[NFBV-Winchester] Thought I would share, please take a read

[Chris Walker]

National Federation of the Blind
Our National President, Mark Riccobono talked about the definition of blindness in the April (4/4/19) Presidential Release (# 482.)

And here is what he said!

Another important aspect of membership is talking about the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind, and recently I was at an affiliate convention where a member was saying to me – or this was actually a prospective member. They weren't a member yet – that they were quite disappointed that we spend so much time ignoring people who have some remaining vision, and they said that was true because we always use the word "blind." And I explained our view about blindness, that we use the word "blind" because we use a functional definition of blindness. We don't use strictly a legal blindness definition, and I encouraged them to read the speech "A Definition of Blindness," which I also recommend to our chapters as a jumping off point to talk about why we use the word "blind" to describe everybody who has significant vision loss.

It's really important to me that we view our members, regardless of how much they can or cannot see, as equals. And I don't spend any time classifying people based on how much they can see. And that's why I use the word "blind," because if you're part of our organization, if you're someone that has vision loss, I want you to identify as a blind person, not that because you can see some you're different than those who might actually be totally blind. I also had that point of view because for a long time I faked it. I pretended like I could see more than I could, and when I was doing that I had the notion that I was different than people that couldn't see at all.

And in fact, during all of that time I faced the same struggles, the same discrimination, as those who were totally blind, and it wasn't until I met the National Federation of the Blind that I realized that the only person I was faking was myself, and that I needed to learn the skills that blind people use to be successful, and then I could make informed choices about when I could or could not use my vision effectively. After a while didn't become a question because I lost my remaining vision, but I was prepared to do that because I already knew I was a blind person and I had learned the techniques to use, and so it helped to ease that transition for me. So I encourage us to talk in our chapters about the meaning of blindness, why we use the term "blind" to describe all people with significant vision loss.

Chris Walker 
President  Winchester Chapter,
Diversity and Inclusion Co-Chair
National Federation of the Blind of Virginia 
chrisvinson1 at gmail.com
540.303.0080 
www.nfb.org 
www.nfbv.org
Live the life you want, blindness is not what holds us back.
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