[Nfbmo] What would you do?

[Gary Wunder]

Hi Fred and the folks who have commented here. Please allow me to interject
another perspective. I find this troublesome philosophically. When I can
have access and am denied it because someone doesn't want to go to the
trouble of making their software accessible, I'm up in arms. When they use
artificial barriers such as possessing a driver's license when what they
mean is that an employee has to get around, I'm bothered. When they say I
have to be able to visually read print to take a job and I have a machine to
do it, I'm outraged.

How is the issue changed when we know of no way to make a process 100
percent accessible? I don't want to deprive anyone of the beauty found in
paintings or photography simply because I can't observe them. I understand
there are some cartoons that are so torturous to explain that by the time
one finishes putting them into words, they are no longer funny.

Mental challenges may be audible, visual, or they might even involve other
senses such as taste or smell. If we look hard enough, we'll find people who
have problems with one or more of these. So, in the areas where we don't
have true alternatives, should our request be that the thing we cannot do be
stricken from the activity? Would we have been wrong to run a clip of Henry
Kissinger saying "Piece is at hand," and asking the group to identify the
man or what he was talking about or the year when he made the utterance? The
blind are at something of a disadvantage because we cannot see him. The deaf
are at a disadvantage because they cannot hear him. The young may well be at
a disadvantage because they weren't around when he made headlines with that
statement, much to the displeasure of his boss, the president of the United
States. Take the same question, put it in print, and then decide if it is
fair to the dyslexic who might have an easy time with the audio or the video
clip.

I Don't like being excluded, and if I am excluded enough, I'll find another
activity. It hurts and seems unfair, but to me it doesn't rise to the level
of discrimination which, if I understand it, means something which is both
unreasonable and detrimental. I don't think we can be critical of people
using sight and acknowledging that it plays a major role in the way they
find and even remember things. What we can and should make an unequivocal
stand for are things which have nonvisual alternatives but which are ignored
to the detriment of our education and employment.  

I do not mean this as a real answer to the question of what should I do, but
as a thought process we go through when trying to decide when to fight and
what we can reasonably fight for as blind people. I am not targeting Fred
here but trying to engage in some discussion of a philosophical principle
that I wrestle with at least two or three times per month. I appreciate the
question, even if I don't have anything like a good answer.


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of fred olver
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 8:45 AM
To: NFB of Missouri Mailing List
Subject: [Nfbmo] What would you do?

A year ago, I attended a Trivia Night put on by a food pantry in the St.
Louis area. This pantry is supported by my church along with several others.
After the night's program was over, half of the categories being visual in
nature so that a blind person could not participate in that portion of the
program I wrote an item for my churches news-letter and sent it on to the
director of the organization. In this item I pointed out that it was not
fair or necessary to include only video-type questions and asked that they
do, in the future consider having categories which were non-video in the
future. I received assurances from the director of the organization that
indeed they would do this.

Last Friday, I attended their Trivia Nighht again. True, only two categories
of questions were video in nature, however these two categories included
roughly 1/3 of the questions. Yesterday at a meeting of a church committee I
suggested that they with-hold two weeks worth of donations and that these
donations go to another organization as a protest, the rest of the committee
said no to this idea, sighting the possibility that a family might have to
do without this food, I personally doubt it, and figure they're just to
comfortable in their place and don't wish to because it doesn't affect them,
so what would you do if you were in my place? This really upsets me,
especially since I had spoken to this organization a year ago and they had
more or less agreed that this was not a good thing to have happen.

Fred Olver
http://www.dealingwithvisionloss.com  For some of us it's a way of life and
for some of us it just makes life easier. Fred Olver
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