[NJTechDiv] Blind pride, had to share.

Mon May 3 22:48:10 UTC 2021

I was listening to the podcast on my treadmill, and it literally had me crying.  Incredible.

> On May 3, 2021, at 6:23 PM, Tony Santiago via NJTechDiv <njtechdiv at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 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/ <https://mosen.org/BlindPride/>
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> 
> Tony Santiago
> Sent from my iPhone
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