[NFBWATLK] Re Sue Ammeter

[Elizabeth Rene]

I too am sad to hear about Sue Ammeter’s death. I met Sue in the early 80s when I was thrown out of the King Tutt exhibit in Seattle because I showed up there with my first guide dog, Ingram. Attitudes toward blind people and guide dogs in Seattle have surely changed since then! Sue and I served together on the civil rights subcommittee of the  Governor’s Committee on Disability Issues & Employment during the late 80s and early 90s, and I saw her a couple of years ago at a fundraising reception for the National Braille Press. She was an outspoken advocate for blind people in state government, and I think she had to weather a lot of hostility because of it before the passage of the ADA and from people who opposed civil rights for people with disabilities. I remember there also being a lot of enmity between the NFB and the ACB  in Washington and my own feelings of regret and discouragement that the differing philosophies and conflict between the two most prominent blindness-advocacy groups seemed to siphon off energy so badly needed to take our movement forward. A long-standing resident of Washington back then, Sue was caught up in that conflict. Too bad! But history shows that there has always been inner strife within the civil rights movement, whether for racial justice, gender equality, or disability rights. Sue never wavered in her fight for justice for blind people, and she should be remembered as one of the leading figures in our state’s history. 

Elizabeth M René 
Attorney at Law 
WSBA #10710
KCBA #21824 
rene0373 at gmail.com