[Nfb-editors] Purpose of an NFB publication

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Mike,

I agree with you.  Today, everyone wants their information quick and
short.  This is not just a blind issue, but it is certainly something
prevalent with the blind too.

Social networks and blogs are a neat tool to keep up with friends and
for entertainment purposes, but these electronic means of communication
have grown to fit professional purposes and have become places to find
news.

My friend, and I will admit I do this to at times, will check out
headlines on MSN.com, but does not actually read the articles.  He feels
informed just by reading the headlines.  We really have become a world
where sound byte info is the rule rather than the exception.

Perhaps I'm old fashioned, and maybe it is the writer in me, but I know
too many people, blind and sighted, who feel productive, social and
informed simply by sitting on their computer.

Reading online blurbs is not the same as perusing in depth information.
I recently had to write a speech for a class project about the
humanitarian concerns in Sudan.  There was tons of stuff about this
online, but most of it was short and simple.  I had to really go
searching to find in-depth material.

I think for blind people, we are now seeking online resources and tools
to quickly accomplish things that in truth should take time.  Fastfood
learning does not prepare us for much, and many of these things whittle
away at our independence.

Why work in an office if we can stay at home?  Who needs to physically
go to college when we can take online classes?  Why participate in
community activities when we can "socialize" on social networks?

And of course, if we can do everything at home on the computer, what is
the point of training?

I'm not saying doing these things is bad, or that every person working
from home, attending online classes or using social networks is
dependent, but it can be a potential problem.  We all take the easy road
at times, but how is this online presence affecting us in terms of what
we consider convenient and easy, and actually challenging ourselves, and
one another, and reaching our full potential?

I wonder what this means for the future of organizations like the NFB?

I like your comment about how Structured Discovery is no longer popular
though it has been a tried and true method for years.  I don't think us
younger generations truly understand the struggles that came before us.
Don't misunderstand me, we certainly have struggles, I know first hand,
but because of past leaders, so much is set in place for us today.

Sure people may think it is not safe, or want to constantly help us, but
we now can legally travel about independently.  Employers may question
our ability to work, but legally they can not discriminate.  Schools may
still consider us special Ed, and it may take too long for students to
receive their material accessibly, but schools are now legally obligated
to do this.

And I will be controversial here.  Maybe our battle to retain Braille
literacy is not just the fault of educators and law makers.  When blind
people claim Braille is obsolete, and they prefer to use some form of
audio instead of Braille, we don't help our own case.  Maybe if we
hadn't been so willing to accept the move from Braille to audio, we
would not be facing a Braille literacy crisis.

I think I lost my original point!  *smile*

Robert, you're right about this being an overwhelming and pervasive
issue.  Nothing about it is simple.  In 8 years, I have come to realize
the massive monster this is.

So, now what do we do with this?  Instead of talking and talking, can
any action be done?  How can our publications continue to reach people
and affect their mindsets?

It would be interesting to find out how many of us actually read our
publications, and how many skim or even toss aside after checking out
the table of contents.

Gary, I like what you say about finding ways to reach those still
striving for the dream.  I think we really need to look at our
publications and figure out if we have the potential to inspire and draw
people in.

Bridgit

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2011 11:22:02 -0700
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "'Correspondence Committee Mailing List'" <nfb-editors at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Nfb-editors] Purpose of a NFB publication
Message-ID: <005601cbf6e3$0626b440$12741cc0$@panix.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Gary:

Great post as usual.  I've commented upon some of these issues in my
reply to Bridgit's post.  But some of your ponderings merit comment on
their own.

In the case of the ham radio operators of which you write below, I think
that in addition to knowing they were helping people, they received
kudos and praise from other ham operators who, if truth be told, saw
them as much as miraculous freaks (I can't figure out how they do it!)
as anything else. Sadly, I don't think this has changed a lot in the
world of amateur radio. Look at the way the American Radio League and
other ham organizations look to the Courage Center handiham system to
inform them what disabled amateur radio operators need and want.  I'm
not knocking Handihams.  But several of us have gotten virtually nowhere
in getting ARRL to recognize us as a separate group with valid concerns.
For that matter, ACB Radio Amateurs hasn't done any better in this
regard than have we although they tend to be less uncomfortable with the
stereotypical mold of being alternately miraculous or pitiable than NFB
hams are.

I point this out only to opine that, as in days of yore, we, the blind,
are often rewarded for spending our days on the Internet; we are less
well thought of when we try to rock the boat for increasing
accessibility and, in my view, we have been to some degree our own worst
enemy in that many young folks expect as a matter of right that
technology in and of itself will knock down barriers -- and should be
expected to do so -- and less emphasis is placed on our being inventive
and devising our own solutions to the world's problems.  If you will,
the Structured Discovery method of living, while taught at our NFB
training centers, is not quite as fashionable among many young folks as
it once was when we had little else to fall back on.

Compounding our difficulty (and here we come back to newsletters and the
Monitor) is the societal trend to be intolerant of
complicated/sophisticated messages that take more than a few sound bytes
to communicate.  In other words, like much of today's society, we are
growing intolerant of skills training or tasks that require prolonged
effort, thought and determination.

The question is how to deal with this effectively, rekindling the dream
in a world where this sort of effort seems out of fashion.  About my
only answer is to *not* lower our standards and to keep doing the sort
of in-depth analysis and thinking that we are famous for; it is this
that wins us many of our battles.  Such victories are noticed and,
presuming people wish to emulate us, we can then point out to them that
precision of thought and action and determination are valuable assets to
cultivate.

Has anyone come up with a rap song for the NFB Pledge yet? (grin)

Mike