<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div class="WordSection1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; page: WordSection1; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Some of you may have already heard or read this, but I thought it so good I had to share. Enjoy.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-IE">Why I am proud to be blind<br><br>written by Jonathan Mosen<br><br>I often mention on my Mosen At Large podcast that I am proud to be <br>blind. Recently, I was challenged by a listener and asked how I can <br>possibly be proud of having a serious, debilitating condition.<br>I am glad to say that disability pride, and blind pride as a subset of <br>that, is on the rise. Yet it is an incomprehensible concept to some.<br>I keep a gratitude journal, where I write at least 10 things every day <br>for which I am grateful. So it was easy for me to consult that journal, <br>where I have often written of things relating to blindness for which I <br>am grateful and write this piece on why I am proud to be blind. You can <br>hear the audio of this in Mosen At Large episode 119, but here is the <br>text of what I said.<br>I am profoundly proud to be blind. I am proud of the fact that as a kid, <br>when my older siblings would have been found out for reading at night, I <br>read in the dark as much as I liked, a Braille book tucked under the <br>covers on winter nights.<br>I am proud to be blind, because it connects me with a proud history. I <br>share a characteristic with a man who gave us the priceless gift of <br>functional, efficient literacy. Louis Braille was an example of “nothing <br>about us without us” in the 19th century, long before we used that <br>phrase. His genius invention was derided by sighted people who were <br>certain they knew what was best for us. He was ridiculed. His code was <br>driven underground and his books were burned. But he prevailed, because <br>he was blind. He devised his code for himself, he gave it, at <br>considerable personal cost, to all of us.<br>I am proud to be blind, because of all the other blind people who <br>followed in Louis Braille’s footsteps, blind people innovating and <br>inventing for our collective advancement, imagining a better future and <br>making it real. Whether it be Larry Skutchan with his methodical mind <br>and interminable patience, or Ted Henter with his zeal and <br>entrepreneurship, or David Costution and Glen Gordon who believed that <br>Windows could be truly useable and then made it come true, or the blind <br>people now working on the inside of mainstream companies who are our <br>champions, we dreamed it, we created it.<br>I am proud to be blind, because blind people are the reason the 33 RPM <br>record was developed, initially so talking books could be distributed <br>more efficiently.<br>And speaking of talking books, I am proud to be blind, because blind <br>people are the reason talking books exist. Now, sighted people are using <br>them too.<br>I am proud to be blind, because the original reading machine was created <br>for us. We started the journey of digitising printed text that resulted <br>in the scanners that are still commonplace in offices today.<br>I am proud to be blind, because long before the term PDA was in the <br>lexicon of sighted people, we were taking notes, keeping track of <br>appointments and reading books on devices like Keynotes and <br>Braille’n’Speaks.<br>I am proud to be blind, because we were one of the reasons computers <br>started to talk. Technology is better because of blind people. There are <br>so many examples of technology when we, proudly, have been the blind who <br>led the sighted.<br>I am proud to be blind, because I am not influenced by someone’s <br>physical appearance, but instead gain information from the tone of a <br>voice and the words that are said.<br>I am proud to be blind, because it has made me a more lateral thinker, <br>developing and refining alternative techniques to access a wide range of <br>information so I can thrive in a largely sight-dependent world.<br>I am proud to be blind, because even though my other senses aren’t <br>sharper than anyone else’s, in fact I have a dual sensory loss, like <br>many blind people I use them well. It makes me smile when I can tell <br>what type of audio processor is being used on a radio station, or when <br>another blind person can tell the kind of car that’s passing by simply <br>by the sound it’s making, or when a blind person gives another blind <br>person an instruction like, “when your cane hits a pole on my street <br>that emits a fifth octave A-Flat, you’re outside my house”.<br>I am proud to be blind, because of the legacy of great blind civil <br>rights leaders around the world. Often ostracised and branded radical <br>troublemakers, they confronted, and are still confronting today, the <br>tyranny of low expectations and the disabling decisions society has <br>chosen to make. They challenged the damaging, fundamentally flawed <br>notion that we had neither the ability nor the right to achieve <br>self-determination, that it wasn’t necessary for society to be <br>accessible, or inclusive, or accepting. Their belief in a fairer <br>tomorrow unshackled us from institutions and shattered disempowering <br>paternalism. Their tenacity has seen the increasing availability of <br>better training, much of it driven by blind people ourselves, and <br>increased opportunity through civil rights legislation.<br>I am proud to be blind, because as a subset of the world’s largest <br>minority, disabled people, blind people led the way in the disability <br>movement, securing legislative victories long before they were common <br>for much of the rest of the sector. I am grateful every day of my life <br>for those blind people who took on those difficult causes, displayed <br>tenacity and stated their cases again, and again, and again until <br>progress was slowly but surely made. I am proud of the personal <br>responsibility I feel as a blind person to always cherish and defend, <br>never take for granted, and constantly build upon the legacy of civil <br>rights victories that I have inherited and benefited from. I am mindful <br>that they must not be squandered, and I am proud to stand up, be <br>counted, and do my moral duty to advance that legacy so that the next <br>generation has even more opportunity than I have had.