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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Dear Federation Family,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> While I was attending convention in Jacksonville, Marilyn Shafer, Secretary/Treasurer of Advocates for Service Animal Partners called to share a flyer that was received by a friend of hers by the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. This flyer was a macabre-appearing black flyer entitled, “Beyond the Dark”. It invites individuals to “step into the shoes of those living in the shadows of blindness”. The National Federation of the Blind passed Resolution 2012-25, a resolution I co-authored, condemning and deploring the use of similar events as fund raising/awareness projects. I have pasted the response of Advocates for Service Animal Partners to our Facebook page below. Please read and disseminate this message as widely as appropriate.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Fraternally yours,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Marion <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Southeastern Guide Dogs<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Through the dark into the Dark Ages<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>By Marion Gwizdala, M.S.M.H.C.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> My name is Marion Gwizdala; I am blind and handle a guide dog as my method of choice for independent travel. I am also the president/CEO of Advocates for Service Animal Partners (ASAP). ASAP is the only organization dedicated exclusively to securing, protecting, and advancing the civil rights of disabled individuals who use service dogs to mitigate their disability. We operate a 24-hour telephone hotline service to assist individuals with disabilities who face discrimination as the result of their choice to use a service dog (855-ASAP211). We also provide consulting services to develop sound policies and protocol concerning service animals in public places, such as restaurants, hotels, medical facilities, taxicabs, and zoos. I have also been an active member of the National Federation of the Blind since 1984 and have served the organization in progressively responsible elected positions within the organization, including serving as president of the National Association of Guide Dog Users for twelve years. One of my areas of expertise is the psycho-social aspects of disability and the public impact of negative stereotypes and misconceptions about disability. I am writing this message in my role as president of Advocates for Service Animal Partners and not in any official role with the NFB. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> Every year during October, the National Federation of the Blind </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>celebrates Blind Equality Achievement Month. Formerly known as “Meet the Blind Month”, this program celebrates our progress to achieve equality with our sighted peers. We do this by reaching out to the community in an effort to counter the negative stereotypes and misconceptions many have about the blind. Some local chapters host dinners, comedy shows, and other entertainment featuring talented blind performers. Some host awareness expos in which the public is offered an opportunity to learn how blind people adapt to the loss of eyesight by using nonvisual techniques. Others offer demonstrations of the use of Braille and the incredible doors of opportunity opened by this tactile reading method. We demonstrate how the white cane provides us independent mobility and how we are the head of the guide dog team, not the other way around! We publish stories about blind people and their accomplishments, not in an effort to portray them as different but to realistically portray them as normal people who happen to be blind!. Our goal is the full integration of the blind into society on terms of equality! We are like our sighted neighbors and there is nothing to fear about us or even blindness itself!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> The National Federation of the Blind believes that our blindness is not the characteristic that defines us. Every day we strive to raise not only the expectations the public has of us but the expectations we have of ourselves. WE believe we can live the life we want . Blindness is not what holds us back! What holds us back are the low expectations others have of us, the internalization of negative social messaging, the reinforcement of these negative messages as seen through the artistic exaggeration by the media, and the manner in which those seen as experts about blindness talk about us! Imagine our dismay that, during this celebration of blind Equality achievement Month, we encounter a message that takes a sledge hammer to the bridges of equality and inclusion we have built and the successes we have achieved<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>While attending the National Federation of the blind of Florida convention in Jacksonville, I received a telephone call from Marilyn Shafer, who serves as Treasurer of Advocates for Service Animal Partners. Her friend had received a notice from the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts about a concert by the Florida Orchestra. On the reverse of this announcement was a black flyer with white print, a macabre-appearing presence with the headline “Beyond the Dark”. Was this some sort of spooky Halloween event? The portrayal and timing seemed to leverage the archetypical fear of the dark and those who lurk