[Nfbc-info] Changing What it Means to Be Blind

Mon Jan 9 02:31:02 UTC 2012

Serena,

It's a very inspiring testimonial and one I and many others can relate to.

Keep on keeping on,

Tim Elder

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbc-info-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbc-info-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Mary Willows
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 7:51 PM
To: NFB of California List; NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list
Cc: nfbc-east-bay; nfbc-info
Subject: Re: [Nfbc-info] Changing What it Means to Be Blind

Wow, Serena.  That was really powerful.  There are so many people who will 
read what you wrote below and find that this is a life changing e-mail 
message.  Can we use it on our website as a personal testimony?

Gratefully Yours,

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Serena Olsen" <olsen.serena at gmail.com>
To: "NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list" <chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "nfbc-east-bay" <nfbc-east-bay at googlegroups.com>; "nfbc-info" 
<nfbc-info at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 4:16 PM
Subject: [Nfbc-info] Changing What it Means to Be Blind

> [This is a response to an email thread on the Chapter Presidents
> Listserve that I wanted to also share with my own chapter and
> affiliate.]
>
> Hi Listers,
>
> I have been enjoying the conversations arising from Mary Kendricks'
> request for feedback for her research, and am extra motivated to get
> my two cents in after reading Michael Barber's recommendation to
> listen to Dr. Jernigan's "Dishwashing Tapes" seminar (I found the link
> at http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Audio-Video_Center.asp), which I'm sure I've
> heard before, but revisiting items like these is always great.
>
> Changing what it means to be blind, for me, is blurring the lines
> between and changing people's misperceptions about the discrimination
> between "total" and "low-vision".  I have quite a bit of useable
> vision and my condition, Stargardts, deteriorated slowly over time.
> Consequently, I was never seriously thought of as **blind** and passed
> for sighted all of my young adult life.  I struggled through too many
> years of college using no adaptive techniques save an old camera lens
> used as a magnifying glass.  It wasn't until my early-to-mid twenties
> that I miraculously became connected with the Braille Institute and
> began to learn about magnification devices, campus DSP services, and
> the Department of Rehabilitation.  All this was an improvement, of
> course, and the glass ceiling I had come to feel pressed against but
> had no idea there was anything I could do about it, loosened a little.
> However, by the time I finished graduate school at nearly 30, I had
> chronic headaches, backaches, neck pain and all the other discomfort
> and indignity that comes with perpetual stooping and squinting.  And I
> was learning to acknowledge the difficult fact that, in all my years
> of college, I could never really keep up with the readings.  I didn't
> even know how to touch type until my last semester of graduate school.
> So maybe I was doing more than all my sighted friends and family put
> together--higher education, international travel, etc., but I knew I
> had to work at least twice as hard and still not really keep up with
> my peers.  How could I possibly leave the comfortable bubble of
> academia and truly have a successful career?  All of the same
> insecureties I experienced before acquiring low-vision techniques were
> creeping back.
>
> In 2004, in my late twenties, I finally encountered the Federation,
> spent quality time with competent blind individuals who were doing
> even more ambitious things than I, and realized I had a lot more to
> learn.  I attended the Louisiana Center for the Blind in 2007, learned
> to use and love JAWS & braille, surprised myself in the woodshop,
> conquered my greatest nemesis, cane travel, and learned to consciously
> and unconsciously use the rich diversity of non-visual information
> that is in the environment all around us.
>
> Do I use my residual vision?  Sure.  I just have a better quiver of
> tools to draw from and many more options to problem solve all those
> day-to-day and even bigger life issues that we all face as blind
> people.  I have a better understanding of exactly how much I **can't**
> see and I find that, more often than not, non-visual techniques are
> more efficient, and   best of all, they allow me to stand and sit
> straight--great for your posture & body, even better for your
> confidence and sense of well-being.  The NFB has brought dignity and
> grace into my life and made me a more effective, efficient, and
> competent person.  Especially in the current economic climate, we must
> be able to compete effectively with our sighted peers more than ever
> and ensure that employers see past our blindness and primarily as
> qualified to do the job, regardless of how we choose to do it.
>
> In all that I do to give back to the NFB and the organized blind
> movement, the mission I hold nearest and dearest to my heart is
> convincing both blind and sighted alike that non-visual technique,
> training, and technology is as vitally important to someone with
> residual vision as it is to someone who is totally blind.  The notion
> that "(I/he/she/you) can still see and don't need (braille, a cane,
> JAWS, etc.)" is a frame of mind that will only cement in that glass
> ceiling.  It is a mentality that I have not only encountered with
> low-vision folks and the general public, but was implicit in the
> services I received from the Department of Rehabilitation, and I feel
> it unnecessarily hindered my progress towards full employment.  Of
> course, on this listserve, I am mostly preaching to the choir, but
> this is a theme that I find myself coming back to over and over and
> over again and if the statistic that only about 10% of blind people
> are totally blind, then we have a lot of work to do.  How can we
> really empower blind people if they don't first identify as blind and
> see & experience for themselves how empowering it is to be able to do
> things effectively without taxing their residual vision?  Dr. Jernigan
> comes to this in "Dishwashing Tapes," and my mission is to, first and
> foremost, lead by example, and secondarily, to take advantage of as
> many teachable moments as I can in my daily life to demonstrate that
> yes, I "can still see some," but choose to use the same skills as a
> totally blind person, because it is more effective.
>
> As of 2010, I work for a living, pay taxes, made my first stock, 401k,
> and IRA investments, am paying down debts, and have the relative
> luxury of a chronic Starbucks habit, getting semi-regular manicures,
> and going out to eat or otherwise indulging without that heavy stone
> in the pit of my stomach that my debit card will be declined because
> my Social Security funds didn't last past the first two weeks of the
> month.  I am still focused on career development--I still have goals
> to achieve, but I can honestly say that I have never felt happier or
> more on track to achieving those goals than I do now.  In the identity
> struggle over "I'm not blind, I'm not sighted" that so many low-vision
> people stagnate in, I have learned that it is tremendously more
> valuable to identify as blind first, and use my residual vision where
> it's useful and be aware of its limitations.
>
> So much for my two cents--we'll chalk it up to inflation--thanks to
> all of you who read this far.  I hope it gives some food for thought
> and helps Mary out with her paper.  Feel free to quote or contact me
> for more info as needed.
>
> Cheers!
>
> -- 
> Serena Olsen, MAIPS, NCLB
> Staff Assistant, Japan Society of Northern California (www.usajapan.org)
> Braille Instructor, Lions Center for the Blind (www.lbcenter.org)
> President, NFBC East Bay (nfbc-east-bay at googlegroups.com)
>
> "We are all born to be the hero of our own story." --Deepak Chopra
>
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