[Ohio-talk] FW: Blind Person vs. Person Who is Blind

marianne marianne at denningweb.com
Fri Feb 3 19:32:05 UTC 2017


Kaiti, I definitely agree with what you said here. Blind is just a
describing word. We put either a positive or negative interpretation on the
word. Many people who have always been blind or have been blind a long time
are very comfortable but people who have recently lost their vision struggle
with the comfort. If someone who has always been rich looses all of their
money for whatever reason they would struggle with living like the rest of
us. They wouold not be comfortable for many years. I know that is a crazy
comparison. strug

-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio-Talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti
Shelton via Ohio-Talk
Sent: Friday, February 3, 2017 1:35 PM
To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Kaiti Shelton <kaiti.shelton at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Ohio-talk] FW: Blind Person vs. Person Who is Blind

I also like what Marianne had to say, but part of it for me is challenging
old perceptions of disability that are outdated and uninformed. At least for
me, I think that people who are resistant to using identity first language,
particularly in fields that have taught them that person first is the gold
standard, are fearful and don't necessarily know what they don't know. That
in itself isn't their fault, because old ideas diehard, but I wonder what
fear might motivate them to continue doing so in the face of disabled people
themselves actually speaking up and  saying that they don't mind or like
their disability as a part of their identity. Most helping professions have
a continuing education requirements, so one might think that more people
would be receptive to using identity first language for people that want it
that way, but there are some people who simply refuse to do it at all. And
if professions serving disable people are that far removed from current
issues in disability studies, it creates a hierarchy, where the person
dishing out the service by virtue of them not having a disability like their
client knows better than the client knows himself. There is a saying in the
autism community that says nothing about us without us, and I think that's
an important reminder for people in helping professions to defer to the
source and admit that sometimes they don't always know what's best for their
clients as well as they think they do.  

