[NJTechDiv] Blind pride, had to share.

[Tony Santiago]

Some of you may have already heard or read this, but I thought it so good I had to share. Enjoy.

Why I am proud to be blind

written by Jonathan Mosen

I often mention on my Mosen At Large podcast that I am proud to be 
blind. Recently, I was challenged by a listener and asked how I can 
possibly be proud of having a serious, debilitating condition.
I am glad to say that disability pride, and blind pride as a subset of 
that, is on the rise. Yet it is an incomprehensible concept to some.
I keep a gratitude journal, where I write at least 10 things every day 
for which I am grateful. So it was easy for me to consult that journal, 
where I have often written of things relating to blindness for which I 
am grateful and write this piece on why I am proud to be blind. You can 
hear the audio of this in Mosen At Large episode 119, but here is the 
text of what I said.
I am profoundly proud to be blind. I am proud of the fact that as a kid, 
when my older siblings would have been found out for reading at night, I 
read in the dark as much as I liked, a Braille book tucked under the 
covers on winter nights.
I am proud to be blind, because it connects me with a proud history. I 
share a characteristic with a man who gave us the priceless gift of 
functional, efficient literacy. Louis Braille was an example of “nothing 
about us without us” in the 19th century, long before we used that 
phrase. His genius invention was derided by sighted people who were 
certain they knew what was best for us. He was ridiculed. His code was 
driven underground and his books were burned. But he prevailed, because 
he was blind. He devised his code for himself, he gave it, at 
considerable personal cost, to all of us.
I am proud to be blind, because of all the other blind people who 
followed in Louis Braille’s footsteps, blind people innovating and 
inventing for our collective advancement, imagining a better future and 
making it real. Whether it be Larry Skutchan with his methodical mind 
and interminable patience, or Ted Henter with his zeal and 
entrepreneurship, or David Costution and Glen Gordon who believed that 
Windows could be truly useable and then made it come true, or the blind 
people now working on the inside of mainstream companies who are our 
champions, we dreamed it, we created it.
I am proud to be blind, because blind people are the reason the 33 RPM 
record was developed, initially so talking books could be distributed 
more efficiently.
And speaking of talking books, I am proud to be blind, because blind 
people are the reason talking books exist. Now, sighted people are using 
them too.
I am proud to be blind, because the original reading machine was created 
for us. We started the journey of digitising printed text that resulted 
in the scanners that are still commonplace in offices today.
I am proud to be blind, because long before the term PDA was in the 
lexicon of sighted people, we were taking notes, keeping track of 
appointments and reading books on devices like Keynotes and 
Braille’n’Speaks.
I am proud to be blind, because we were one of the reasons computers 
started to talk. Technology is better because of blind people. There are 
so many examples of technology when we, proudly, have been the blind who 
led the sighted.
I am proud to be blind, because I am not influenced by someone’s 
physical appearance, but instead gain information from the tone of a 
voice and the words that are said.
I am proud to be blind, because it has made me a more lateral thinker, 
developing and refining alternative techniques to access a wide range of 
information so I can thrive in a largely sight-dependent world.
I am proud to be blind, because even though my other senses aren’t 
sharper than anyone else’s, in fact I have a dual sensory loss, like 
many blind people I use them well. It makes me smile when I can tell 
what type of audio processor is being used on a radio station, or when 
another blind person can tell the kind of car that’s passing by simply 
by the sound it’s making, or when a blind person gives another blind 
person an instruction like, “when your cane hits a pole on my street 
that emits a fifth octave A-Flat, you’re outside my house”.
I am proud to be blind, because of the legacy of great blind civil 
rights leaders around the world. Often ostracised and branded radical 
troublemakers, they confronted, and are still confronting today, the 
tyranny of low expectations and the disabling decisions society has 
chosen to make. They challenged the damaging, fundamentally flawed 
notion that we had neither the ability nor the right to achieve 
self-determination, that it wasn’t necessary for society to be 
accessible, or inclusive, or accepting. Their belief in a fairer 
tomorrow unshackled us from institutions and shattered disempowering 
paternalism. Their tenacity has seen the increasing availability of 
better training, much of it driven by blind people ourselves, and 
increased opportunity through civil rights legislation.
I am proud to be blind, because as a subset of the world’s largest 
minority, disabled people, blind people led the way in the disability 
movement, securing legislative victories long before they were common 
for much of the rest of the sector. I am grateful every day of my life 
for those blind people who took on those difficult causes, displayed 
tenacity and stated their cases again, and again, and again until 
progress was slowly but surely made. I am proud of the personal 
responsibility I feel as a blind person to always cherish and defend, 
never take for granted, and constantly build upon the legacy of civil 
rights victories that I have inherited and benefited from. I am mindful 
that they must not be squandered, and I am proud to stand up, be 
counted, and do my moral duty to advance that legacy so that the next 
generation has even more opportunity than I have had.
I am proud to be blind, because it has shaped who I am, it is part of my 
identity and it has helped define me. I accept that. I embrace that.
I am proud to be blind, because in being blind I contribute to the rich 
tapestry and the diversity of humankind.
I am proud to be blind, because no matter how many negative signals are 
sent, I know that being blind makes me no less a person of worth.
I am proud to be blind, because the opposite of pride is shame, and my 
blindness is nothing to be ashamed of.
I am proud to be blind, and therefore share a characteristic with 
talented people from all walks of life. Blind people are parents, 
devoted, loving parents, some of whom have had their babies literally 
snatched from their loving arms, an atrocity no capable and loving 
parent should endure, and all for no other reason than people getting it 
horribly wrong about blindness. I am proud that we as blind people show 
those parents love, solidarity, and a steadfast determination to get 
those children back where they belong.
Blind people are in factories and farms, law practices and legislatures, 
sandwich shops and start-ups. I am proud of the blind teachers, software 
developers, businesspeople, mechanics, transcribers, musicians and even 
medical doctors. There is very little we can’t do and there are few 
professions where you can’t find a blind person, often to many people’s 
surprise. The only trouble is, the world doesn’t necessarily know that. 
And that’s the biggest reason I am proud to be blind. Because every day, 
just by getting on with my life, I defy the odds in a disabling society, 
we defy expectations where there is little disability confidence. When 
people tell us we can’t, we show them yes, we can. It can be exhausting 
sometimes. We may get knocked down, and sometimes we may feel like we’re 
out for the count. But eventually, most of us get up again. We apply for 
that one more job. We work around that inaccessible website. We keep 
calm and carry on when we’re treated like a helpless child in the 
street, or when walking into a store, or when yet another ride share 
driver declines to take our guide dog. That takes guts, it takes 
tenacity. The odds are stacked against us, but we march on, we make 
progress. Go us!
Yes, I am proud, proud, a thousand times proud to be blind.
Share and enjoy

https://mosen.org/BlindPride/
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Tony Santiago
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