in their shadows! This flyer invited members of the Straz to step into the shoes of someone living in the shadows of blindness…and </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>see for yourself how some of the most intelligent, talented dogs on this planet help people journey beyond the dark.” According to Southeastern Guide Dogs’ website, for a mere $20.00 Southeastern guide Dogs will reinforce the archaic misconception that blind people live in darkness and the only way out of this darkness is through their charitable work and a dog! In a self-serving effort to legitimize their ableist views, Southeastern Guide Dogs exaggerates the value of this dismal portrayal of blindness by asserting “everyone is raving about this acclaimed multisensory experience.” Who exactly is “everyone” and who, other than Southeastern Guide Dogs, is acclaiming this intentional betrayal of their mission? Well, my friend, not everyone is raving! The blind whom have fought for our equality and self-determination are not raving about this self-acclaimed event! During the 2012 convention of the largest organization of blind people in the United States, the National Federation of the blind passed a resolution that condemns and deplores the use of such events because it “<span style='color:black;background:white'>diminishes the innate normality and equal status of the blind in society”. (The Braille Monitor; 2012) </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Today there is an enhanced awareness of how racism rears its ugly head and diminishes the status of a group of people. There is no doubt that blackface comedy is racist! According to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, “</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;background:white'>The pervasiveness of stereotypical images like [blackface] made the civil rights efforts of African Americans even more difficult. The black people represented here were irresponsible, laughable, and difficult to understand. If white people accepted these stereotypes, it became that much easier to deny African Americans the full rights of citizenship.”</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='margin:0in;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>The counterpart to racism among the disabled is called ableism. Southeastern Guide Dogs is demonstrating their ableist attitude toward the blind, engaging in what can only be described as blackface for the blind. Let me take the aforementioned Smithsonian quote and rephrase it in the context of this offensive, belittling event. “</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;background:white'>The pervasiveness of stereotypical images of the blind living in darkness makes the civil rights efforts of the blind even more difficult. The artificially blind people represented here lack any understanding of the skills the blind learn to perform visual tasks without the use of eyesight. Without those skills they fail miserably and blame it on their blindness not their lack of skill. If sighted people accept these stereotypes, it becomes that much easier to deny the blind the full rights of citizenship.” Do you know that blind people are unemployed at a rate well above 70%? Do you know that disabled people are systematically denied the right to a private, independent ballot. Do you know that major nonprofits, Like Goodwill Industries can legally pay their disabled employees less than $1.00 per hour while their executives earn in the mid to upper six-figures? Do you know that Southeastern Guide Dogs’ executive director, Titus Herman, is a former executive of Goodwill Industries? The captain steers the ship!</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;background:white'>In his article, “</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Simulation as a Learning Method to Facilitate Disability Awareness”, James T. Herbert (2000) wrote, “empirical evidence that supports [the utility of blindfolding sighted participants] as a learning method to facilitate positive attitudes toward persons with disabilities is weak. Most of the new insights acquired by persons who simulated a disability were negative reactions such as displeasure with self, embarrassment, frustration, and reliance on others.” Another study found that “as a result of completing a disability simulation, students without disabilities were more likely to report stronger agreement to several counterproductive beliefs. In particular, reports that persons with physical disabilities have a harder time in society, become more frustrated because of their disabilities, and are often preoccupied with physical accessibility”. (Herbert, J.T.; 2000) </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;background:white'>Why would Southeastern Guide Dogs perpetrate such fraud? The answer is very clear! They are asking the public to give them $20.00 to participate in a sensationalized, unrealistic portrayal of blindness that reinforces </span><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'>the misconception that blindness means darkness. By leveraging the innate animal instinct to fear the dark and the unknown in the name of profit is unconscionable. Southeastern Guide Dogs is irresponsibly diminishing the capacity of the blind in an effort to make themselves the saviors of the blind so Southeastern Guide Dogs can continue its pattern of disregard for the basic human principles of respect, fairness, and due process. ! (see “Sherrif’s Office Retrieves Stolen Guide Dog <</span></em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> </span><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'><a