[Nfbmo] Fw: [Chapter-presidents] Letter to the Editor Concerning "Dining
DanFlasar at aol.com
DanFlasar at aol.com
Fri Mar 12 18:33:50 UTC 2010
I agree completely with the stance taken in the letter written in response
to a report on a fund-raiser
for a group fighting blindness that featured a blindfolded dinner for
attendees. I however, think that the letter
partially missed the point of the exercise. Of course blindfolding
someone for an hour - or even all day -
doesn't give anyone a real sense of what permanent blindness is like - but
it can do a really good job des-
cribing the fear a person feels when they experience - for the first time
- loss of vision, and that was
the real point of the exercise - to induce in potential donors the feeling
of impending global loss that can arise
from the prospect of loss of some vital function. I think anyone here
would feel the same fear in learning
that they will soon be deaf, or that they will lose a limb.
Of course we can learn to cope later, but a group dedicated to
*fighting* blindness does not address how
to manage, despite medical efforts, life after blindness. That's the job
of the NFB, among other groups and
agencies. It would not make sense to not try to take better care of your
diabetes to keep from losing your
vision because blindness can be very successfully minimized afterwards. I
think the exercise is perfectly
valid for the purposes of increasing donations to the group seeking a cure
for RP.
I'll never forget the absolute terror I felt when, in preparation
for an ERG, I was placed, blindfolded, in
a chair in a busy hospital corridor at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital.
Being completely sightless
for the first time, alone, with the world going by normally, I was within
seconds of completely panic when
a person next to me noticed my anxiety and brought the nurse who took me
into a quiet room to regroup.
And I'll never forget the hope, courage and relief I experienced when
I found, a few months later, an
article by Kenneth Jernigan called "A Philosophy of Blindness". His
clear and consistent explanation of
life without sight made me realize that, as with so many things, deciding
our life is ruined by something is
pretty much always premature. That article led me to the NFB.
Yes, we can get along fine without sight, but that doesn't mean that
we mustn't try to prevent sight loss
by addressing its preventable causes.
In a message dated 3/12/2010 11:37:24 A.M. Central Standard Time,
msievert at sbcglobal.net writes:
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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