<br>I am proud to be blind, because it has shaped who I am, it is part of my <br>identity and it has helped define me. I accept that. I embrace that.<br>I am proud to be blind, because in being blind I contribute to the rich <br>tapestry and the diversity of humankind.<br>I am proud to be blind, because no matter how many negative signals are <br>sent, I know that being blind makes me no less a person of worth.<br>I am proud to be blind, because the opposite of pride is shame, and my <br>blindness is nothing to be ashamed of.<br>I am proud to be blind, and therefore share a characteristic with <br>talented people from all walks of life. Blind people are parents, <br>devoted, loving parents, some of whom have had their babies literally <br>snatched from their loving arms, an atrocity no capable and loving <br>parent should endure, and all for no other reason than people getting it <br>horribly wrong about blindness. I am proud that we as blind people show <br>those parents love, solidarity, and a steadfast determination to get <br>those children back where they belong.<br>Blind people are in factories and farms, law practices and legislatures, <br>sandwich shops and start-ups. I am proud of the blind teachers, software <br>developers, businesspeople, mechanics, transcribers, musicians and even <br>medical doctors. There is very little we can’t do and there are few <br>professions where you can’t find a blind person, often to many people’s <br>surprise. The only trouble is, the world doesn’t necessarily know that. <br>And that’s the biggest reason I am proud to be blind. Because every day, <br>just by getting on with my life, I defy the odds in a disabling society, <br>we defy expectations where there is little disability confidence. When <br>people tell us we can’t, we show them yes, we can. It can be exhausting <br>sometimes. We may get knocked down, and sometimes we may feel like we’re <br>out for the count. But eventually, most of us get up again. We apply for <br>that one more job. We work around that inaccessible website. We keep <br>calm and carry on when we’re treated like a helpless child in the <br>street, or when walking into a store, or when yet another ride share <br>driver declines to take our guide dog. That takes guts, it takes <br>tenacity. The odds are stacked against us, but we march on, we make <br>progress. Go us!<br>Yes, I am proud, proud, a thousand times proud to be blind.<br>Share and enjoy<br><br><a href="https://mosen.org/BlindPride/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(37, 37, 255);">https://mosen.org/BlindPride/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"></p></div></div><div width="1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both;">_._,_._,_</div><hr style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: rgb(37, 37, 255); text-decoration: underline;">Groups.io</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Links:</span><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You receive all messages sent to this group. </p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><a target="_blank" href="https://groups.io/g/idevices/message/12993" style="color: rgb(37, 37, 255);">View/Reply Online (#12993)</a> | <a target="_blank" href="mailto:idevices@groups.io?subject=Re:%20%5BiDevices%5D%20Why%20I%20am%20proud%20to%20be%20blind" style="color: rgb(37, 37, 255);">Reply To Group</a>| <a target="_blank" href="mailto:kevinmeyers@wi.rr.com?subject=Private:%20Re:%20%5BiDevices%5D%20Why%20I%20am%20proud%20to%20be%20blind" style="color: rgb(37, 37, 255);">Reply To Sender</a> | <a target="_blank" href="https://groups.io/mt/82550927/1306116" style="color: rgb(37, 37, 255);">Mute This Topic</a> | <a href="https://groups.io/g/idevices/post" style="color: rgb(37, 37, 255);">New Topic</a><br></p><hr style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 85.5px; margin-right: 342px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">To post to this list send your message to: </span><span dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: rgb(37, 37, 255); text-decoration: underline;">idevices@groups.io</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This list owned by, Gateway For the Blind LLC.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><a href="http://www.gatewayfortheblind.com/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: rgb(37, 37, 255);">http://www.gatewayfortheblind.com</a><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Gateway To Independence</span><hr style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 85.5px; margin-right: 342px;"><a href="https://groups.io/g/idevices/editsub/1306116" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: rgb(37, 37, 255);">Your Subscription</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> | </span><a href="mailto:idevices+owner@groups.io" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: rgb(37, 37, 255);">Contact Group Owner</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> | </span><a href="https://groups.io/g/idevices/leave/3985842/1306116/90581974/xyzzy" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: rgb(37, 37, 255);">Unsubscribe</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> [</span><span dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: rgb(37, 37, 255); text-decoration: underline;">ts12865@yahoo.com</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">]</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><div width="1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both;">_._,_._,_</div><br><div dir="ltr">Tony Santiago<div>Sent from my iPhone</div></div></body></html>