself as â€œdisabledâ€. To be sure, he was 
most abled!

Clarence Homan was born in Iowa in 1900. He moved to northern 
Minnesota in his youth. By all accounts he had the normal 
childhood of a boy growing up in the farming communities of the 
Midwest.

He married and had three children. All seemed picture perfect. 
Then in 1926, his wife died, leaving him with three small 
children, the youngest an infant. Clarence took the loss of his 
wife hard. He allowed his family to take the children until he 
could get back on his feet.

While blowing out tree stumps in March of 1931, he got too close 
and the charge went off in his hand. He lost his hand and much of 
his hearing. He also became totally blind.

Clarence went to the summer school program for blind adults at 
the Minnesota State School for the Blind in Faribault, in the 
summer of 1932. During this time, that was the only option for 
rehabilitation for blind adults in the state of Minnesota. He 
learned how to make baskets, rugs  and handle tools as a blind 
man. The career option he was offered by the school was to take 
up piano tuning. Clarence gave it some thought. With only one 
hand, no musical ability to begin with, very poor hearing, What 
were they thinking!

Attending the summer school classes helped him pick up some 
blindness techniques, but more importantly, he met several blind 
men his own age that were working at many jobs. They became his 
â€œcounselorsâ€.

Some of them made and sold brooms for a living. Clarence did not 
know if he could make the brooms, but he could sell them. One 
blind man who had a big broom factory in Minneapolis offered him 
a job as a salesman.

However, Minneapolis was saturated with blind broom salesmen. He 
would not be able to make enough money to get his children back 
and purchase a home. Being it was now the beginning of the 
depression, a large population were out of work. He found a 
sighted man who was out of work and then bought a truck. The two 
bought a truckload of brooms from the blind broom makers and 
headed out of town. For a couple years, through Minnesota, North 
and South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, he sold the 
brooms out of the back of his truck. Gas rationing and the 
depression were beginning to cut in on his business.

With the money he saved, Clarence was able to buy a house and in 
todayâ€™s language, flipped it. He bought another and another 
house, making a good profit. He purchased a home of his own and 
asked his mother to come and live with him. Now, Clarence was 
able to support two of his three children, the oldest being 
adopted by a relative.

Getting a bit older, Clarence became tired of climbing the ladder 
each spring and fall to change out his storm and screen windows 
and climbing the ladder several times a year to wash the windows. 
Blindness was not such a big problem, but balancing the windows 
on his arm without a hand was becoming harder.

In 1945, Clarence submitted patent #US2411727 for a friction 
pivot steel arm for a window that would open inward for easy 
cleaning and he could even pull the screen window through the 
opening from inside of his second floor home. The patent was 
granted in November of 1946. In no time he was offered to sell 
his patent for an undisclosed sum of money. Taking the best 
offer, Clarence was set for life.

I wonder, for five years, as a sighted man, his children were 
being raised by others. Did his accident take him to the lowest 
point in his life where there was just nowhere else to go but up?

Can you really say that Clarence Homan was disabled? We should 
all be so lucky.

www.theblindhistorylady.com <http://www.theblindhistorylady.com

.

â€Œ

The Blind History Lady | 14152 E Linvale Pl, 201, Aurora, CO 
80041

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