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

[Gardner, Ron]

Serena,

You story is terrific and it is the same story that so many have. It is my own story. It is motivating. Putting it into a well written and articulate document means many people will benefit. I am taking the liberty of sending it to Gary Wunder. Please feel my admiration and love of you as a fellow colleague and leader in our Federation movement.

Ron Gardner 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbc-info-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbc-info-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Serena Olsen
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 5:17 PM
To: NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list
Cc: nfbc-east-bay; nfbc-info
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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