[Nebraska-students] Philosophical Terminology

[Amy Mason]

When it comes right down to it, I now consider myself blind, but when I
first learned about the organization... it was a different story.  I refused
the term, and although I always believed, at least on some level, in  the
ability of blind people, ( I had a blind great-aunt winning state fair
ribbons in cooking, how could I not?) I couldn't wrap my mind around the
idea of being blind myself.  I figured I had some sight, so it didn't count,
or maybe I wouldn't be welcome, so I was a bit shy of NFB things and
philosophy at first. I tend to agree with KD's assessment, that sometimes we
have to use the terms that people understand, and in the case of blind
people with some remaining vision, its usually something like legally-blind
or visually impaired..etc, or they may not see the NFB as being an
organization for them too.  Once we have welcomed a new member, we can teach
them the philosophy, but we have to get them through the door first, and
these terms are useful for that.

Just my 2 cents worth... *grin*

Amy

On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 9:35 PM, KD Rieken <kdlachanteuse at gmail.com> wrote:

> While I agree that one of the goals of the NFB is to veer away from such
> terms, another goal is recruiting and spreading the message. If a random,
> partially-blind person on Facebook came across a group that said nothing
> about "visually impaired" or "low vision" people, a likely response would
> be, "Well, that's not for me, I'm not blind, I have low vision." So by
> putting these terms out there, we increase the likelihood of recruitment,
> then start to educate about terms of blindness and what they mean. That's
> the only reason I can think of. Anyone else have thoughts?
> Kayde
>
> On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 1:48 AM, Karen Anderson <kea_anderson at cox.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
> >
> >
> >
> >            I was looking around on facebook and noticed several new
> groups
> > for students affiliated with the NFB. And I must say, several of them
> look
> > really interesting. However, I have one concern. Since joining the
> > federation it has been my understanding that we encourage everyone,
> whether
> > they are a high partial or totally blind, to consider themselves blind.
> Our
> > taglines are things like, "Changing what it means to be blind," and
> "Voice
> > of the Nation's Blind." Yet more and more frequently I find other terms
> > showing up in our literature. The term "visually impaired," is used in
> the
> > group descriptions for both The NFB Café and Blind 411. I believe one of
> > our
> > greatest strengths, one of the things that sets us apart from other
> > organizations, has always been that we do not divide people into
> categories
> > based on how much vision they have. We believe that those with no vision
> at
> > all can be just as successful as the highest partial. It seems to me that
> > using terminology such as "visually impaired," and "low vision," changes
> > that, and I fail to see what good can come from that division.
> >
> >            I am extremely interested to see what the list, and
> particularly
> > the members of the NABS board, have to say about this issue.
> >
> >
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Karen
> >
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