Kaiti Shelton

> On Feb 3, 2017, at 9:44 AM, Robert Spangler via Ohio-Talk
<ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Thanks to those of you who responded to this!  Kaiti, I never thought 
> of it that way -- that's a good point.  If I'm a tall/short person, 
> skinny person, etc, then what's wrong with me being a blind person?  
> Now that I think about that, I'm even more offended by the person who 
> is blind crap.  On the other hand, Maryann said that the words that 
> one uses are not important and that it's more about how she is 
> treated.  At the end of the day, the words don't really make a 
> difference (except for maybe emotionally), so that's definitely a great
point!  Have a good day!
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ohio-Talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
> Smith, JW via Ohio-Talk
> Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2017 1:09 PM
> To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List 
> <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Smith, JW <smithj at ohio.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Ohio-talk] FW: Blind Person vs. Person Who is Blind
> 
> 
> Dear Kaiti and Robby:
> 
> Thank you for your excellent and provocative messages on this topic.
> 
> You both have eloquently and effectively captured the essence and 
> substance of it all in my opinion!
> 
> Well done!
> 
> Keep thinking and writing please?
> 
> Jw
> 
> Dr. jw Smith
> School of Communication Studies
> Scripps College of Communication
> Schoonover Center, Rm. 427
> Athens, OH 45701
> smithj at ohio.edu
> T: 740-593-4838
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ohio-Talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
> Kaiti Shelton via Ohio-Talk
> Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2017 1:43 AM
> To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List 
> <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Kaiti Shelton <kaiti.shelton at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Ohio-talk] FW: Blind Person vs. Person Who is Blind
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> This is something that drives me crazy on nearly a daily basis. Like 
> everyone else in one of the helping professions, I have to use person 
> first language in any professional document I write. Personally, I 
> don't agree with it for some of the reasons Robby described. Person 
> first language did not come about from disable people themselves, but 
> from professionals serving them who thought it would be more offensive 
> to focus on disabilities, because their perception was that 
> disabilities were bad. With the disability Pride movement that has 
> really taken off the past several years, concepts like ableism and 
> identity first language have increasingly been talked about by people 
> with all kinds of disabilities in everything from professional 
> articles and books to writings on the mighty. I personally align with 
> people in the identity first camp, simply because I reject the 
> sentiment that a couple decades ago people helping disabled people 
> made this decision without actually consulting disable people as a 
> whole, and I think it has made things more taboo. Plus, it just feels 
> clunky in my mouth and in my ears. Every other adjective to describe a 
> person goes before the word, and it doesn't necessarily mean a bad 
> thing. I am a short person, and a passionate person, and a young 
> person... so person who is blind seems out of place. I don't know if 
> it has so much to do with disability pride as it does just being 
> honest and really and acknowledging disabilities as another different, 
> but not detrimental, trait people have in life. Of course, that will 
> be different for every person, but if you subscribe to the notion that 
> disability is just another aspect of humanity, identity first language 
> makes sense. For me, and for other people in similar fields, this 
> creates a bit of a problem because you have to be careful in how you 
> speak about yourself A bit, because depending on where you work 
> colleagues who are less familiar with these things could consider you 
> to be unethical or not treating people with do dignity and respect. 
> The best solution I have come up with for this is to describe myself 
> however I want, since that shouldn't really offend other people and if 
> it does it's their problem, and then to ask other people how they 
> would like to be referred to. It's really annoying, but in terms of 
> following ethics and outdated standards that assume everyone wants to 
> be labeled by person first terms, it's a way to cover The bases. It's 
> kind of amazing to me that the Deaf and Autism communities in addition 
> to the NFB have spoken up and said it's OK or preferable to say Deaf
person/Autistic person/blind person and have been completely ignored in a
lot of ways, but it's just the reality that helping professions have some
way to go and their understanding of disability studies to break down their
perceived
> hierarchies.   
> 
> Kaiti Shelton
> 
>> On Jan 31, 2017, at 9:42 PM, Robert Spangler via Ohio-Talk
> <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hello everyone:
>> 
>> This topic has undoubtedly come up before, but either I wasn't around 
>> for it or I don't remember.  So I am curious to know people's 
>> thoughts on being referred to as a blind person vs. a person who is
blind.
>> It's something with which I struggle.  Those of you who know me well 
>> are aware that I have no use for political correctness, which is 
>> usually why I refer to myself as a blind person.  On the other hand, 
>> however, I can see the point of why one might prefer to be called a 
>> person
> who is blind.
>> 
>> To my understanding, saying "a person who is blind" means a person 
>> who happens to be blind--referring to the blindness as another 
>> characteristic, such as being skinny, fat, tall, short, blonde, you 
>> get the picture.  I like this form of speech for this reason, because 
>> I believe that all of us work hard to get people to stop paying 
>> attention to our blindness over everything else.  All of us are tired 
>> of our blindness coming up as the main point of conversation with so 
>> many sighted folks.  Sure, there are those people who pay it no mind, 
>> but I would say most of the people we come across on the streets make 
>> one comment about it at least.  So explaining this form of speech to 
>> them helps to explain that blindness is just another characteristic.
>> When we must prove ourselves all the time and face lower 
>> expectations, we
> only want it to be seen as another characteristic.
>> 
>> Now there's "blind person," which in many ways describes me, I think.  
>> Maybe I'm being hypocritical, I'm not quite sure, but I do think that 
>> blindness changes how we do many things.  It doesn't make things 
>> impossible, but my life would be significantly different were I not 
>> blind.  My hobbies would probably be different, my skills, my 
>> upbringing, etc.  I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing, so 
>> long as I am happy with myself, which I am.  So in a way, I see 
>> blindness as being a defining characteristic of myself, much like how 
>> someone who is
> black may see that characteristic as defining them.
>> I have never let blindness stop me from doing anything and, whenever 
>> someone tries to tell me that I can't do something because I am 
>> blind, I do it anyway and usually succeed.  So maybe I have a little 
>> bit of
> "blind pride."
>> Inside, I see myself as a blind person because I have fully grasped 
>> blindness and do not see it as something that holds me back.  I had a 
>> friend tell me yesterday, "you identify as blind, whereas I just 
>> consider it another characteristic of myself."  Yes, it is a 
>> characteristic but I can't help but also thinking that it does make 
>> our lives different, as much as many people may deny it.  I think the 
>> only reason people would deny it, though, is the negativity that 
>> surrounds
> blindness.
>> 
>> I think the main problem we have identifying with blindness is that 
>> so many people see it as negative and tragic.  While I'm comfortable 
>> with being blind and lead a normal life, I still explain to sighted 
>> people who I am trying to educate that blindness is just another 
>> characteristic and reserve the identifying as blind (blind person) 
>> thoughts with those to whom I am very close.
>> 
>> Thoughts?  I know I rambled a bit but this is something I've been 
>> thinking about lately.
>> 
>> Robby
>> 
>> --
>> Robert Spangler
>> Secretary, Miami Valley Chapter of the National Federation of the 
>> Blind of Ohio Spangler.robert at gmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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