[Nfb-editors] Purpose of an NFB publication

[Mike Freeman]

Okay; I'll bite.  Here goes something controversial.

Perhaps we need another war to unify us.  Perhaps we are like Captain Bligh;
he was a great leader in adversity but had troubles in fair weather.

Perhaps we need another go at the airlines; they've irritated me a bit
lately. (mischievous grin)

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-editors-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-editors-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2011 11:10 AM
To: nfb-editors at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfb-editors] Purpose of an NFB publication

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


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