[Nfbmo] Fw: [Chapter-presidents] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in theDark"

Fri Mar 12 17:36:53 UTC 2010

I agree, simply blind-folding people will give them a "sense" of blindness, but not the "learned skills".

Sort of like trying to have a sighted person explain to us what it is like to see with two eyes and good vision. We can try to perceive a world with good vision, but we can never completely understand.

As I get older i realize how limited my sight is, and how much I rely upon the skills I have learned over the years.

Being visually impaired is an interesting experience. You learn a lot of neat things. 

I am glad events such as the one below exist and raises a good amount of funds.

Matt

On Mar 12, 2010, at 11:12 AM, "fred olver" <goodfolks at charter.net> wrote:

----- Original Message ----- From: "fred olver" <goodfolks at charter.net>
To: "NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list" <chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: [Chapter-presidents] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in theDark"

I have read with great interest the article and your letter which you sent to the newspaper, however I would take issue with your statement "I am writing to comment on the article "Awareness Was the Main Course" by Laura Reiley that appeared in the March 10 Metro section of the St.
Petersburg times. As a blind person, I often meet people who are amazed by the fact that I can perform even the simplest of tasks. Generally this attitude
is based on their own experience attempting to perform the same task without eyesight and failing at it miserably. ." I would contend that as stated in my book "dealing With Vision Loss," published 2007 through Author-House and also available from  my website http://www.dealingwithvisionloss.com that the problem is that most seeing folks when confronted with either a blind-fold experience or with dealing with with a person who is blind can for the most part, only think of how it would be for them or how they would react if they lost their vision or a large portion of it. The problem is not blindness, but their perception of it, from their perspective. Sure, it is easy or easier for most of us to say that blindness is insignificant, but look at what we know, the education we have received, the training, the adaptive aids we have learned to use.

Fred Olver
----- Original Message -----  From: Marion Gwizdala
To: NFB Chapter presidents
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 7:55 AM
Subject: [Chapter-presidents] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining in theDark"

Dear All,
    Pasted below is an article that appeared in the March 10 issue of the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times concerning a fund raising event for the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the Letter to the Editor I wrote.

fraternally yours,
Marion Gwizdala, President
National Association of Guide Dog Users
National Federation of the Blind
813-598-7161
President at NFB-NAGDU.ORG
HTTP://NFB-NAGDU.ORG

Awareness Was the Main Course
by Laura Reiley
 Published in the St. Petersburg Times
March 10, 2010

ST. PETERSBURG
You knew your plate had been set before you only by sense of smell. It
smelled like beef, something braised and hearty. On your right a voice asked
what you do for a living. You turned and lobbed an answer in that direction.
Tuesday night was the Foundation Fighting Blindness's first Tampa Bay Dining
in the Dark event at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club. More than 200
people, dressed fancy and sipping cocktails, took seats in the main ballroom
and eventually donned something called a Mindfold face mask, impervious to
light and lined with foam. The lights dimmed and as emcee Dick Crippen of
the Tampa Bay Rays goaded the crowd, the group endeavored to enjoy "the
first meal you will never see."
Other senses were heightened, texture became paramount. But more important,
it gave all of the assembled a greater window into the world of the
sightless. Many had come because their lives had already been touched by
degenerative retinal diseases. Briana Pompilus, 24, was there as a volunteer
with her mother Veronica Floyd, 44, who was diagnosed with retinitis
pigmentosa at age 22. Still driving now, eventually her vision will close up
as if looking through two drinking straws.
Mary Lou Johnson Evans was there for a similar reason. Her 14-year-old son,
Josh, suffers from the same disease.
One of the evening's speakers, April Lufriu, a former Mrs. Florida America
pageant winner and president of the Tampa Bay area chapter of the
foundation, spoke of her sister's retinal disease and, more haltingly, about
her two children's recent diagnosis.
Degenerative retinal diseases affect more than 10 million Americans. As
keynote speaker James Minow described it, the foundation's aim is to put an
end to retinal disease by replacing defective cells in the retina, replacing
defective genes and by developing new treatments to protect degenerating
retinas. The obstacle? As is so often the case, it's money.
According to Kim Marlow, regional director of development for the
foundation, the evening in St. Petersburg will raise $100,000 for the cause.
The most successful Dining in the Dark event to date, in New York, raised
$500,000 in a single evening.
The evening's honorees, doctors James Gill and Stephen Klasko, were
feverishly optimistic about conceivable cures for blindness. For those
assembled, a half hour in the dark was a humbling, and bumbling, reminder of
the magnitude of the gift of sight.
Laura Reiley can be reached at
lreiley at sptimes.com
or (727) 892-2293.
March 11, 2010
Dear Editor,

