[NFBWV-Talk] Nat’l Federation of Blind traces its aims, history, fight for rights
Dolaro Narol Blaisescu
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Sun Jul 31 00:47:54 UTC 2022
Nat’l Federation of Blind traces its aims, history, fight for rights
https://themilitant.com/2022/07/30/natl-federation-of-blind-traces-its-aims-history-fight-for-rights/
BY JANE ROLAND
Vol. 86/No. 29
August 8, 2022
Pathfinder volunteer Harvey McArthur shows Brooke Coelho how accessible
e-book files of books by Socialist Workers Party, other revolutionaries
can be read by people who are blind.
MILITANT/GALE SHANGOLD
Pathfinder volunteer Harvey McArthur shows Brooke Coelho how accessible
e-book files of books by Socialist Workers Party, other revolutionaries
can be read by people who are blind.
NEW ORLEANS — The National Federation of the Blind held its annual
convention here July 5-10. The NFB is the largest organization of the
blind and those with low vision in the U.S. and its national conventions
are the largest gatherings of blind people in the world. Close to 2,500
people registered in person at this year’s event, with an additional
1,500 following various sessions by Zoom.
In his remarks at the convention banquet, President Mark Riccobono spoke
about the group’s history and aims. When organized attention began to be
paid to the situation of the blind in the late 19th century, he said,
initial efforts were taken “through institutional systems built for us,
not by us — schools for the blind, sheltered employment settings” —
usually sites for the superexploitation of workers who were blind, with
pittance wages and abysmal conditions — “and even homes for the blind.
While these institutions afforded us the opportunity to bond together,
they also had the effect of reinforcing the very misconceptions that
held us back.”
In those days, Riccobono said, everything was organized around
“institutionalized charity and low expectations. The idea that we should
or could speak and act for ourselves was a direct contradiction to the
narrative upon which many agencies for the blind had built their services.”
When the National Federation of the Blind was launched by leaders of
seven state organizations in 1940, he said, its pioneers found power in
“the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution — protections resulting from the work” of those who had
fought to bring down chattel slavery in the 19th century. It’s important
never to “miss the unique and singularly powerful reason” for the new
organization, he said. “No one else was to set the direction and
priorities — only the blind. No one else was to speak for the movement —
only the blind representatives elected by the blind. No other aspect was
more critical than the reality that it was a blind people’s movement.”
By the 1980s, he said, the National Federation of the Blind had gained
the maturity and confidence “to grow in new dimensions,” for example,
establishing a national organization of parents as a way “to incorporate
families of blind children into our movement.”
To expand access by the blind to newspapers, magazines and books, he
said, the NFB has “shaped the copyright laws of the nation to include
us” and “raised the awareness of Braille literacy.” It has organized to
improve educational standards, raise wages, expand access to voting and
protected “our ability to travel independently on the streets of America.”
“As blind people, we seek to live in the world, not apart from it,”
Riccobono said. “We are not immune from the broader trends in society.
We live within them.”
Convention activity
The convention registered participants’ confidence and pride in their
accomplishments — from being competent parents, to taking on challenging
jobs of all kinds, to competition in athletics at the highest levels.
Delegates discussed and adopted resolutions aimed at eliminating
obstacles blind people face in daily life. These include federal
legislation guaranteeing websites be accessible to the blind; state laws
guaranteeing the right to mail-in ballots and barring employers from
requiring driver’s licenses for jobs not involving driving; developing
home COVID tests that can be administered and read by the blind; and
requiring e-books produced in the U.S. to have accessibility features
that make photos and illustrations, indexes, tables of contents,
glossaries, footnotes and other reader aids available to those with no
or limited vision.
Participants focused on the pressing need for jobs. Some 70% to 80% of
blind people are unemployed, said convention speakers. It was reported
that the NFB, working together with the World Blind Union, has helped
raise substantial funds to assist blind people in Ukraine.
Pathfinder Press table
Pathfinder Press was among the convention exhibitors for the first time
this year. Some 30 Pathfinder titles are already available to blind and
low-vision readers through the website Bookshare.org, the result of
efforts by volunteers who want to read these books and have done the
work to format and post them for others.
Pathfinder is now organizing to add additional titles and to enhance
their accessibility features. Accessible e-books have descriptions of
images and navigation features needed by blind readers using
screen-reader software, and they can be converted into Braille, audio
and other digital formats.
Volunteers at the Pathfinder table distributed several hundred flyers in
Braille and in large-print format listing Pathfinder e-books available
through Bookshare.org. Sighted participants bought 15 books and two
subscriptions to the Militant newspaper.
Bruce Roberds, a retired union activist from Wichita, Kansas, who lost
his sight as a teenager, was attracted to the book The Clintons’
Anti-Working-Class Record. He said he had thought Hillary Clinton was “a
pretty good choice” in 2016. “But I’m open to hearing something
different and changing my mind,” he said, after talking with people at
the Pathfinder table. He’s looking forward to the title being available
to the blind.
Volunteers demonstrated Pathfinder’s new, accessible e-book files to
several dozen convention participants. Several signed up to give
feedback once they can try out the files themselves.
Kia Vaca from Louisiana was especially interested in the work involved
in turning a print book file into an EPUB file. “I really appreciate
what your volunteers are doing,” she said.
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Also In This Issue
Nat’l Federation of Blind traces its aims, history, fight for rights
Socialist Workers Party files for 2022 ballot in Pennsylvania
California SWP: ‘Back port truckers! For a labor party’
Panama actions protest soaring prices, lack of jobs
Ukraine gov’t uses martial law to impose anti-labor laws
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‘Militant’ Renewal Drive June 25-August 2 (week 4)
Editorials
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UK bus drivers strike to protect their wages from inflation
Books of the Month
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