[nfb-talk] a search for solutions to all of these issues

[Amelia Dickerson]

What if we were to acknowledge that a sizeable population of blind
people- perhaps a higher ratio than in the general population- are
truly unable to function at a level comparable to the rest of the
world. Living well and dealing with difficulties presented by
blindness requires a certain level of intelligence, ingenuity, and
character. Not everyone out there, including people who are blind,
display those traits. Of course, we have all known people, both blind
and sighted, who are generally incompetent in a wide variety of
realms. However, I feel that any mistakes or failure to understand are
attributed to my blindness, where in other people it is just one of
those short-comings that we all have. I can't tell you  how many times
I've been in situations where I clearly had a better handle on what
was happening or was more competent or more confident than a sighted
person who was there, but they were automatically deffered to as the
authority in the situation. We have all had these experiences I am
sure. But I guess that I would argue that these stereotypes are not
entirely unfounded. I have been around blind people who have very
little sense of social cues. I have been around blind people who
cannot understand certain concepts. I have been around blind people
who are unable to do basic things such as rent an apartment, and who
do not naturally strive to attain those abilities. These weaknesses
might be just as common in the general population, but I would argue
that they hold you back further if you are blind. So, we speak in
terms of "blind people" as though it were a more cohesive group than
it really is. No one would expect the same future for a sighted kid
with a high intelligence as from a sighted kid with a low
intelligence, even if the kid with the lower intelligence is still
within the normal range, so it seems inaccurate too expect any sort of
approach to really work for everyone who is blind too. Someone might
be developmentally delayed, but still able to work as a courtesy clerk
at the grocery store. But, if you also throw blindness in there,
employment might be too difficult to ever really achieve. Maybe
problems we are talking about have more to do with the individuals
within them, more so than with the actual sysstem. In other words, the
system works for a certain group of people, but then we apply it to
everyone. I will give just one example of this and be done. We speak
about health care reform in a way that the system needs to be
reformed. But, there is a lot of variation within the health care
individuals using the health care system so that there really is no
solution that fits even a majority of people- it's like having a cross
bike, it's not good as a mountain bike or as a road bike. We have what
is fortunately a rate that seems to be leveling off of people who are
obese in the U.S. There are lifestyle changes that could greatly
reduce medical expenses for them, but we still focus on the problems
as existing in the system. Well, maybe some of the problems exist
within us.

-- 
Amelia Dickerson

What counts can't always be counted, and what can be counted doesn't
always count.
Albert Einstein