            I am writing to comment on the article "Awareness Was the Main Course" by Laura Reiley that appeared in the March 10 Metro section of the St.
Petersburg times. As a blind person, I often meet people who are amazed by the fact that I can perform even the simplest of tasks. Generally this attitude
is based on their own experience attempting to perform the same task without eyesight and failing at it miserably. It is for this reason that most blind
people are opposed to using the type of simulation exercises featured in this article. Blindfolding a sighted person and asking them to perform even a
simple task does not, as the article purports, give a person any awareness of what the life of a blind person is like. In fact, such exercises only serve
to reinforce the misconceptions and promulgate the myths about blindness that create the social, legal, and economic barriers that prevent us from achieving
true equality with our sighted peers. Those of us who are blind have developed an array of non-visual techniques to perform activities of daily living,
such as eating, just as effectively as sighted people do using eyesight. Blindfolding a sighted person and asking them to perform a task is like putting
someone in the cockpit of a jetliner and telling them to fly! Lacking the proper skills, the results of both would be disastrous!

            The real problem of blindness is not the lack of eyesight; rather it is the manner in which we are treated as the result of the misconceptions
people have about blindness. If one really wants to find out what life is like for a blind person, there is no need to don a blindfold! All one needs to
do is carry a white cane, the international symbol of blindness,  and go about their everyday life. Then they would feel the crushing insults  of public
misperception that blind people, except for those few who are believed to be amazing and extraordinary, are innately ignorant and helpless. They would
experience the waitress who asks a five year old what the blind adult wants to drink. They would encounter the librarian who admonishes them for going
out alone, thus exposing them to the hazards of opening a door. They would be confronted by the Employer who inquires about who will bring them to work.
They would learn that even well educated doctors are so ignorant as to ask them who bathes them! Though you might want to minimize these incidents away,
they are examples of the type of ignorance I - and other blind people - encounter on a regular, almost daily, basis!

            I am not asserting that eyesight is not beneficial nor that the work of the Foundation Fighting Blindness is not valuable. What concerns me
is that organizations that assert they want to "serve the blind" do us such a disservice by reinforcing the public misconceptions and fears that create
the problems we face. I am all for raising money to cure retinal degenerative diseases, especially since the condition that has caused my blindness, that
of my 14-year-old nephew , and several other members of my family is retinitis Pigmentosa. I am, however, opposed to creating the type of fear and pity
that results from blindfolding people for the purpose of raising money! Such a practice is as offensive to me as a black-faced minstrel would be to an
African American! These misconceptions are the reason fewer than 10% of blind children are learning to read and write Braille, producing functionally illiterate
blind adults. These fears and misconceptions are the reason that the unemployment rate among the blind is more than 70%!

            The veracity of my concerns are supported by the numerous inaccurate statements made by the author who has bought into the false perceptions
of the blind. Does she really believe that "other senses are heightened" by taking away one's sight or "; texture became paramount" as the result of simulated
blindness? Does she really believe that blindfolding participants "gave all assembled a greater window into the world of the sightless"? Does she really
believe that blind people go through life "bumbling" their ways around or did she just irresponsibly promulgate the pitiful stereotype in an effort to
sell your newspapers like the Foundation Fighting Blindness did to sell themselves and selfishly generate  revenue with no concern about the social consequences
of their actions?

            The belief that blind people are endowed with heightened senses and special powers is a myth. Blind people simply learn to use their other senses
and alternative techniques to perform the tasks sighted people do with eyesight. Like any skill, these techniques are generally not acquired in a half-hour
nor mysteriously and supernaturally endowed. However, these skills enable blind people to function independently, efficiently, and effectively. In fact,
the average blind person can perform the same tasks as their sighted peers as well, if not better, by employing these alternative techniques. Our blindness
is not the problem. The real problem of blindness is the misunderstanding and lack of information that exists. If a blind person is given proper training
and opportunity, blindness is only a physical nuisance.

            In the future, when your paper is doing a story about blindness, it would be helpful to get accurate information and the perspective of a blind
person who is qualified to speak to these issues by being chosen by the blind to speak on their behalf. The National Federation of the Blind is the oldest
and largest organization of the blind in the United States. We are not an organization that speaks on behalf of the blind; we are the blind speaking for
ourselves. For accurate information about blindness or the blind, please feel free to get in touch with me or visit one of our websites at

HTTP://WWW.NFB.ORG

Or

HTTP://WWW.NFB-NAGDU.ORG

Respectfully yours,

Marion Gwizdala, President

National Association of Guide Dog Users

National Federation of the Blind

813-598-7161

President at NFB-NAGDU.ORG

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