href="https://serviceanimals.info/News.html">https://serviceanimals.info/News.html</a>></span></em><em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'>Donors give to nonprofit organizations like Southeastern Guide Dogs because they want to make a positive impact in the lives of the blind. Such a damaging, self-serving, greedy damaging portrayal of the blind perpetrated by those the public views as “experts” not only fails to make this positive impact, it has negative impacts that ripple through the entire blind community, creating a climate of pity for the blind not empowerment. <o:p></o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'>The best way to counter Southeastern Guide Dogs’ fraud is to reject their desperate, offensive attempts to make a spectacle of the blind by refusing to attend this event and encouraging your friends and family to do the same. Let Southeastern Guide Dogs betray their donors wishes to improve the lives of the blind by foolishly investing their donations in a manner that is directly contradictory to their donors’ good intentions! Donors gave money so Southeastern Guide Dogs could enhance the lives of the blind, not segregate them to the shadows and create fear of blindness in their greedy quest for revenue! <o:p></o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'>WE encourage Southeastern Guide Dogs <o:p></o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'>to take a critical look at their policies and practices and realize how they negatively impact the lives of those they claim to serve. We invite them to consult with the organized voice of the nation’s blind – the National Federation of the blind – and Advocates for Service Animal Partners to develop policies, practices, and procedures that acknowledge the full capacity of the blind and our rights of due process. Southeastern Guide Dogs engages in a paternalistic approach evidenced by their current and past control over an individuals life through fear of reprisal against their consumers. We urge the general public to reject Southeastern Guide Dogs’ attempts to generate revenue from their disgraceful, irresponsible actions. We invite you to spend the time you might have engaged in this belittling demonstration by taking that time to visit the websites of the National Federation of the Blind </span></em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><a href="https://nfb.org">https://nfb.org</a></span><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'> and that of Advocates for Service Animal Partners </span></em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><a href="http://ServiceAnimals.info">http://ServiceAnimals.info</a></span><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'> where you will learn the truth of living with blindness and the role of a service dog in someone’s life. <a name="_Hlk116486175">WE strongly urge the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts to stand with the disabled community by publicly distancing themselves from their unwitting role in disseminating and supporting this demeaning portrayal of the blind! </a>WE urge the media to refuse to publicize their attempts to relegate the blind and otherwise disabled to the shadows where their dogs lead them into the light! We urge the public to demand Southeastern Guide Dogs leave behind the archaic notions that the blind live in darkness and can only be successful through the charitable paternalism of a multi million dollar nonprofit corporation out of touch with the reality of successfully living as a blind person in charge of their lives and Southeastern Guide Dogs’ disregard for human rights. Perhaps if Southeastern Guide Dogs were to be held accountable for the damage their behavior causes to the very individuals they claim to serve, they will cast aside the arrogant paternalism of decades long gone to embrace an enlightened current view of the disabled as full participants in society on terms of equality with our nondisabled peers!<o:p></o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><em><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'>REFERENCES<o:p></o:p></span></b></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'>Herbert, James T., Simulation as a learning method to teach disability awareness, Journal of Experiential Education, Volume 23, issue 1; 2000.<o:p></o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'>National Federation of the Blind; Resolutions of the National Federation of the Blind; The Braille Monitor, August-September 2012. <o:p></o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'><a href="https://nfb.org/sites/default/files/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm12/bm1208/bm120814.htm">https://nfb.org/sites/default/files/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm12/bm1208/bm120814.htm</a> <o:p></o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'>Smithsonian Institute, Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype; National Museum of African American History and Culture; 2022. <o:p></o:p></span></em></p><p class=ee-event-datetimes-li style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:58.5pt'><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'><</span></em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> </span><em><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal'><a href="https://nmaahc.si.ed">https://nmaahc.si.ed</a> u/explore/stories/blackface-birth-american-stereotype><o:p></o:p></span></em></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>