[Nfbmo] Blindness is not a gimmick

[Daniel Garcia]

In the Imagineering Our Future newsletter that came out today from President Riccobono there is a citation:
"We have a very personal interest in publicity about us, and we will tell the story as it truly is. We are a part of this society, and we expect to be welcomed within it, not made the butt of somebody else's so-called humor."
- Dr. Marc Maurer "The Power of Belonging." 2013 NFB National Convention, Orlando, Florida, July 6, 2013.

Not only is the How We See It Campaign harmful, but in Missouri there is a candidate for U.S. Senate who is running an ad in which he is assembling a gun with a blindfold on. I sincerely believe that this add belittles the blind. This kind of gimmick promotes the idea that blind people are "amazing" because they can assemble a gun, tie their shoe, or even cross the street without eyesight. The May, 2015 Braille Monitor has an article titled "Blind People and talking Dogs." The author Dick Davis makes the point that people consider blind people to be similar to talking dogs in the sense that if a dog said something, people would not care what it said, but they would be amazed that it said something at all. And so it is with the blind, the fact that blind people can do every day things with alternative techniques of blindness strikes some people as "amazing."

No, I am not a big fan of extreme political correctness, but we do have a first amendment right to firmly express our disagreement and to further explain why we disagree. 

Best Regards

Daniel Garcia